Summer time stories and a new linocut "Afternoon walk" is available now

"Liberación del deseo" by Paco Juan Déniz at Centro de Artes Plásticas, 

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria can be seing until 22 July.

Yesterday I went to see a photography exhibition at Museo Casa de Colon in Vegueta area. When I arrived there, at the reception, they told me there was fumigation going on in the building, so the galleries were closed. It is very absurd if you think about it, why they have to do this job in the middle of a week day and visiting hours? At least, It was not the last day of the exhibition, not a total disaster but I had to come back another day. Anyways, I knew another place, not very far from there, just around the corner called Centro de Artes Plásticas which belongs to Cabildo Insular (run by the island council). I decided to give a chance to this little art gallery and actually at this time, I was surprised and quite happy with the visit. 

At the gallery, I went through the exhibition catalog to know about the artist Paco Juan Déniz. I learnt that he was born in 1956 in La Vega de San Mateo, Gran Canaria. He is a self-thought artist with many years of experiences and he has done numerous exhibitions through his career.

At the exhibition there were many artworks from different years and periods of his artistic journey. In his early works, he used monotone oil colors experimenting the abstract forms to convert figures, which was interesting to spend some time and get lost inside of these paintings. The other artworks were also very curious, such as neat color pencil drawings and acrylic paintings with many figures, objects as symbols (see pic below). Lovely creations truly, you could tell he got influenced by surrealism, symbolism and mediaeval art. It was a good discovery for me to know about another talented local artist.

Enjoying the color pencil drawings

This week I worked on a small linocut project. It has been quite hot these days, so I felt like creating the composition with a girl and her dog by the coast of our neighborhood El Burrero (see pics below). This neighborhood has strong wind and nice breeze this season. Whenever we visit there we come back home refreshed and now whenever I look at this linocut print I feel much better in this hot summer day. The handmade linocut print is numbered and signed by me and printed only 25 editions. Now it's available at my online showroom ClickGallery. You can click on SHOP to see the details. Have a great weekend!

Ready to print

Work in progress

"Afternoon walk" by Birsen Ozbilge, 2016

Original limited edition handmade linocut print

(Edition of 25 only)

Paper size 6.5" x 7.5" (16.5 x 19 cm.)

Image size 3.8" x 4.75" (9.75 x 12 cm.)

Available, click on SHOP

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Another Canarian Artist to admire and My Mother's Portrait to enjoy

José Jorge Oramas (Canarian painter, 1911-1934) 

Recently I visited a collective exhibition titled "Esenciales" at Museo San Martín, consisting of small formatted artworks by Canarian and foreign artists from different generations. The collection belongs to CAAM, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. I was curious about it and it was good for me to see who from my generation was in this collection. Unfortunately, I did not like many artworks from the new generation. My favorite one from the whole collection was a landscape painting by José Jorge Oramas (1911-1934) (see pic below). Later on at home I read his very short and sad life story (see pic above). He became an orphan child soon after he was born, and his grandmother and his aunt raised him. At a very early age he started to work at a barber shop. He had interest on drawing and painting. He was very talented, so he went to study art education at Escuela de Lujan Perez in Gran Canaria. He participated in a few collective exhibitions and had only one solo exhibition. At the age of 24 he died from tuberculosis. In this very short lifetime period he painted close to 100 artworks; Portraits of his friends, many landscape paintings of a colorful neighborhood, Canarian scenes with local people and more...

Enjoying a painting by Jorge Oramas

If you follow me on social networks, you may have seen me working on a small oil painting portrait project these days. I was painting my mother's portrait from a reference photo image (see pic below) along with her budgie parrot that she used to have. She doesn't know about her portrait painting yet and I am sure she will be very happy when she sees it.  

 work in progress

Painting is drying in the display rack

 "Semos and Boncuk" by Birsen Ozbilge, oil on canvas sheet

29,5 x 30 cm. (11,5" x 11,75")

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Fresh News from the Studio

This week I visited at "Casa de la Cultura" in Agüimes an Art Exhibition named "Espacios Divergentes" created by two women artists, Nadia Brito and Palmira García. Actually, especially I went to see Nadia's artworks. She is a facebook friend from Gran Canaria, and we follow each other's art for a while, but we haven't met in person yet. I really liked her minimal and graphical style. Her sensibility on nature is built on simplicity as she uses mostly black ink, very little color or just graphite on paper. Almost in each artwork there is a simple house drawing or a bird figure. These are typical symbols which represent need of independence. See more artworks from her at instagram as @nadia_brimel.

"Sin título" mixed media by Nadia Brito

"Sin título" mixed media by Nadia Brito

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My latest multicolor linocut print is completed. This six color linocut print was created using a different method than the reduction method. I carved and separeted each color plate and individually inked and printed them. 

Carving the lino sheet

I am laying the first color

I printed the darker green lines over the first layer color

I added the pot image

I repeated two more "ink-print-repeat" session for the flower and the snail images. Now I am preparing a detailed PDF demo document of making this linocut print which will have more photos, links to video clips and tips... If you wish to get your free copy, simply send me a message saying "Add me to the list" for this tutorial. Have a great week!

"Snail on Succulent" by Birsen Ozbilge, 

Original Handmade Multicolor Linocut Print

Paper size 6,75" x 6,75" ( 16,5 x 16,5 cm.)

Image size 5" x 5" (12 x 12 cm.)

