In-O

Wednesday!


"untitled"
8.5'' x 11''
Acrylics and Inks on Paper

Young Sienna

Here is Tuesday. Reflects the weather, gloom.


"Young Sienna"
4.25'' x 5.5''
Inks on paper

Say. Orange-nice.

Here is Monday.


"Say. Orange-nice."
5'' x 7''
Acrylics, Inks, and old paper

Sunday Afterwards

Today is Sunday.


"multi- human"
pencils on paper

Second

Here is one for today.


"untitled"
approx 5'' x 7''
inks & acrylics

Freshly painted

Starting today, i've decided to do at least a one week daily update on my blog.
Most of the things I will be posting are sketchbook drawings or paintings, but I may also be sharing anything from a study, a work in progress, a thumbnail, a paragraph of thoughts & discoveries, collages, or photos of my most current working spaces.

Just wanted to keep the blog fresh and going, there are a lot of daily things that aren't normally posted or seen. However, for a little while now, I am really enjoying the process of working and making art. Sometimes there is something about the rough, the thumbnail or concept paintings that I feel are extremely lively and important. While the finished works are nice to post, I feel that process and research work has a life of its own.

So lets start this off today, here is something from my sketchbook.



"too long"
approx 7'' x 5''
mixed media (inks, graphite, and old paper)

Another, tomorrow.
Have a great weekend everyone.

Artists Help Japan: Toronto 2011

Hi everyone,

Things been busy but recently just had the chance to upload photos/video clips of the event. The video was collaborated with an awesome photographer Keith Acedera.

Thank you again to everyone who came out to the event or helped out in some way and supported, we end up raising a total of $20,000+ for the Canadian Red Cross to donate to Japan's Tsunami and Earthquake Relief fund.

Here is the video:


My share of photos have been uploaded to my flicker, click here to see em.

Once again thank you everyone and special thanks to organizers, helpers, artists, and Revival bar for a successful event!

MAPS & Building from the Ground Up

Today I will be flying out to San Francisco for Wondercon this weekend, while I am excited to see San Fran, its also a bummer that I will be missing two great shows this Friday night.

I just wanted to mention that there are two great shows to check out Friday.

My friend Tessar Lo's solo is opening this Friday titled "MAPS", at Show & Tell Gallery in Toronto.





And also in the second gallery is a very talented artist Andrew Hem, his solo titled "Building from the Ground Up"



Please come out to the show if you are in the Toronto Area! I will have to check it out once I get back from my trip.

Opening Reception:
Friday, April 1st, 2011,
7:00pm - 11pm

Show & Tell Gallery
1161 Dundas St. West
Toronto, ON, M6J 1X3

for more information:
info@showantellgallery.com
+ 647.347.3316

Hopeful

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to do a quick post today to thank everyone who came out last night to support the event. Ashita was a great success and it was an amazing turnout, not to mention the great food donated by Guu Izakaya and great performances.

Throughout the night, I had talked to some people who had actually experienced part of the quake in Japan and was there when it happened. And still, many of them are a bit shaken up about it. Let us be hopeful that things will get better for all these people and families currently affected by this unfortunate event.

I was able to take some photos of the event for those who missed it. I have posted them on my Flickr account. Unfortunately I was busy in the gallery room most of the hours and missed a few of the great performances.

Please also check out this other set of photos from Hirata as well.

Here are the two pieces I contributed for the event.

Hopeful
6'' x 6''
Graphite and Acrylics on tea-stained paper, framed
SOLD


A New Birth
9'' x 11''
Graphite on tea-stained paper
SOLD

Thank you to the new owners of these pieces. All of proceeds went to support the Red Cross Fund to help Japan.

Finally, many thanks to Rafi, Daisuke, and all the organizers and people who came out to the event. Hope we can all do our best to help a country in need.

ASHITA: Artists for Japan

Hi everyone,



I will have a piece at the upcoming event 'ASHITA: Artists for Japan'
My friends Harvey Chan, Tessar Lo, Nimit Malavia, and Keita Morimoto will also have work there. This is going to be a great event. Hope to see you there!

