On Tuesday, February 15th the Pleasanton City Council voted to finalize the 2022 Weekends on Main schedule. This year the Weekends on Main will be happening the first weekend of each month starting in May and continuing on through December
The first Weekend on Main starts May 6, 7 and 8th, so come join us for car free walking, eating outdoors in our beautiful weather and stop by Studio Seven Arts to see what artists are out in front of the gallery demonstrating or selling their pieces of art.
The St. Patrick’s Day Brew Crawl is coming back…….and we are all SO EXCITED!!!! We can’t wait to see you all here at Studio Seven Arts, so get your tickets before they are all gone. Get your tickets through the Downtown Pleasanton Assocation at Pleasantondowntown.net or call them at (925) 484-2199 to find out more information on the event.
Date: Thursday March 17th
Time: 6pm to 9pm
Get dressed up in all your wearing of the green attire and join us for this fun night out! Stop by Studio Seven Arts where we will be pouring and take a look at all the really great art we have here!
Hope to see you all soon!!!
Michael Vistia was born in the Midwest where from a young age he loved to draw. Michael discovered that he could communicate with his drawings before he even learned to speak. Michael is a self-taught artist that has an innate ability to create and to paint pieces that appeal to everyone.
These art pieces are vibrant with saturated color and bold fluid black lines, they draw you in to take a closer look and then you notice there are red heart sin every piece, which makes you smile, and you like them even more than you did before. Michael still is communicating with his art and it shows when we have people come back many times to see them because they are touched by the images. The colors bring them joy and the faces remind them of loved ones present and past. These pieces make wonderful gifts for friends and family.
Michael is the founder and creator of these pop art inspired pieces, featuring our favorite dog and cats. Michael’s art style is refreshing, and his pieces are memorable, bringing people back many times to look. Micahel’s pieces are giclee prints printed on aluminum and ready to enjoy, they come in size 8”x10” and 16”x20”
Stephen St. Claire has created a unique technique by first sculpting the composition onto the canvas with layers of modeling compound and gesso, then carefully covering the entire surface with Italian aluminum leaf. Oil paint is then applied to the metal, and each piece is finished with several layers of solar-resistant resin or archival satin varnish which gives the piece a soft, satin finish.
What inspires Stephen comes from hiking in the western North Caolina mountains on his days off, hiking with his wife Joy. Some days they might take a short hike up to Craggy Gardens or along the Laurel River, or they might for several hours visiting and viewing some of the waterfalls or awesome viewpoints in Pisgah Forest or the nearby Smoky Mountains National Park. When Stephen is hiking, he is breathing in the beauty of his surroundings and these hikes among the splendor of the mountains inspire him to create pieces that bring those feeling indoors for us all to enjoy.
Stephen grew up painting mostly landscapes and still life’s but around 2001, he began experimenting with painting on metallic leaf, and a new painting genre was created. This technique is called Dialuminism, which means light passing through. Stephen embeds metallic leaf and multiple thin layers of oil paint within a coating of solar resistant resin. Because Stephen is painting on a metallic surface the light reflects off the metal and illuminates the paint layers from the back. This makes for very intense color. Light plays off some areas and casts shadows beneath others, creating a dimensional painting that changes in appearance depending upon where the viewer is standing in relation to the light source.
Stephen began using this technique painting mostly abstract pieces but over the years, as the technique has morphed, he began painting more abstracted landscape scenes which led eventually to the more realistic landscape scenes he creates today. Stephen’s subject matter tends to be either generic scenes or scenes depicting different times of day and different locations from the general Western North Carolina mountains.
Stephen’s goal with each landscape oil painting is to depict a "sacred space", a very unique geographical place, whether real or imagined that will elicit a sense of quiet awe or reverence. Not all places evoke that feeling of reverence, but he knows when is walking through the woods and has felt it. When the hairs on the back of your neck tell you this place is special, where you pause to drink it all in. These are the places that Stephen puts in his oil painting’s.
All the elements working together to create that sacred space, where the lighting, the color, the contrast and they come together, to create a complex composition. Stephen loves to see the viewer stop to contemplate one of his pieces or to wonder where the path goes. These pieces that elicit that response Stepehen considers a success.
All of Stephens’ landscape oil paintings are created at his gallery and studio River Arts District in Asheville North Caolina. Come to Studio Seven Arts to see them in person, Stephen’s pieces have a depth and texture that can really be appreciated when you see them in person.
