Tōmye: Living Artist

Encouraging Art Engagement

Tag Archives: musicians


by 3 Comments

Essence of Presence

Monday July 19- Sat. Sept. 12, 2021

An exhibit within Tomate Cafe; 2265 fifth st., at Bancroft, Berkeley CA 94710

Sun.-Sat. 8:00-2:00PM …

The brief description I dubbed this series is Gouache Linear Paintings.

From 1973- 2005, thirty two years, starting in San Francisco and moving to the San Francisco East Bay area, I sketched every day, everyday activities. I consider them universal in scope of wage earners, sharing innate or learned abilities.

A Rapidograph pen was my favorite drawing instrument. I learned the lesson that briefly lending the pen to someone to use would result in my pen being returned broken. I switched to a ball point pen, which proved to be a tool I could achieve more effects. These images stay strictly as contour looking drawings.

Many times I drew within a sketch pad. If I didn’t, it was the back of flyers, copy paper, preferably any 8″ x 11″ someone willingly gave me. How liberating to release on a surface, what I saw.

Steadying my balance, holding onto my paper while standing in the train is my position when I drew “On The Way Home” and “The Gaze”.

“A Day At The Beach” & “Potter’s Wheel” were drawn while my feet were firmly grounded as a wage earner figure drawing teacher within Studio One Art Center in Oakland.

“What Is a 21 Year Old To Do” & “U. C. Berkeley” were commissioned. Both requests came from folks who’d seen my Art on-line.

“Consider The Right Move” was silently and patiently drawn during a chess match takinng plsce in the Mechanics Library, located in San Francisco. It’s a special library I loved to frequent.

“San Francisco Powell St. Jazz” & “Before The Lecture” are a couple of the dozens of music inspired images in the series. Walking along Powell street, I was moved by the Jazz music and went in to draw the musicians. Being inquisitive, I attended lectures and at one I drew the women who appear prominent and after attending another, added the ink sketch near the bottom. Musicians are magical, like all Artisans, presently called Creatives.

I welcome commissions and purchases which can be acquired after payment before the end of the exhibit. Tomye:Living Artist (510) 823-9150 (text)

Homage to education…
The Gaze, is a blank stare after working all day…
On The Way Home the rider is cat napping…
A Day At The Beach, legs of a model in drawing class
Potter’s Wheel, a student drawn while making a vessel
Consider The Right Move, one of the lessons Chess teaches a participant…
San Francisco Powell St Jazz, a favorite form of music…
Before and After The Lecture, is something I’m looking forward to in person…


by 1 Comment

Instrumental Images

 

I’m so darn inquisitive about how to create anything that is appreciated and very fortunate to be able to.  I have an artistic life that I feel is a gift.  I continue to be enriched with each new audience’s admiration for my abilities. This is of course in the context of an exhibiting artist. I intertwine the term audience and community.  Community can and has been people who request me to present my art.  Many individuals depending on the community, know me to use only one specific media.  I’m primarily known as a painter. I’ve gone the typical elementary school route of finger paint, tempera and by college, how to paint with acrylics and oil paint. I determined that oil painting would be a media I’d use once I retired at the age of 65 or so.  Then I wouldn’t feel rushed to complete anything and could wait out the drying of this media. I tried after college, to use Gouache paint. As a freelance artist I continue to have commissions to perfect my skill of rendering with ink and Gouache. I’t is 25 years of enjoying these mediums, to create more than any other imagery, portraits.  Painting or drawing likenesses is my forte. 

Perhaps the most enriching time of having access to draw extraordinary musicians was in the late 1970’s when in my capacity as a freelancforte, job, e artist, which I still am, I was extended an on-going “job” to create art, by the owner of the Great American Music Hall. I love this combination of hearing music and drawing the musician as they play their instrument.

Fast forward to the mid 1990’s and I became enamored with working with glass.  I allowed myself time to participate in classes in which I could learn about Stained and Fused glass at Studio One Art Center, where I was an instructor teaching Basic Drawing.Creating Stained glass seemed a natural move from a particular painting style I did and dubbed “Linear Painting”  Usually my figurative imagery, more specifically, paintings of musicians looked like reverse line drawings, that is they are pools of colors delineated by white lines.

Now, consider my painted white line being reinterpreted as the leading that you typically see separating each piece of Stained glass in a church window. It is the Stained glass that are pools of color similar to my paintings. Currently, what is more exhilarating, is taking remnants of the Stained glass and fusing them in a kiln.  You have a vague idea of what will be the results.  Fascinating…

various surfaces like a page from an outdated calendar, add interest to my ink drawings.

Are they having fun or what...