Pari Chumroo Goes to the Ball and Donates

The Hume Home Centennial Ball held on May 19, 2012 brought many people to raise money for a good cause. All dressed up in sequenced gowns, high heels, and jewelry the women were glamorous. Accompanied by their well groomed gentlemen in white dress shirts, black bow ties, black pants, and jackets.

It was an evening full of delightful food, great music, and ball room dancers. The elegant setting arranged perfectly for an auction to raise money for a good cause. With collectors, buyers, artist, sponsors, and others the event was considerably full. Myself I donated 5 pieces of originally framed art.

Three of which sold that evening to art collectors. It was a tough crowd just as the auctioneer had stated. With the economy most were not as ready to purchase things even at low cost. A condominium on the ocean in Florida that was selling for a week stay for six had a difficult time going for $850. The Hume Home of Muskegon, built by Thomas Hume, is the Lakeshore's historical option for assisted living. It is a Home away from Home. It provides assisted living housing for the retired and elderly.

I had such a lovely time. I hope in the future that people are more willing to donate to things such as this is for a good cause.

Native American Indian Pride Contest on FAA 1st and 3rd Place Winner

1st and 3rd Place Winner of the Native American Indian Pride contest on Fine Art America is Mia DeLode.

1st Place "It's More Than Just Footwork" Mia DeLode is a fourth generation rancher from central Montana. Born and bred to be part of the rural west, she is an accomplished painter, sculptor, and writer of the culture, animals, people and the humor that is unique to western living. Her paintings appear in many shows and her writing has been featured in Crazy Woman Creek published by Mariner books, a three part anthology of western women. Mia has been showing at the C.M.Russell Auction and Show at Great Falls, Montana since 2006 as well as other national shows including the Mountain Oyster in Tucson, Arizona, Empire 110 in Tucson Arizona and the Art Festival in San Dimas, California. She was given special recognition by the Great Falls Historical Museum for her work titled “1890’s First Responders” featuring the last working team of fire horses in the United States. 3rd Place "Sacred Traditions" A huge and well deserved Congratulations Mia!! Fantastic work!!!

Native American Indian Pride Contest on FAA 2nd Place Winner

2nd Place Winner of the Native American Indian Pride contest on Fine Art America is Olivia Francis. 


Olivia was born in Quanah, Texas on July 4th, 1952. 
Her nationality includes: Cherokee, Comanche, Irish, Dutch, 
Scotch, French, and Italian. 
‘I’m what some refer to as a “mutt!” 
She began developing her artistic abilities from the age of five 
thanks to her artistic father who nurtured her in that direction 
with a gentle nudge using an imagination building art game called 
Scribble. “My father was my best friend, my hero and my biggest fan!” 
He still 'is' in my heart... 


Choice of medium and subject matter include: 
Acrylic, Oil, Pencil/Color Pencil, Pen and Ink, mixed media, 
scrimshaw, wood burning and photography. 
Her favorite subjects are Native American, 
Southwest, animals, scenery, portraits 


Artwork history, (1974-present): 
-Bankima Enterprises Santa Cruz, Ca., 
Created one of a kind scrimshaw pieces of various subjects etched onto ivory cabs. 


-Prestige Stained Glass Company, Prescott, Az. 
Designed and rendered patterns for stain glass windows. 


-The Lost Dutchman Gallery, Prescott, Az. 
Scrimshaw artist. 
Engraved various sizes and subjects onto ivory cabs. 


-The Great American Picture Show, Prescott, Az. 
Created twelve color pencil floral designs, 
that were distributed worldwide. 


-Native American Flutes, Weatherford, TX. 
Worked as an artist/Designer/Seamstress for flutes, leather flute bags and accessories. 
Job-included wood burning and painting geometric designs, animals, etc. on 
various sized flutes and leather flute bags. 
(Airbrush artist and Sculptress were also among her various titles.) 


Also: designed artwork for the 
Weatherford, TX. Annual Peach Festival T-shirts in 1997 and 2000. 


Art Shows: 
The George Phippen Memorial Art Show in Prescott, Az. 1983, 
and various other Art and Craft shows including the yearly Weatherford and 
Mineral Wells Art Association Shows where her art was honored with many ribbons 
including 'Best of' and 'Peoples choice'. 


