Beer.

Beer. Sweet memories of a day in New York in ink and mixed media.
I used gold leaf and some sparkly inks. Tried to scan and end up just using my iPhone.
Otherwise, colors and gold just impossible to recognize.  
Used very special paper with deckled edges from the Handmade Watercolor book, my Birthday present. 

Here is the detail.

Bar Mitzvah.

I did this painting about Father and Son.  A moment in life when a boy becomes a man.
I used ink and mixed media on special watercolor paper, which I order from England.

Here is a detail of the painting.  I like to use sparkling textures, most of it doesn't read by the scanner.

3 works hanging.

I gave these 3 works to hang on walls.

Crepes. Creating a memory.

Ink and mixed media. Some sparkling textures. 

                  My work "Crepes" was chosen to participate in the exhibition in Long Island.

Sketch party.

Went to sketch party to draw costumed models. Lots of fun. Used different materials. Soft pencils, ink, Ecoline brush pens.

Here I used ink. We had live jazz music, piano, it was really awesome to sketch and listen to music, my favorite things to do.

Pretty hard to sketch two models at once.

I like these Ecoline markers, colors a bit too bold, but water works with it.  I used Stillman and Birn sketchbook, it took washes nicely, very good paper. I really enjoyed it and since that went to a few different events.

Cafe Sabarsky.

Ink mostly. I used sparkly inks, it didn't scan, and other silver and gold shimmer canno't be seen here.

Israeli.

Ink and mixed media. Shimmering stuff I used, doesn't scan and gold glitter also doesn't show, but it's here. I met this young guy and we had interesting conversations, he recommended me few pretty sharp music groups, which I added to my iPod playlist. He is a modern young boy, but he knows how to talk to G-d. Amazing. Modern and ancient. Young and wise. 

I got flowers.

I got flowers for March 8. I love Hyacinth, they smell so nice, so strong. Here is a painting I am doing for someone. It is far from being done. I will need some hint of wings. The cat died, so early, young, he was loved very much. 

I got myself some art materials to brighten up my day 

and start using it right away. Brush turned to be a bit too 

soft  for my liking, but inks are gorgeous.

I am making a new site.

I am making a new site with different categories, with the new blog. Please come and check it out.

Nikiraart.com

Selfie with the toothbrush.

It is sort of a self portrait. Artists look so serious when painting self portraits. I was not joking. I was thinking if my inner pain ( and artists always full of that inner pain, because they constantly searching for ways and answers, so I told my daughter don't ever get involved with artists, :) one in the family is more than enough), so if my inner pain is looking at me in the mirror.
I used ink and Kuretake on Arches paper.

Pumpkins.

Pumpkins. Experimenting on plastic paper. Pretty strange, ink doesn't stick to it, but I fought to the end, just to understand, I don't like it.

Rabbi.

Rabbi. Ink and Kuretake.

Bloody Mary.

One of the brunches with my daughter, we had the best "bloody mary" drink, it was a little bit unreal, for some reason reminded me the atmosphere of 60s, may be her retro dress and red lipstick?
By painting this I stopped the time and I can feel the sun on my skin, remember that turquoise Florida sky, hear clicking of glasses somewhere on the background. Anyway, I used ink and Kuretake and touch of Artist Pitt pens.

Greenwich Village.

Greenwich Village in ink and Kuretake.
I am still digging out pictures from Art folder for 2014, meanwhile it is February of a new year.

Pumpkins on Yupo paper.

A little experiment with ink and Kuretake on Yupo paper. Stubbornly I screwed up the paper, it is plastic, so I can't scan it, but whatever, at least I stuck to my plan. And I was able to draw.

It was a very hard year for me, 2014 and I need to survive another year.
I soaked and washed some of my brushes and pens in a hope that drawing will help me to think positively. 

Painting Sukkahs and a big challenge.

Painted few Sukkahs on panels for Holiday Sukkot. Here is Tomb of Mother Rahel, the Mother of Sorrows.  I spent a day for each painting, in one day I did 2 paintings, crazy long days. Panels are pretty big, walls for Sukkahs. On the top going bamboo branches, so you can see stars through the roof, while celebrating holiday.

The City of David, was pretty challenging, to build all this structures in perspective and in proportion.

Kotel was the first I did and I struggled a lot, to keep all this lines dancing on panels.

This was big and fiberglass bumpy, so paint was sliding like crazy and lines danced, pretty hard, so almost with my eyes closed I finished it.

Also on fiberglass panel. This and a previous one I did in one day. It was useful experience and big challenge. I had shawarma twice, it was not as amazing as in "Olympic Pita", our favorite shawarma and falafel place, also I ate it alone, but still it was a small  highlight of the day.

Charm City Burger. One of the electric nights in Florida.

I used ink and Kuretake. Used a lot of texture, trying to depict broken light from passing cars (it was outside), street lamps, moonlight, late meal, scattered conversation. It was one of the best burgers ever, I asked to go there twice.

Here is my little helper, Lucy, since she came to me from Moscow, she learned how to use scanner (she really likes the sound and blinking light), printer (printed my entire mailbox), she likes to watch me draw and thinks that I am coming to sit near computer just to be with her. She goes in front of the screen and stares at me.

Just like that. Isn't she adorable?

Breakfast in Naples.

Creating memory. Birthday breakfast in Naples, Florida. Experimenting with inks. Ink and Kuretake.
When I asked if it is Ok to stay and draw after the meal, the waiter said I will pay you a million dollars for the portrait of your daughter.

Mural in 3 days.

I had a task to complete mural in 3 days. Day 1.

In front will be furniture and on the sides bookcase and another hutch on the left.

Detail. The panoramic picture doesn't show the true color. Everyone is happy except me. I would still continue to work on it, but can't.

Musicante.

I guess, I forgot to post it, when finished. Scanning and etc. became not interesting, or may be too much to do or no energy for it. Sometimes simple things become to overwhelming. Ink and Kuretake. Subway musician.