The event is on Tuesday, March 29, 2011.
7pm at the Great Hall in Toronto, Canada
--> Facebook Event page
--> The Japan Foundation

Cover: minimum donation $10 (students $5 with ID)

Our heart and minds are with the Japanese people and now its time for action!
The Toronto arts community felt the shock much like everyone else when images first started to appear on the news and stories through friends started to come in

Many of the artists have traveled to Japan as visiting artists or to study its rich culture and its embrace with nature and nurture. We have made many friends and built bridges through collabora...tions and deep friendship

Curator Rafi Ghanaghounian and Artist Daisuke Takeya are organizing a fundraiser event that will bring the arts community of Toronto together to support our friends in Japan both mentally and financially. All artists and performers will give their time and efforts for this very cause

This night will include musicians, artists, poets from both Canada and Japan. As well galleries have donated books and other items available for purchase

Thank you for your support!

Participating groups, sponsors and partners:
The Great Hall, GUU restaurant, K6cards, Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, Japanese Visitors Association (JAVA), Nihongo Art Contest 2011, Toronto Artists Fund Raising, Orange LLP, Healing Japan, Hardboiledinc for doing our shirts!!

Special Thanks to: Kateryna Topol, Christine Seki

Participating galleries (more coming!):
OBorn Contemporary, Le Gallery, Show and Tell Gallery, Art Metropole, Koyama Press, Narwhal/Magic Pony, OUCHI Gallery NYC, Orbital arts

Participating artists (more coming!):
Howard Podeswa, Laura Horne, Fiona Smyth, Yuriko Kubota, Tomori Nagamoto, Winnie Truong, Nicholas Di Genova, Shigeko Okada, Keiko Tokushima, Ayako Bando, Sonomi, Kobayashi, Bernice Lum, Ron Loranger, Pierre Julien, Richelle Forsey, Jae-hong Ahn, Juno Youn, Miki Shinozaki, Keita Morimoto, Shinobu Akimoto, Yumi Onose, Shinya Kumazawa, Martin de la Rue, Joshua Choi, James Fowler, Martin Ouellette, Patrick DeCoste, Daisuke Takeya, Matt Evans, Martin Reis, Aisha Simpson, Harvey Chan, Peter Chan, Shary Boyle, Akira Yoshikawa, Rie Aikawa, Bud Fujikawa, Laura Adams,Tanya Reed, Dasar, REN, Amy Wong, Risa Kusumoto, Chrisopher Hayes, Takashi Iwasaki, Seth Scriver, Nimit Malavia, Junko Mizuno,Ruthanne Henry, Braden Labonte, Michael Toke

Participating performers:

Your MC's for the evening:
Rafi Ghanaghounian and Nana Akimoto

music:
Clara Venice and Ken Ogawa
Nobu Adilman: Choir!Choir!Choir!
Rambunctious featuring Michael Louis Johnson
Ashely Ingram

performance:
AKA Dance (Keiko Ninomiya, Amy Hampton, Mike Dell)
Natasha Bailey, Nayeon Kim, Adam Herst, Yumi Onose
VPV (Daisuke Takeya, Ayumi Sawada, Tatsu)

tea ceremony:
Tomori Nagamoto and Mika Sato

poetry by:
Ewan Whyte, Bonnie Bowman

DJ
Luis Jacob
Derek Mainella"

Thank you Rafi, Daisuke, and Keita for having me in the show.

Time is a Virtue

Hey everyone,
I am currently working on multiple paintings and drawings for a series of different things, I have been so caught up into drawing and painting lately, but I will have alot of material to update in the coming weeks.

I have been doing a lot of learning and reading about our world, all the living and non-living things that co-exist. The importance of everything that plays a role around us is often overlooked.

To start here are some drawings and ideas to share.





More to come!

Into the new.

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past month or so, I have been really jam packed with my current project of "The Familiars - Secrets of the Crown", the second of the book series for Harper Collins. I am finally wrapping this one up and the book will be released later this year.



