Happy Holidays & New Year 2018!

Sand sculptures from Las Canteras beach

Dear friends, my solo exhibition "Instantes de Fantasía" ended on last Friday the 22nd. Once again, it was a great experience showing my artworks, getting feedbacks and meeting with wonderful locals and outsiders visiting from all over the world. I am happy to announce that a few of my artworks found their new homes too!

From the exhibition "Instantes de Fantasía" at Colegio de Abogados, Las Palmas.

I'd like to thank the visitors who recently joined my "A Creative Journal of an Artist" Newsletter mailing list. Please feel free to share your thoughts, keep in touch by simply replying the e-mails. Let me know if you would like to receive the PDF catalog of the exhibition.

I wish Happy Holidays to all of you, and hope you will have a wonderful and creative New Year 2018!

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My Solo Exhibition "Instantes de Fantasía"

Last Friday we proudly inaugurated my solo exhibition "Instantes de Fantasía" at the beautiful courtyard of one of Vegueta's most emblematic building, Colegio de Abogados, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. I am showing 36 pieces of my artworks in oil, acrylic, pastel and linocut print techniques. 

At the opening I was honored by Vice Dean Don Patricio Rodriguez whom did the opening presentation speech and by the friends and visitors who were able to attend to support me. The exhibition will be opened til 22nd of December, (Mon- Fri 9 - 15hr) at Plaza San Agustín 3 Vegueta, Las Palmas.  If you are in the area those dates, please come and visit the exhibition. I can assure that you will enjoy it!

Building of Colegio de Abogados

Partial view of the exhibition area 

from the patio of Colegio de Abogados

From the opening night

See more pictures from the exhibition opening night at the link below:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/birsenozbilge/albums/72157663355676908

If you have a problem to view the videoclip, click on 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL0aYe8Z78o

Cactus linocut pieces

Color cactus linocuts and an acrylic artwork.

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How to store small size paper artworks

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and followers! 

When it gets close to the end of the year, I go through my artworks to organize and store them. These are generally the finished artworks, sketches, studies, some unfinished ones and some for giveaways. Obviously, I cannot frame all the finished ones. The cost wouldn't be feasible. But I would like some paintings available for easy viewing for studio visitors.

I did my research and found out a good way to display and conserve safely my painted on paper artworks . Professional artists use crystal clear bags and a hard cardboard to display and store them. These are high quality clear bags with an adhesive flap seal. They are acid-free and archival safe. They come in an huge array of sizes. I ordered a few different sizes from Ebay. If the artwork is smaller than the bag size I fold the extra part at the back and tape it nicely. Also, I put a sticker on the cardboard with my contact information.

crystal clear bags

back of the artwork

an example with clear bag

This method works for my watercolor, linocut, oil pastel, color pencil and sketch artworks. One thing, though, maybe I am a little picky, but I prefer not to put my soft pastel artworks into plastic sleeves. Because they get some residual pastel dust on the inside of the bag and it looks cloudy. For me the best way to conserve soft pastel artworks is putting a thin acid-free parchment paper on each layer of artwork and keep them flat in drawers.

A bunch of  small size artworks with plastic sleeves

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"Sweet almond verdena branch with bronze owl"  

12,5" x  9,5" Oil pastel by Birsen Ozbilge

SOLD

***For a limited time, I am offering a SALE on my ETSY ClickGallery Shop.***

* Order before December 6th and Save 20% off on all original artworks + FREE Shipping worldwide with registered mail.

* BONUS! Orders of 100 € or more will receive a giveaway Linocut Print Gift. 

Visit this link https://www.etsy.com/shop/ClickGallery

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News from outside of my studio

Hi to All!

It's great to be outside again, just relax and draw on my sketch book. We had very bad weather last month, a heat wave with "Kalima" which happens when sand comes from Sahara desert. It was hard to breath outside, I stayed indoors mostly working on a research project and creating new art video tutorials.

Yesterday, sky was cleared out and the air was fresh. So we went to visit our neighbor town Agüimes improvising a little bit. 

Sketchbook drawing 

After spending really nice time in nature, we headed to the historical part of town and came across with a very good art exhibition at Casa de la Cultura. Two artists; Painter Luis Deza (Peru) and sculpture artist Ina Stromberg (Sweden) exhibited wonderful artworks. If you are in the area, I highly recommend you to visit this one, It will open until 27th of October. Have a great weekend!

With Luis Deza's painting

Ina Stromberg's sculpture

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Back to Studio with a New Oil Painting

Last month it was extremely hot in the studio, so I tried working during late hours and I put more time on online marketing. I guess my hard work paid off and I made a few sales! Now my ETSY Shop rating has 5 stars, thanks to my wonderful collectors.

"Girl reading in Central Park" by Birsen Ozbilge

6" x 8,75", oil on wood panel, 2013

SOLD

Last week, I worked on a small oil painting. I got inspired by the subject of "book reading". I used to have lunch breaks in Central Park, New York, while I was working at The Frick Museum. This painting brings back those good memories...   

work in progress

detail

"Lunch break" by Birsen Ozbilge
Oil on canvas, 7" x 9.5" (18 x 24 cm.)
Contact me for purchase details.

Plein air painting from Tenerife

Gran Canaria above the clouds

Plein air travel kit for the flight

Last week I flew with my plein air art materials to our neighbor island Tenerife. Before the trip I did my research about how to pack these materials according to the airline company's rules. So, we checked the tools, watercolors and oil pastels with the wooden box into the luggage. I was able to take the portable easel with me without checking it but they had to hold it until we land. At the end everything arrived safely. Same way, I had no problem on the way back. 

Working with oil pastels

Gran Canaria above the clouds, Oil pastel on blue pastel paper

When we arrived the weather in Tenerife was great, you could see Gran Canaria very clear. Generally this is a sign that the following days rain might come... Anyways, I took advantage of this beautiful and rare occasion to paint with oil pastels (see above).

Work in progress

Casa de "La finca", watercolor on paper

The following days were cloudy and rainy as we were expecting... But I had the chance to paint outside with watercolors (see above). When it was rainy outside, I did drawings looking out from the window (see below).

drawing from the sketchbook

drawing from the sketchbook

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