A friend's exhibition

Today is the first day of a great exhibition in Tehran, Iran.
One of my friends and the member of Shargh Watercolorists group, Ali Golbaz has his first one man show after becoming member of our group. It was great experience for me to start the group activity with this energetic, and passionate painter. Being with him filled me with inspiration for more and more work and thinking, as i think one of the most important part of painting and other great activities are mind work.
Anyway, tonight my wife and I with our one year old daughter went to the Kamal Behzad Gallery in Tehran where, Ali's exhibition opened tonight.
If you are here in tehran you better not miss this show, as i think thats one of the best of this year in this region.
Here some photos of my journey into Ali's day dream world.

A memory

" nothing is more important than the artist and his thoughts..." Thats the answer of my mentor ,Joseph Zbukvic, when i asked him about the watercolor paints and paper and other things like that. It was about two years ago I guess and we were chatting on Facebook.
I knew that he was right but it takes about two year that i believe in it...
This is my work of last day workshop in Qom, with cheap materials... But i like them so much...
I hope you like it...
Please write me about your experience and ideas about the materials... Which materials do you use...which one do you love best...
" ابزار اهميتي ندارد، اين هنرمند است كه اهميت اساسي دارد در پروسه نقاشي" اين پاسخ حكيمانه استادم جوزف زبوكويچ بود به سوال من در مورد اهميت ابزار و رنگ و كاغذ و موارد ديگر.
شايد دو سال طول كشيد تا من مفهوم اين حرف را درك كنم... اين نقاشي من در كلاس ديروزم است با ارزانترين ابزارهايي كه تاكنون به كار گرفته ام. خودم كه نتيجه را دوست دارم، اميدوارم شما هم همين نظر را داشته باشيد.
شما با چه ابزارهايي كار مي كنيد، كدام ها را بيشتر دوست داريد؟ لطفا برايم بنويسيد.

David Taylor

Tonight before going to bed for sweet dreams i want to talk with you about one of the great persons who helped me in the process of the way of seeing with new eyes.
He's no-one but David Taylor.
David is a great painter, and i learnt a lot by reading his book, SOLVING THE MYSTRY OF WATERCOLOR.
you can find this book on Amazon.
Good night my mentor... Good night ...

My watercolor course 01

My watercolor and presentation class is every wednesday, 7:30 am to about 7 pm in Qom, Iran. If you were around here it would be such a pleasure to have a visit and drink a cup of coffee and talk.
On my first session of the course i started with an exercise and give the students a photo and ask them to draw and paint it with whatever medium they like and after that we talk on the results and i started my demonstration on pen, market and ink .
Working with ink and pen and working with marker would help the watercolor artist to have a better understanding of tonal values.
The results was a pleasure.
As a watercolor artist, watercolor and ink is a way of meditating and feeling relaxed for me.
And its such a great times when i left every other thinking aside and looking for a way of narrating a scene for other and with the least brush strokes i say everything that looks necessary to be told...
This is a way
A lovely journey of pleasure of painting with passion...
Here is some of my demonstrations for the students...
كلاس هاي درك و بيان من در قم هر هفته چهارشنبه ها ساعت ٧:٣٠ صبح تا حدود ٥ بعد از ظهر تشكيل مي شود و بسيار مايه ي خوش وقتي خواهد بود اگر در اين نزديكي هستيد همديگر راببينيم و گپي بزنيم
اين هفته من فعاليت آموزشي بر روي تكنيك ارايه با ابزارها را شروع كردم
در ابتدا تصويري به هنرجويان ارايه شده و از آنها خواسته شد تا آن را بكشند
و سپس بر روي آثار كشيده شده به بحث و گفتگو نشستيم
و بعد من به ترسيم و توضيح پرداختم
سعي در توضيح پايه هاي تفكري
و ارايه با مداد، ماژيك و آب مركب
نتيجه لذت بخش و عالي بود
استفاده از ماژيك و مداد و ترسيم توناليته ها كمك زيادي به روند تفكر مناسب در هنگام كار آبرنگ مي كند
به عنوان يك نقاش آبرنگ ابزارها و فرايند فرصتي براي آرامش و لذت براي من فراهم مي آورد
در زير چند تصوير از روند ارايه من مي توانيد مشاهده نماييد.

Watercolor thinking 01

One of the factors that i used to it is trying to capture what the scene is about by a tonal value sketch, it helped me a lot. In this way i can arrange my attack in watercolor process.
I think this tonal value sketches are usually great piece of art indeed.
I see art students that do not like to do this step by step process.
I give you two examples of using tonal value and the final results.
The photo is from the book " solving the mystery of watercolor" by David taylor.

Starting my class in Qom

Its about two weeks that i've started my class in sketching and presentation for architecture students in Qom. Qom is a city about an hour south of Tehran, the capital city of Iran.
Qom has lots of wonders for me. I started my journey from an old bazaar in this city. This bazaar is about 700 years old and it's such a wonder walking and wandering around it.
This an sketch from the center of carpet stores...
از ابتداي ترم پاييز من به عنوان استاد درس درك و بيان معماري كار خودم را در مركز آموزشي فني و حرفه اي قن شروع كردم
اين مساله به من فرصت داد تا بيشتر با شهر خودم آشنا شوم
من گشت و گذارم در شهر را از ميدان كهنه و تيمچه هاي آن شروع كردم
نقاشي در اين محيط هاي جذاب خيلي لذت بخشه

Watercolor as a way of seeing the world

As an artist it seems to me that watercolor for me is a new way for better understanding of the world...

