Some thoughts about Sueellen Ross

Sueellen Ross’s art work definitely caught my eyes at the first time when I saw them at the Howard / Mandville Gallery in downtown Kirkland. The piece called Beach Buddies, the size of it is 12 1/2 x 15. I can tell that this piece of art work’s drawing method is oil painting.

The subject of this piece of art work is about two dogs lying on the beach, within my best knowledge, I think both two dogs are Labrador Retrievers, and they are both looking at the camera as well. As viewers consuming this piece of art, it gives people a strong feel simply because we as humans, have a direct eye contact with the dogs. And it is almost being proved that dogs are humans’ best friend, and Studies suggesting dogs are more humanly complex than we think are just plain wrong (Dogs and Human Emotions).

I think that the use of available lighting, evenly distributed sandpits, wild grass and the distribution of objects in this work of art which make its subject matter stand out or give strength to its theme.  Admittedly, all those compositions are wonderful to highlight the two Labrador Retrievers in the centre the of picture frame.

According to Wildlife Artist Sueellen Rosee, the artist, Sueellen Ross has been called "America's Definitive Dog Artist," and her images beautifully support that high praise. However, Ross' complete body of work ranges far beyond the mysterious feline universe. She is a highly versatile artist both in her mixed media technique and hand-colored etchings. Her distinctive paintings of wild birds and domestic pets, such as dogs and cats, which are rendered with exquisite richness and detail, grace the homes of collectors across the country.

Acclaimed for the strong emotion and personality in her paintings, Sueellen Ross never quits thinking about art. She combines her passion for producing art with her love of animals to create works of exceptional design and subtle wit. "My strength as an artist," she says, "comes from my deep love of my subjects."

For many years Ross focused her energies on perfecting the etching process, and it was those experiences that helped hone her abilities to use texture, line, and color to achieve the nuances and details in her work. She later continued to push her skills even further by developing her own unique combination of mixed media using India ink, watercolor, and pencil. Today, her paintings are brilliant in color, meticulous in detail and texture, and are highly coveted by collectors.

Sueellen Ross has authored books and appeared in countless publications both as a featured artist and as an author. Ross' paintings, etchings, and other prints have been exhibited worldwide and have won her Featured Artist positions at art exhibitions across the nation. According to Meet the Artists of Our Animal Doormats, she has frequently been juried into the prestigious "Birds in Art" show at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin, and "Arts for the Parks" in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Ross' range of subjects has considerably expanded since childhood, though she still holds a special fondness for etchings of domestic dogs. Dogs lovers, who instantly recognize the realism of Ross' cats, have a particular appreciation of them; she captures both their characteristic poses and their own endearing personalities. She draws her own dogs and those of her friends and neighbors going about their daily business of being dogs.

Through my research, I find out that she is really an artist with full of passion in her life and the creation of art. The artistic ability that she has cultivated enable her to be a great artist and successful in drawing. What’s more, through her drawing, we can definitely tell the emotions between human and animals.

Gallery Visit

Through my research, I find out that there is a wonderful art gallery in Kirkland area, and it is located in downtown Kirkland, named Howard / Mandville Gallery. I went in on a Friday and was totally amazed by its fantastic artistic atmosphere. I was almost fooled by its small appearance—after got inside of the Howard / Mandville Gallery, then I just realized that it was a gallery which occupies over 4,000 square feet of gallery space. What’s more, they are also the one who offers one of the largest collections of fine art in the Seattle area.

The art works that they present at the gallery are both regional and nationally acclaimed artists working in contemporary realist and traditional styles. More impressively, there are over 50 artists who show with the gallery on a regular basis, including works in oil, acrylic, watercolor and bronze. The gallery also features rotating monthly exhibits of artists’ works ranging from one person shows to group exhibitions such as our annual Anniversary Show and Small Works Show.

I am most impressed by the paintings that they present in the art gallery. On their website, I actually find out that there are 58 painting artists’ works are yearly demonstrating in the Howard / Mandville Gallery. Four of the artists are from my country, China~ But fairly speaking, the artist who I like the most is the one who named Sueellen Ross. Her works are mainly focusing on animals. Reading her personal biography, I notice that Sueellen Ross began drawing animals as soon as she could hold a pencil and never stopped. I think that her love for animals and their distinct personalities is apparent in every work of art she creates.

Right now it is Kent Lovelace’s personally art work, and the name of the gallery show is called the The Bourgogne Paintings, it is going to be closed on March. 20th. His works are wildly engaged with trees. I think that a lot of the artists have their favorites in drawing from different kinds of aspects, and this is tied closely within their cultural references.

Since this quarter we have been working with pencils on our drawings, and didn’t get a chance to work with oil and paints, so I am not quite sure about the drawing techniques for oil painting. But it seems like oil paintings take more time and patience. And it is definitely a level up compared to pencil drawing. I don’t know if the oil painting artists do have to do the pencil draft on their paper, or they just paint on the paper. But speaking in general, I was very amazed by the creativity that they have cultivated and the excellent skills they have.