Anyways, forgive me for being late but I hope everyone is having a great year so far. Coming into late January of 2011, is now really the start of this year for me. Coming off with a lot of bumps on the road in 2010 with some tough moments, I really am looking forward into the new things in my life this year.

Please be patient with me, I should now be starting to update a bit more again.

I just want to thank everyone who has been supportive to me and all the new friends I've met through blogging, traveling, sketch groups, and twitter over the past year.

Here is a sneak peak of one of many many pages of illustrations for the second book. More to come soon!

The flying whales and sharks

Something I found that was especially interesting about the dream comments from the last post is that some of my own experiences has been similar to yours. Like dreaming of flying giant whales in the sky, strange that some of you also dreamt of whales or flying sharks - perhaps these beings are of some significance in our mysterious subconscious. The idea of the 'painless' death in a dream was also something that remained in my thoughts and wonder before.

I remember dreaming of a white whale in the sky, giving dreams and hope a chance. These 'beings' are often made of many little bits and parts, some more clear, some more blurry.

When I wake up in the morning, in between adjusting to everyday reality and the dream state... I would pick up a pencil and some sticky notes or scrap paper to jot down and document some of these strange things that had been floating in the depths of my mind.

Below is an example of one:


Also, here is something that has formed.

"miss you, a thousand"
5'' x 8''
mixed media

Spectrum 17 and Winner of the last giveaway

I am very happy to be part of this year's Spectrum 17 book, which is already available on sale at Amazon.com and in stores near you.





In the last blog post, I did a little giveaway and asked some of you to leave an email for a chance for a giveaway prize, and if you want, to share a dream of yours.

The winner of the last giveaway is..
popobrown
Congratulations, popobrown you win a zine, gocco print and also a lino-cut print.

The following runners up will also be receiving a gocco print:
Cassandra
Cliff Roth
teruterubozuu
SaraLynn
Charles Santoso
Jade

Thank you everyone for sharing! I had a lot of fun reading and learning about your own experiences of dreams. I will be trying to do more of these giveaway in the future!

In my next post, I will be sharing some experiences of my own dreams and drawings of them.

Post-Canzine 2010, Updates, and Give-away

Hey everyone, hope you are all doing well.
First off, I wanted to announce the winners of the last giveaway on the blog of the two lino-cut original prints. Since there were 14 comments, I numbered 14 pieces of paper and picked out two from a hat. And the winners are...



#8 and #10! Which are... Hannah Bacalla and Carrie Rodriguez! Congratulations - I will be sending you each a lino-cut print piece.

-------------------

Recently, I have been busy working on several things as well as preparing for Canzine 2010 which happened just this past weekend. I have posted some pictures from the event on my flickr.

It was an awesome experience and had a great time. I had some zines titled 'daydream, nightdream' for sale at the show, as well as lino-cut prints, gocco prints and giclee prints.


Thank you everyone who stopped by and picked up a copy or print. It was great seeing familiar faces as well as meeting new ones. I still have some copies of the zines and prints left, so if anyone is interested in any of the items, please get in touch with me at info@peterchanart.com

The zines - a collection of written thoughts, sketches, photos that inspires me. 28 pages - black and white.


The gocco prints are limited run of 50, hand numbered and signed.


The giclee prints of 'distant' are limited edition of 31, hand numbered and signed.


The lino-cut prints are limited to 50, hand numbered and signed.


And...this also brings us to another little giveaway, to enter this one, simply reply to this blog and leave your email. If you are open to it, I would also like to know what your best dream was like, whether it'd be a good dream or nightmare (who knows, to some people a nightmare may have been a best dream). The winner will receive a package which includes the zine, the mini gocco, as well as a lino-cut print! I will also be giving away gocco or lino-cut pieces to a few selected others as well!

Tumble and Stumble

I am finally on both Tumblr and StumbleUpon.

