Happy Chinese New Year: The Year of Rooster

Chinese New Year celebrations began on last Saturday the 28th, so I decided to create a piece for "the Year of Rooster". First, I checked my scarves and found something really nice, a red and black colored silk scarf with Chinese characters on it which was a gift from a long time dear friend. I used the ceramic chicken teapot as the main object. It is a very colorful object and I knew it would be challenging to bring it out with the red background behind. I added two eggs by the side of it, as completion of the still-life and lastly the eucalyptus branches with leaves tied with a chiffon bow. My sister-in-law sent me these and they smell fantastic!

Once my composition was set, I was ready to sketch and paint with oil pastels. I like to draw a 2 cm frame area on the paper so when I hold it I don't touch on the painting. I used Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist 50 oil pastel set on an acid-free heavy-weight craft paper. I had 2 hours of good afternoon light in my studio at that time so next day I continued painting where I left from. (see pic 1, 2) Hopefully the year of the rooster comes good for all of us. Have a great week! (Sign up on my newsletter to receive latest blog posts, link is at the end of this article).

first day of work in progress

second day of work in progress

detail

"Happy Chinese New Year! The year of Chicken" by Birsen Ozbilge, 2017

Oil pastel on acid-free heavy-weight craft paper, 29 x 20 cm ( 11" x 8")

Available, click on SHOP

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New linocut: "Tuesday Mood"

Last week I worked on a new linocut piece. It's the sixth of the "Mood of the week days" series, and I titled it "Tuesday Mood". The idea of this design formed on a Tuesday morning, when I was having my croissant and coffee. I am happy if I can make people get touched by these honest and personal visions of moments of our daily lives. How many of you would like to have a coffee and croissant right now?

Let me tell you about the process a little bit. After I sketched the design to reverse the image, I simply turned the back side of the paper and put it on the balcony door's window to go through over the lines. This is another technique I use when there is nice afternoon sunlight hitting the studio (See pic). Afterwards, I transferred the reversed image on the lino sheet with a red ball pen, to transfer all the line art properly. Once the image was on the sheet, I went over the lines with the red ball pen, in order for all the lines to be fixed. After this point, I started to carve from top to bottom of the design. When the carving is more or less finished, I check the negative image on a very thin paper rubbing with a charcoal stick. This is kind of a sneak peak of the print. This way I was able to see the parts I needed to carve a little bit more. After that, I made the proof print and it came out good. I went ahead to print a few editions and now they are ready to find their new homes. Have a great week!

Work in progress

"Tuesday mood" by Birsen Ozbilge, 2017

Original limited edition handmade linocut print

(Edition of 25 only)

Paper size 6" x 8" (16 x 20 cm.)

Image size 4" x 6" (10 x 15 cm.)

Available, click on SHOP

Darwin monkey: What's so important?

 

View from the studio balcony door

I have to admit, besides being so far from everywhere in the world, we have a wonderful weather here in Gran Canaria. Now. it's 22 C degrees, sunny and birds are singing in the park as usual. This morning I received some beautiful snow pictures from Istanbul, my original hometown. Also, friends in New York are sharing snowy photos on facebook and telling it's -8 C degrees there. Stay warm my friends, I know how rough it is... Anyways, These days I am going to take advantage of our good weather, open the window and start to work on oil painting again. 

 Work in progress

In the first week of the new year I worked on an oil pastel still-life composition. I am using Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist 50 oil pastel set on an acid-free heavy-weight craft paper. I set my composition on a tapestry pillow and on the background I put a green shawl with a winter scarf. My main character object is a Darwin monkey sculpture ornament, accompanied with a cauliflower and an onion. I wanted this painting to be as quirky as possible, so these objects could make no sense with the monkey thinking with the skull in his hand. At the end, "What's so important?". Have a great week!

Detail

"Darwin monkey: What's so important?" by Birsen Ozbilge, 2017

Oil pastel on acid-free heavy-weight craft paper, 29.7 x 21 cm ( 11.7" x 8.3")

Available, click on SHOP

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