Amazing charocoals

Normally we have two kinds of charcoals, black charcoals and white charcoals. It is almost like a comment sense to know that charcoals are black and there is really none people are curious about how black charcoal is made, so I am going to find about how the white charcoal is made. White charcoal is made by carbonizing the wood at a moderately low temperature, then, near the end of the process, the kiln temperature is raised to approximately 1000 °C to make the wood red hot. When making white charcoal, you need to be quite skilled in removing the charcoals, which have turned deep red, from the kiln and quickly smother it with a covering of powder to cool it. The powder is a mixture of sand, earth, and ash. This will then give a whitish color to the surface of the charcoal. This is where the name "white charcoal" was derived. The quick rise in temperature, followed by quick cooling, burns up the outer layer of the wood leaving a smooth hardened surface. It is also called a "hard charcoal".

I really appreciate that how smart we as human beings are, and how critical we are. It is definitely a great moment for inventing the white charcoal. I haven’t used the white charcoal yet but I can see it will be really power in the process of drawing. And now, I just come up with an interesting idea of using White Charcoal to draw on the black paper. In that way, I can have the darkest dark with the pure white charcoal on the paper. Using the white charcoal for drawing the objects’ outlines, since the black is there already, so I can just leave the shade part but work on the area where I want it to be less black.

Gallery visit

 I find out that there is a wonderful art gallery in Kirkland area, and it is located in downtown Kirkland, named Howard / Mandville Gallery. I went in on a Friday and was totally amazed by its fantastic artistic atmosphere. I was almost fooled by its small appearance—after got inside of the Howard / Mandville Gallery, then I just realized that it was a gallery which occupies over 4,000 square feet of gallery space. What’s more, they are also the one who offers one of the largest collections of fine art in the Seattle area.

The art works that they present at the gallery are both regional and nationally acclaimed artists working in contemporary realist and traditional styles. More impressively, there are over 50 artists who show with the gallery on a regular basis, including works in oil, acrylic, watercolor and bronze. The gallery also features rotating monthly exhibits of artists’ works ranging from one person shows to group exhibitions such as our annual Anniversary Show and Small Works Show.

I am most impressed by the paintings that they present in the art gallery. On their website, I actually find out that there are 58 painting artists’ works are yearly demonstrating in the Howard / Mandville Gallery. Four of the artists are from my country, China~ But fairly speaking, the artist who I like the most is the one who named Sueellen Ross. Her works are mainly focusing on animals. Reading her personal biography, I notice that Sueellen Ross began drawing animals as soon as she could hold a pencil and never stopped. I think that her love for animals and their distinct personalities is apparent in every work of art she creates.

Right now it is Kent Lovelace’s personally art work, and the name of the gallery show is called the The Bourgogne Paintings, it is going to be closed on March. 20th. His works are wildly engaged with trees. I think that a lot of the artists have their favorites in drawing from different kinds of aspects, and this is tied closely within their cultural references.

Green Beer!!

It is interesting that I was told by my teacher that not to drink green beer on St Patrick's Day. Actually I don’t know about green beer much so I did some research on it. And I did see some people who hold the opinion that no green beer in order to keep St. Patrick's Day holy. It is actually pretty easy to make green bear,

here are five steps for making green bear,

1: Purchase a light colored beer or ale. This can also be done with a dark beer, but it'll require so much food coloring that it turns your teeth green when you drink it, and that's something most people would like to avoid.

2: Pour some of the beer into a glass or mug

3: Place 4-6 drops of green food coloring in the beer. You can also experiment with adding blue food coloring, since the beer is already yellow and mixing that with blue makes green.

4: Pour the rest of the beer. The pouring action should mix in the food coloring, but stir lightly if needed. (Stirring too much can make the beer flat.)

5: Enjoy!

Japan's earthquake

It is very sad of what has happened in the Japan for the past week. And a country with 127,360,000 people, and more of it, Japan is an archipelago of 6852 islands. I am kind of surprised that it will take 5 years to rebuild Japan. I will say that the earthquake could have caused much worse situation if it happened in other countries, because I think that Japan is the most prepared country for the forthcoming earthquakes. There is no doubt that Japan’s economy has developed rapidly in the recent 30 years after the reform. However, within that amount of time, China wasn’t also to do so. Now, Japan is the world’s third –largest economy by its nominal GDP and by purchasing power parity. And now the devastating quake has caused the huge lost for Japan, it certainly affects the world economy as well. 

Artistic Response update

For my artistic response, I decide to do a collage which uses some of the illustrations from Sherman’s Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I chose to use red and white stripes as the background being implied that the main character in the novel, Junior had a very difficult time of being recognized by either the Native American tribe or the Whites at school. And for some the pieces, I decided to put blue tape on the collage which can refer to the book, because that’s the way how the author, Sherman Alexie did in his book. Overall, I am glad that I am now having a better understanding of Native Americans and appreciated that I was given the chance to do so in this class.