Thinking to the contrasts

Thinking to contrasts is such a vital part in watercolor painting
Light against dark
Warm against cool
Small vs big
...
Painting by David Taylor
Afternoon shaddow

New start

From the last time i posted on my blog passed some days, or even more.
I would try my best to post my paintings again here on daily basis
Pray for me

رويا ها

گاهي اوقات به غايت نا اميد مي شوم و آن وقت از زندگي هيچ نمي خواهم
آن وقت است كه احساس مي كنم حال گروهي از مردم را مي فهمم
كساني كه ديگر زنده بودن را تاب نمي آورند
آنچه مرا به زنده بودن وا مي دارد اميد است
اميد ورويا
رويا ها موتور پيش ران من هستند
وقتي از اميد و رويا خالي مي شوم زندگي جز يك مساله ناخوشايند نيست برايم
و البته حضور همسرم يك كمك بسيار بزرگ است
زندگي با اميد بسيار زيباست
اميد اميد اميد
و رويا

The hills

I liked the sky of this scene
Hope you enjoy it too...

Ps.
I don't know what's wrong with this app... But you have to click the photo for viewing the whole painting

The center of universe

This is a painting I done it during my Journey to one of the Cities of Iran, Isfahan. we went to the river side near one of them most famous bridges on the Zayande rood and it was a great view other side of the river I sat there with my daughter Bahar and I had very nice time there painting, while my daighter sat beside me......
The centerpoint of these paintings are those two men standing near each other...

You are the one...

It was late in the evening and I was lonely in the home and I was thinking to you and to my loneliness....
This was just the painting doing during those thoughts.
I really had great time thinking to you and make painting...
You are the one in the center of my thinking all the time and in my loneliness...
This is my first experience publishing the post using my iPad, and of course using the speech system of this great instrument. it was such a great experience talking to machine and he do all this stuff to publish the post...

trees in valley...

summer is coming ... 

and i like painting outdoors ... 

I appreciate this fortune ... 

trees ... درختان

درختان آتشین و خنکای سایه ها 

burning trees and calm shadows ... 

day dreaming .... رویاهای روزانه بورس آبرنگ ایران

these days i'm under time pressure and there lots of works to do ... and I wish I had enough time to relax for drawing and painting . 

I think to watercolor prize and the watercolor scholarship for people like myself ... maybe one day there would be some prize by my fund and name ... Mojtaba Abtahi Prize ... 

the prize and the name is not so important, that's the idea that is interesting ... maybe one day i can have my supported art students ... 

i'm thinking to that day ... and this is day dreaming 

این روزها کار های بسیاری بر سرم می ریزد که توانم را می گیرد و من با خود می اندیشم چقدر خوب بود اگر می توانستم از هنر زندگی کنم و استراحت کنم و فکر و سفر و نقاشی 

می توانستم چند ماه با دختر کوچکم و همسرم در سفر باشیم و در کنار هم لذت ببریم 

با خود به رویایی که در سر داشته ام می اندیشم 

به جایزه آبرنگ ایران 

به بورس آبرنگ 

اینها افکاری است که مرا با خود می برد 

شاید زمانی مدرسه ای از افراد تحت حمایت مالی ام داشته باشم 

و بتوانم کسانی را از مشکلاتی که خود دارم برهانم 

با خود می اندیشم به بنیاد مجتبی ابطحی 

و جایزه سال مجتبی ابطحی 

اینها آن چیزی است که رویاهای من را می سازد 

اینها رویاهای روزانه و شبانه من است 

می نویسم و به آنها می اندیشم 

تا به واقعیت برسد 

شاید زمانی بهار کوچکم برای خود خانم کاملی شده باشد 

شاید نوشته های من را بخواند 

دوستت دارم و به دنیایی زیبا تر برای تو و انسان های دیگر می اندیشم دختر زیبای من 

watercolor quotes 039 .... کلمات آبرنگی

Push the boundaries of your photo reference for more creative paintings. 

Eric Wiegardt 

برای آفرینندگی بیشتر در نقاشی می بایست خود را از بند های عکس برهانید. 

نقاش امریکایی اریک ویگاردت

( painting by Eric Wiegardt ) 

great trade ... مبادله ارزشمند

پنجشنبه طی مراسمی یکی از کارهایم را با یکی از آثار زیبای سرکار خانم مهندس ساناز حمزه ای مبادله کردم. 

به نظرم این یکی از کارهای خوبی است که به دیوار منزلم نصب شده است. 

در حال حاضر از پنج هنرمند در مجموعه ام آثاری دارم 

همسرم 

هنرمند امریکایی اندی اوانسن 

هنرمند ژاپنی یوکو 

 استاد عزیزم جناب آقای مقدسی 

و سرکار خانم مهندس ساناز حمزه ای 

i believe that dreams can and will turn into reality if you think it regularly and believe it. 

on Thursday I traded one of my paintings with a painting by great fellow artist Ms Sanaz Hamzei. she is an architect and a great watercolorist. 

here are some pictures of this event. 

now I have paintings by five watercolor painters in my collection: 

My dear wife, Fahimeh 

american painter Andy Evansen

dear Mr Moghaddasi 

japanese painter Yuco 

and dear Sanaz Hamzei