A Little Company, located in Fayetteville Arkansas creates sculptures which everyone at Studio Seven Arts is talking about - often we see customers smile, laugh, and relating to the pieces. Numerous customers collect them and appreciate them for their realism, expressions, and the pure joy on their faces. Each piece is created from an original clay sculpture. This mold is used to pour resin into and once the resin has hardened each piece is hand-painted. These sculptures are limited edition, numbered, a original artwork by A Little Company.
The creator Shelley Buonaiuto is always striving to create a coherent work of art that captures a quality of presence. The figures laugh and talk with friends, they dance or commune with a lover. She finds sculpting the elderly most interesting, for these have a character in their expressions, the naturalness of their bodies, the skin of aging, the caring expressed in their faces. The joy of living, the laughter on their faces, and the diversity of their expressions are the spirit and body as one. Shelley portrays in her sculptures the acceptance of this life, and people who view the work often find themselves and their friends in the pieces she and creates.
The creative process for Shelley is spontaneous and intuitive, the relationships revealed as she works. Her pieces are always informed, limited, guided, and inspired by the quality of clay and the demands of the technical process. as she sculpts. Most of the clay work is a combination of different colors of stoneware and porcelain and is fired to cone 10, making it very hard and durable. There is some patina and glaze used, and also at times a bronze patina is applied.
Shelley began to produce resin figures in 1996, to create a body of work that was consistent and affordable. She has created a diverse community of figures that could be interchanged, allowing different expressions of relationship. Since she sculpt’s these figures in a non-hardening oil-based clay and the piece is cast, she then is able to work for several months on a piece to capture exactly the expression that speaks to her before they are hand-painted.
We are pleased to have A Little Company in Studio Seven Arts. We ship these pieces all over the United States and Canada In fact, if you see one these figures that reminds you of someone and the hair color or clothing color is different Shelley will be happy to customize those colors so sculpture looks even more like your loved one or friend.
New Release: “Hitchhiking Ghosts” by Disney artist Tom Matousek
Choose size 20x10 for $150 or 36x15 for $495, both are limited edition prints on canvas
On August 11, 1984 artist Shawn Mackey was born in Edmonton Canada. Growing up during the long cold winters gave Shawn ample time to to draw and his creativity had no limits. Every sheet of scrap paper and copy paper was used to draw on. He would draw cartoon characters, cars, floor plans and anything that drew his attention, he even created his own superheroes that came purely from his own imagination.
At the tender age of 8 he was collecting money from his friends for his hand drawn pictures of cars, Shawn Mackey was born with an entrepreneurial spirit. He also was using ink and colored markers to create tattoos on his friends in the school bathrooms. His teachers gave him many lectures for this, but it didn’t stop him from creating.
Once he graduated high school he decided to put a hold on his art and pursue a college education at university with an emphasis on becoming a lawyer. A year of classes later that we’re filled with essay writing, politics and economics had not quelled his longing to create. Like all natural artists they have creativity in their bones and it could not be contained any longer. He deiced to take a summer art course and once he began to put paint on canvas he decided to transfer to the fine art program and study painting instead.
Shawn had also considered being an architect, but realized the canvas was the only place that he had the true freedom to create whatever he wanted to create, whenever he wanted to create. To be totally free when creating art was what Shawn wanted to to do and the ability to tell a story with a painting and to draw forth emotions from the viewer was what Shawn wanted to do the most.
Experimenting with abstractions came next and he did this while he was completing his Bachelors of Fine Art degree. Shawn used a variety of mediums such as oil, acrylic paint, polymer mediums and even earth to create these abstractions. Shawn was searching for new ways to bring new life into an art from that had been around for centuries. While he was in art school he worked as a bartender which greatly influenced his later work with the love of fine wines and spirits, which he portrayed in such paintings as “Dancing In The Streets” and “Dream Girl”.
Shawn graduated art school and pursued a variety of random jobs afterwards, but then he returned to school to become an art teacher. During this period of time Shawn considers this to be his biggest growth in his artistic journey. When he had time off he began to study in detail the great masters of art history. Today, Shawn Mackey focus is on Hawaiian Art. The impressionists were first and he worked his way through the ages learning their techniques. Like all artists he did put his own twist on their techniques and put his own mark on the pieces he created.