* Other interests include writing and illustrating children's books. 


Her magnificent piece that won second place: 

Tips can Always Help an Artist

Maturing into a fine artist takes years of dedication, patience, passion, energy and time. Here are a few tips to send you in the right direction.

Tip 1: Learn the Importance of the Sketch

Sketching is one of those things that every artist MUST do and do often. Sketches don’t have to be perfect, nor do you have to show them to anyone. They can be as rough or as scratchy as you like but the thing to keep in mind is it’s readability. The purpose of a sketch is to quickly illustrate or develop an idea you have, to capture or study some form of reference so that it can be worked on at a later date. The sketch only needs to convey the right information to you and you alone (unless you are drawing an idea out for a client then the message needs to be crystal clear) because of this. 

Tip 2: Draw, Draw and Draw Some More!

This is a similar tip to the first but what I mean by this is draw anything that comes to mind or visually interests you. Sketch on the bus, train, in bed and even on the toilet. Literally! The more you draw from your mind and from reference, the better you will become and the quicker your skills will develop. Take the time to doodle lots of different subjects and in lots of different environments as this will all help build up a mental catalogue of images to draw upon later when you may become stuck for ideas or inspiration.

Tip 3: Explore Different Mediums

Despite the fact that I favor oils I force myself to use all mediums and explore. This is when you take an idea from sketch to final painting. Exploring other methods of creating that end piece can really yield some unexpected results and challenge you to push yourself further into new situations. Exploring with different types of paints such as oil, acrylic, water colour or gouache are the options most people would suggest trying. Try charcoals, pastels, or taking the leap into digital art and painting. All these different mediums have their strengths that you can harness but you will never know them unless you try them out.

Tip 4: Use a Variety of Tools

I love my paint brush but am very fond of using my fingers. You heard right I love using my fingers when I do pieces in oil and chalks pastels as well as charcoals. Nonetheless, I have to be strict when it comes to paints such as oils and acrylics and use a brush or other tools. Use sponges, cardboard, toothbrushes and other various tools. This can be the fun part. Be creative!

Tip 5: Build a Reference Library

This is a great tip that I learnt from years back. As you begin to fill sketch books with illustrations of ideas and reference material, you should build up that stack of books with more books. By this I mean buying art books, books on a variety of things, various people, other cultures, animals etc. I invested in a few art books years ago and it was one of the best investments I have made in life. I also recently purchased the book called, "Coffee with Hemingway: Kirk Curnutt and a forward by John Updike. This book to me is outstanding and very inspirational.

 The list of what you should look into is endless and should extend beyond your general interests. It mustn’t stop there. Take photos of things you see if you don’t have time to sketch them. The purpose is to have a nice big collection of images that inspire you, ignite your imagination and, more specifically, if you need to draw something right, having the material there to draw from will add realism and clarity to your work. Utilize the internet for referencing also. There is an endless abundance of information to be found online. Learn from other artist. Get involved in forums online and soak up ideas and information whenever possible.

Tip 6: Learn Some Colour Theory (At Least)

This is a big one. Colour theory is an immense subject. I will have to write a post on it later.  Even learning only a  bit, will help your work massively. The more you push yourself to learn, the better and better you will become.

Time at Lake Michigan

Time at Lake Michigan brings peace to my soul. The waters rippling peacefully. The wind breezing through my hair. Pleasures in viewing the seagulls as the ride the waves then take flight against one another. There always seems as if there is something new to photograph and paint from Lake Michigan. My son and I are going now to spend some peaceful time there and capture some of God's beautiful creations.

New Youth Artist introduced to the Art World

Very proud of my little 10 years old son who is deeply interested in art. He has been bugging me to make him his own art page and when he comes home today he will see it is now official and he will have to manage it. He is excited to start a new painting this weekend. He will be attending his first art fair with me in August. Please welcome him into the Fine Arts world.


Ron states, "I am a ten year old boy who loves painting. I am learning to paint from my mom. Both of my great grandmothers are artist. I hope when I get older my paintings will be all sorts of places like galleries and museums. I also love photography and sports. Delight in playing the violin and my first concert is this May 2012."

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fine-Artist-Ron-Johnson/196922490428356?bookmark_t=page