International Festival 2019

This year as in the past years I have set up a booth at the International Festival to sketch portraits for free. The festival is organized by the International House and features performances, cultural booths and vendors on the first Sunday of the October.

In the past I had only one or two artists. This year there were six artists. Thank you to Scott Shepherd, Tom Corbett, Lynn at Lynn_CoMo, Duke at Dukekm, and Dawn at PaintedbyDawn . And myself at MarleneLeeArt

Check out these artists on their Instagram.

Parade of the Flags

 

Artists at Work

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My portraits

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Crocker BNSA Auction

Last night was the Crocker Museum Auction of Big Names Small Art (BNSA). Primarily of small arts to be auctioned off. 100% goes to the Crocker for art education and exhibits. I donated one of my favorite paintings of four years ago. After being exhibited in various places, it finally found a home at this auction. Thanks to another artist, Dawn Pederson who kept tabs on my painting, the last bid known was at $325.

This painting was painted four years ago. I painted this after taking a workshop with David Shelvino. Here’s blog post that explains how I painted this.

Pence Gallery Garden Tour

The annual Pence Gallery Garden Tour happened on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. This year private residential gardens were opened up throughout Davis. I was assigned to a small backyard garden but it was packed with native Californian plants and hidden spaces and planters with vegetables.

One of these pieces or maybe both will appear in the Garden Tour Exhibit at the Pence Gallery during June. The opening reception will be June 8th.

Garden Fountain, pen and watercolor, 9 x 12 inches, 6 May 2018

A Collage of Gail’s Garden, pen and watercolor, 9 x 6 inches, 6 May 2018

Exhibit B Gallery Dog Show

This little painting of a chihuahua mix was sold at The Dogs Exhibit held at Exhibit B Gallery in Souderton, PA in October, 2017. The exhibit benefited the Dog Town Rescue and was part of The National Dog Show. I know that this little painting is in the hands of a loving dog owner. 🙂

On the Alert, 6 x 6 oil on canvas panel

Capay Valley Vineyards Trees

During the preview for the Yolo Arts and Ag Gala, I discovered that this painting was selected for the Juried Exhibit of the Yolo Arts Farm Exhibit. In fact, it’s one of the top ten! The juror for this year gala is Emma Acker, Assistant Curator of American Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Pence Gallery Garden Tour

I had a fun time yesterday at the annual Pence Gallery Garden Tour. Lovely weather and a convenient home gardens to walk to made this a very successful garden tour.

This was my first to paint on site. I was a bit nervous as to “what am I going to paint” anxiety all week because where I was painting was at the gallery itself. But as it turns out it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

Plein aire painting at the Pence Gallery. Oil, 8 x 10 linen panel.

Holding Hands in Chinatown

Holding Hands in Chinatown, 6 x 12 inches, oil on panel, by Marlene Lee SOLD

My husband and I were visiting SF Chinatown at the time and I spotted this elderly couple a few feet ahead of us holding hands. So endearing. My hub had just bought me a new camera so I snapped the shot.

The painting itself was one of those painting that questioned my ability to paint. But I paint through and submit it for the Valentine special exhibit “Hearts” at the Hallmark Hotel. And it SOLD!

But, bummer! I forgot to scan it in for inventory. Fortunately I had taken an Instagram photo. It’s not the complete image but it will have to work. Lesson learned!

 

 

The Art Farm Gala at Hotel Woodland

Cloverleaf Farm, 6 x 8 inches, oil, 2015

The year round project of the Yolo Arts Art and Ag Project climaxed in the Art Farm Gala at the Hotel Woodland in Woodland, CA. The farmers and ranchers opened up their gates for artists to interpret the beautiful landscapes around the areas. It’s a way of preserving the land.

The Art Farm Gala is the collections of all the artworks done at the farms through out the year.  There are two exhibits, the Art Harvest, where buyers purchased a $225 ticket “shovel” to harvest a painting. And in the Silent Auction, artworks juried in by Diana Daniels of the Crocker Museum,  were auctioned off.

I’m happy to say that “Cloverleaf Farm” was shoveled and harvested. And the juried “Oakdale Farm” was sold in the Silent Auction. But what was nice to hear that Diana Daniels, the juror would had love to buy Oakdale Farm herself.

International Festival – Unity in Diversity

A few years ago, I was invited to draw with other artists in a Montessori type school that held their Renaissance Fair during the Spring. We would come in and draw from 9 to 3 with a lunch break. It was quite popular. All the kids and even their parents would lined up to be sketched up in various different mediums and styles.

So with that experience in mind, I approached the International House in Davis about having artists draw portraits for free during the International Festival. I live in a college town. They thought it was a good idea. I put out a call for artists but got only one artist to join me. It was wildly successful! We drew nonstop from 12 to 5 pm with tiny breaks in between.

I estimated my time to be about 10 minutes. My sketches were done with pencil and white charcoal on toned paper. Quick! Just about 2 inch heads.  I have to say this is something I would love to do next year with a few more artists to pitch in.

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