Shawn Mackey is being inspired today by the islands of Hawaii and his newest pieces bring out the beauty of the people, the location and the culture. His artwork is layered with texture and feels dramatic. The Hawaiian Islands are captured with vibrant colors, you can feel the breeze on your skin and hear the waves washing upon the shore. Shawn is able to capture the feeling of being there with his brushstrokes and create a painting that brings that feeling to you each and every time you view it.
When Albanian born Josef Kote was growing up he was always drawing and being a fine artist. By the age of 13 Kote had made up his mind to become an artist so once that decision was made his focus was on making that happen. When Josef Kote was in high school he applied and was accepted into the finest art school in Albania, he also competed locally and nationally in art shows, he was awarded a spot at the coveted “National Lyceum of Art” in Tirana.
Josef was accepted into the “Academy of Fine Arts” of Tirana in 1984 where he was educated in the techniques of the masters of fine art and the traditional approach they used to create works that we know and love today. As most artists do they have their own style and once they learn these techniques they want to break loose and do what comes naturally to them. Josef wanted to explore, experiment and grow, he wanted to paint with no boundaries and we can see that in his paintings today. The vibrant colors and layers of paint that reveal emotions hidden and revealed in each piece.
His trademark ‘s are bold brushstrokes, such as reflected in Josef Kote’s piece Beyond the Fall, that sweep across the canvas, the texture comes from the pallet knife breaking over the art canvas as the paint is applied and as you look you notice some parts of the canvas have not even been touched creating negative space that lets your eyes drift away and then come back to rest.
When you view one of Josef Kote art, his use of color and light are music to the eyes, such as reflected in Kote’s Unexpected Light. Their composition is romantic, stunning and calming. His years of experimenting show with edgy colors and thick pallet knife texture, he adds elements of the masters and then uses abstract elements, fusing them all together with drips of paint to create shadow and light drawing us into the piece.
Josef Kote art has always been influenced by the places he has lived and In 2009 Josef moved to New York and his art is now influenced by the city he lives in, the architecture, the people and the life he lives in New York can all be seen in his latest works of fine art. Each painting is a snapshot captured in time with his masterful and practiced hand.
Jon Stuart Anderson is a world renowned polymer clay artist who is globally collected. These handmade, intricately detailed animals, are made with a millefiore technique, have been acquired by collectors as diverse as US President Bill Clinton, Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese, and lesser-known fans all over the world as quickly as Jon can make them.
Three decades ago, Jon Stuart Anderson was living on the Sea of Cortez painting on wooden sculptures, but when a friend gave him 3 packs of the new Fimo clay, his life changed forever.
These days working with Fimo is as natural as breathing for Jon. It is his life's blood and his driving passion.
This dedication has elevated him to the absolute pinnacle of his craft and he is acknowledged as the most accomplished polymer clay artist in the world today.
His work is about repetition, design movement and respect for the light source. But he first works for months building massive canes, acquiring an impressive palette of images inspired by Moroccan geometrics and peyote visions.
Jon lives and works on a beach in Bali where his leisure time is spent on coral reef restoration and snorkeling with it's local residents.
Studio Seven Arts is pleased to announce that we now carry Jon Stuart Anderson Fimocreations, come view them in person.
Below is a video showing how Jon works with Fimo clay, take a look
MOVA Globes are brand new to Studio Seven Arts. Each globe has a transparent outer shell made from carefully selected, high-quality acrylic. This external layer remains stationary while an internal one spins using advanced magnets for torque and solar cells to power the movement. They move with interior light sources, no batteries or cords are needed to power these globes. MOVA globes are available in three sizes 4.5”, 6” and 8.5”
Can MOVA Globes be placed outside? Although they contain solar cells, MOVA Globes are designed as indoor décor items and actually operate best in ambient light. It is best not to keep MOVA Globes exposed to direct sunlight for long periods of time, as this can lead to the graphics fading.
What happens to MOVA Globes when the lights turn off? They have a sleep cycle just like humans. MOVA Globes will slow down to a complete stop in the absence of sufficient lighting but will come back to life as soon as the lights are turned back on
How to care for your MOVA globe. MOVA Globes need very minimal maintenance. To remove fingerprints and dust, rinse with water and wipe dry with a soft cloth. Do not use any abrasive cleaning solutions.