Tumblr - http://peterchan.tumblr.com
SU - http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/chanp105/

Girl and Boy Lino

As I had talked about in one of my previous posts, I had been doing some new personal projects to explore some new mediums for mark making / image creation. Had some fun recently working with lino-cuts.



I painted the background first and then did the print on top. These will be available for the upcoming 'Canzine' event at the Great Hall in Toronto, Canada.

Each print is hand painted and printed. They are all unique and none are the same.

As a little appreciation for the readers of this blog, I will be giving away two of these prints. All you have to do is comment on this post and leave your email address (or a website that leads to your email) and I will choose two random people to send out an email to. It doesn't matter where you live in the world, I will still send you one if you win. :)

The Familiars - Magic Isn't Just for Wizards Anymore

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to illustrate Harper Collin's new children's novel titled 'The Familiars'. The book has finally hit the shelves yesterday.

'The Familiars' is a kid's story about three young wizard apprentices who are kidnapped by the evil queen of a distant land and it is up to their familiars, their magical animal companions -- a street smart alley cat, a precocious blue jay, and a bumbling tree frog -- to save them.

I had worked on the cover and illustrated the interior pages as well. It was quite a challenge, but I learned a lot from this project and it was a very amazing experience. Currently, started working on the second book and it has been a lot of fun!

In 2012 the book will also be made into a feature film by Sony Pictures Animation directed by Sam Raimi. Excited to see the book translate into the film.

Here are a selected few illustrations that I worked on - all of them were done traditionally:







To find out more, please click here to browse inside the book.

Follow @the_familiars on twitter for future updates on the book.

Other info/press about 'The Familiars': CoronaComingAttractions.com, Hollywood Reporter, IMDB, The Brain Lair, Cartoon Brew, Reuters, Georgia McBride, PageTurner'sBlog, AllisonBookMarks.com, SchoolLibraryJournal

see. your. monstr.

A few nights ago I had the opportunity to jam with my friend Tessar Lo again.

Here are some of the art that we produced and collaborated on - in the session of paint and words about art and life.

Hope you enjoy looking and experiencing them as much as we enjoy creating.

Don't forget to breath.

It has been difficult to make time to write lately.

Recently I had been taking some time off dealing with and accepting the sudden passing of my mother. Without warnings, she has left very silently. Things have been really unreal and a lot of times it is still really hard to believe that these new changes are now coming to be.

She was a close friend of mine and has been a great inspiration to me. She has been a great driving force and has helped and supported me in my journey as an artist. We would have lunch every week and talk a little about what is new and I would share my new art with her.

To be completely honest, I am very very saddened by this loss. Sometimes, it feels as if my whole world has been turned upside down.

It has made me think, a lot. It feels as if life feels suddenly even more fragile.

However, me and my family both believe that her spirit is still among us and now she is in a better place.

On the day of her passing, when I had got home... there, on my bed, was my passport and all the things she had wanted me to bring with me to San Diego on my trip that week. I was at a loss of words.

I knew, then and there, that I had to keep going on this journey.

Rest in Peace, Mom. We miss you.


Thinking about all this, there really isn't time to worry and be afraid of what and how something turns out, but just go with things and let it happen.

Creating an image, it is really easy to forget why we are creating in the first place, we often get very caught up with the result of an image and how people might think and judge our work. It prevents the full potential of our creativity.

I remember when I was young, I would draw in the restaurant napkins with my crayola crayons and markers. As a kid, the result didn't matter at all, it was all about having fun because it meant the world to me to simply create.

When I was cleaning the house, I found some old books that I used as a kid, and i saw then, that I drew over anything that I would find around me.

Kids books, exercise books, sticker books, novels, bible. Everything that I was able to find in the house.

What happened to this excitement to create?

...

Tonight, I found an old book that I had around me.
It felt good to be carefree and draw to my heart's content, again. Just like the old days.






The feeling of using markers is fresh again, just like I did when I was young.

Drawing, drawing in a book that has been sitting around, an object that has been aging through time, there is a feeling of fragility and impermanence.