New pencils in,  woooo! Got ultramarine,  good old process red,  dahlia purple. Oh man, me excitedly yelling out colors at the post office,  what a great day. (In reality that day sucked hard core,  but getting cooled pencils redeemed it all). Anyways! I got the power of crystals on the brain. This was done in Rishikesh,  while I was a bit depressed by the lack of art at the Beatles ashram, it was the beginning of my epic crystal journey. OoooooOOOO000ooooo. . . 

This piece is the energy of a crystal in totem form. In real life this piece is most glorious, so vibrant! Unfortunately,  the color doesn't show well here, just gotta take my word for now. 

With a bigger sketchpad the drawings take a bit longer. I've been doing one per city. This was done in varanasi,  Kali! Also of note,  this was done before I got new pencils (which did come in the mail,  yay! ) The faces are done with crappy roseart and crayola, which ended up not being so crappy. Surprise surprise! Got to break out the gold,  which I only use for hindi diety drawings,  woooooo.  . . Ooooopopopopppp, ok done. 

And yes,  varanasi was absolutely amazing. There were crazy magician black light posters everywhere. I obviously went to the magic show and got a hand printed poster only to promptly lose it in Delhi. The mosques also had amazing poster designs. I'll post all that amazingness later. 

I took a couple painting classes in Rajasthan. Ah Rajasthan, feels like it's been months ago.  But I took two painting classes,  one  in Jaipur and one in Udaipur. 

Jaipur,  the pink city, famous for its colors and scams. I wasn't expecting to take a class here,  but ended up taking one,  which was a bit of a scam. It was in a cute art studio,  the class was to learn miniature painting which is traditional of the region and really all of India. I asked to focus on flowers and patterns,  as that would be most useful for my work.  I was given a painting to copy and they left. After a few hours they said I wouldn't actually be painting today,  what!? I was getting frustrated as I can copy anything on my own time and wasn't given any instruction or information about the traditional technique. So I went over the drawing in pen to keep it from smudging,  the above drawing is what I did day one.  Day 2 was supposed to be painting. Again I was given a paper and picture to copy,  not this again! I asked to get into painting, reluctantly, they have me some watercolors. Now I'm pretty pissed, no instruction and given watercolors,  my least favorite medium. I can't do watercolors no matter how hard I try.  After a couple hours I give up and start doing my own thing. Psychedelic patterns drawn from old paintings in the studio.  Now they come over, confused as to what I'm doing and start giving little instruction. I finished up my little doodle and left. "You coming back tomorrow? " Nope.

The other class I took in Udaipur was awesome! Udaipur is known to have good art classes and there are plenty to be found.  I went to Asoka Arts. Here I did a small elephant painting on silk with stone colors,  seen below. Some colors are exactly that,  bright stones mashed up to make a color.  I had a difficult time using the brush,  was long and thin,  you had to use it at an angle. The boarder is pretty janked up,  but was fun trying. 

Overall,  both classes weren't as I liked.  But I was expecting to really learn something,  which I didn't really. Oh well,  it was kinda fun and I did pick up a lot of patterns to use! 

Hello hello! June is upon us and soon to be the wondrous summer of 2015! I'll be apart of numerous events,  shows,  and festivals.  Here's a list thus far so you can plan out your summer accordingly ;) If anything,  the festivals seem wicked awesome! 

July 9th Show at True Love Gallery on Capitol Hill.  Opening reception on art walk night which is 2nd thursday of the month.  It's a group show with the theme of geometry. Drinks, lots of variety,  plus I'll just be back from my travels.  The slow lasts a month,  but opening night is the time to be there. http://www.trueloveart.com/

July 23-26 Cascadia NW Festival. I'll have work up in a gallery within the festival. Will be selling prints in the gallery and might do some live work. It's a magical 3 days of camping with beautiful people in the beautiful woods of Cascadia (river camping too! ) in Granite Falls. http://www.cascadianw.com/

July 30th Alberta Arts Walk. I'm branching out!  I'll have a tent, which is actually a portal to a psychedelic universe,  schlepping my goods and having fun. http://www.lastthursdayonalberta.com/

August 15th Pancakes and Booze Portland. Yep,  doing this again but in Portland this time at the Hawthorne Theatre.  While I don't like having to pay to show,  the last one offered many connections.  Not sure how many pieces I'll have up,  probably 3.  https://www.facebook.com/events/1411718069115120/

Sept 4-7 Rainingman!! I'm absolutely stoked about this.  I'll have a tent up selling goods. This festival is all about the promotion of cascadia, our wondrous natural flora and fauna, plant identification,  local artists,  musicians,  poets. Camping on a farm by the mima mounds!  http://www.cascadiarainingman.com/

That's the current lineup. I'm sure more will be added. An honorable mention is Summer Meltdown Aug 6-9th. http://summermeltdownfest.com/ I don't actually have a booth (comma) but may do some fancy footwork and will probably be there. (There's no comma on this keyboard, how strange!) Okie doke, later!