Available, click on SHOP

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Busy with A New Linocut Print

 Mosaic artworks from the studio

Last week, I completed the circular mosaic piece, "A view to Bentayga" (see pic above). This piece will be displayed along with the other mosaic artworks at the upcoming exhibition. Later on, framing is optional, perhaps a handwoven brim to cover the side would look good. Once the framing is finished, I will add a new menu button to the blog and publish the complete tutorial in this section.

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Work in progress

This weekend I worked on a new linocut project which was an additional piece for the small cactus print series (see pic above). I designed a cactus image with a big flower and a butterfly on it. In this series, I am planning to create print designs with cactus and its complementing animal. All these animals are inspired by nature, as we see them in our daily lives...

"Butterfly on cactus" by Birsen Ozbilge, 

Original Handmade Linocut Print

Paper size 6.5" x 9" (17 x 22 cm.)

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

Available, click on SHOP

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Mosaic Tutorial: Fixing the mosaic (Part 3)

I completed the first phase of fixing the mosaic. Now, I have to wait for a few days for the grout to be totally dried. In this tutorial, you will see how I fixed the mosaic tiles. (If you have missed the previous tutorials, see Part 1 and Part 2)

Mosaic fixing materials

Grouting materials for the first phase: 

1) A sand paper (thick grain) to make the surface rough, 2) wood carving tool to prepare the surface. 3) white or grey grout, 4) water to mix the grout and to clean the tools, 5) two empty 5 or 8 lt. plastic bottles for mixing the grout and keeping the dirty water and leftover grout, 6) a metal spoon to mix the grout, 7) plastic gloves to protect your hands, 8) a dust mask to protect yourself from inhaling the dry grout, 9) a metal comb spreader to place the grout, 

I pulled out the mosaic from the plastic and turned it upside down. This way those stacked small chips between the tiles fell. Also, there were a few wet tiles, so the glue dried in a short time. The glue must be totally dry before applying the grout (see pictures below).

Preparing the surface

The surface of my board was very smooth, so, I used sand paper to make it rough. Afterwards, I made small scars with the wood carving tool. The grout will get into these holes and hold the mosaic securely (see pictures above).

Fixing the mosaic

Before starting to mix the grout, I layed an old newspaper under the mosaic to protect the table and another one on the floor. I cut the empty plastic bottle about 20 cm. height to make my grout mixing bowl. I added 1 cup of the grout with a little bit water and mixed with the metal spoon until the mixture became like soft potato puree texture. I spreaded the mixture evenly with the metal comb on all around the surface, not much thicker than 3 mm. (the grout should not fill between tiles). I waited for 5 minutes and holding the mosaic from both sides, placed it on top of the mixture (see pic above). Gently, I pressed it all around the surface (see pic above).

I cleaned the tools with water inside the bucket. It's very important that never throw this dirty water to your sink, it will clog your tubes and you will have a serious damage on your pipe system. I transferred the dirty water into the empty plastic bottle and wrapped the leftover grout with the newsletter, for later on to trash into the garbage. 

The grout dries in about 24-48 hours. Once it's ready, I will prepare a grey tone grout and I will apply it in between the tiles to finish the mosaic. If you wish to know about this last process, simply reply to this newsletter typing "YES, send it", or sign-up to my mailing list at http://bit.ly/ACreativeJournalofanArtist-Sign-up 

Have a great weekend!

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Mosaic Tutorial: Cutting tools (Part 2)

After a busy week, I finally finished the cutting and pasting process. Previously, I shared the mosaic project's set up, so if you have missed that newsletter, visit it here: Mosaic tutorial: "A view to Bentayga" (Part I).

Most of the tools and some of the tiles are kept in a box which I recycled from an old wine box. Inside this box I placed a plactic kitchen drawer tray to separate the tile colors. Some other tile chips are sorted in another tool box with plastic drawers. (See pic. below) Also, I keep the tiles in jars. For the used tiny chips I use kitchen roll sheets.

Mosaic tiles and tools

Tile cutting nippers have variareties. I recommend to have two types. From left to right on the picture below; 1) a wheeled nipper (see at Amazon.com) which is good for creating round and irregular shapes , 2) a regular tile nipper ( see at Amazon.com). 3) Also a flat nose plier (easy to find in your local hardware shop), for taking out unwanted dry glue from the tile. 4) A tweezer to hold the small chips to place in the hole. 5) A metal thin stick to arrange the tiles.

Tools to create mosaics

6) On top of the picture a water based strong white glue (I use Weldbond brand see at Amazon.com). 7) A brush to clean and 8) a safety glasses while cutting the chips. It's very very important, do not be lazy to put them on, because your fun mosaic project might end up with a painful and tragic event. Even if you use regular glasses, use them together always while you cut the tiles, it will save your eyes from those dangerous tiny glass chips. (Also when people near the mosaic, do not cut tiles, they jump far)

Detail

I use mostly vitreous glass mosaic tiles (see pic above). I purchased the tiles online long time ago in the United States and brought them to the Canary Islands. It was a big set of colors in sheets. They also sell already cut tiles of the same or mixed colors. If you cannot find these kind of tiles, try colored glass sheets. You can cut them with a glass cutter or hammer them for irregular shapes. You can use broken plates, cups, and ceramic tiles as well. I shared a small clip about how to cut the vitreous tiles, click to see @birsenozbilge (goes to my instagram)

Work in progress

Ready for grouting

In tutorial 3 I will show grouting materials and the first phase of the grouting process. Please, reply me if you have any questions or post in the comment box. Have a great week!

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