Finished Mural!!!

Big ups to Nick Giannini for putting up a dope mural piece.  

Check out his work at VisualArtillery 

*We used base board to create the 'frame' around the mural

it starts with a wall...

We're gonna step up our game at the gallery...

My first project is a collaborative mural piece.  My folks drew the windmills, I worked on the tulips with the help of friends, and the 2 white blanks will be a rotating mural (4x16ft) painted by local artists.  First artist to throw down is a good friend Nick Giannini who has got a most unique style.   Check out his work at http://www.visualartillery.com/  Should be completed by next Saturday...here's what we got so far:)

The initial concept of the mural.  Got the image idea from the photo below from Carlsbad.

Big thanks to Micah, Jina, John, Corey, Katelyn, Gia, and Dixie for the creative collaboration!!

The power of a place.

Props to my sister for creating this blog.  It was created to promote awareness for the gallery and the events we hold.  I haven't written a post yet, but I'd like to start with what this place means to me.  It's my hope that this blog will help me focus on improving the gallery until we reach that point where it's self-sustaining. 

To say that we've struggled to maintain this family-run gallery from original concept to now would be an understatement.  It has truly tested our perseverance, and yet, has also been an amazing blessing.

As I reflect about the different events that have gone on here, I feel empowered to try harder to keep this place growing. We hold art shows promoting local artists. Each month we exhibit individuals artists who have displayed for their first time. We've exhibited artists showcasing their life's worth of artwork  We've held group art exhibitions including the Sunnyvale Art Club, Santa Clara Watercolor Society, Metal Arts Association of Silicon Valley, students from the Academy of Art of San Francisco, and the Los Altos Art Club to name a few.  For 2 years we've hosted the Fremont Union High School District Annual Art Showcase.  

We host an open mic where musicians, poets, storytellers, comedians come to express themselves.  Many times the first time they've gone up to perform for anything. With the help of some amazing bands, we raised over $700 for Japan for the Tsunami Relief Fund.  We partnered with Sunnyvale Community Services and the Alvarez-Horine family to raise over $6000 for Sunnyvale Community Services.  We host 3 toastmaster groups, a crochet group, a group of bridge players, book clubs, and a few networking groups.   We hold art classes and workshops and for a month invited volunteer teachers to teach free art classes to the public.  We've had art nights promoting 'street art', poetry nights, book signings, dance marathons, concerts, drop in drawing sessions, bike parties, and a 'trash to treasure' event where people brought 'trash' and we painted them into works of art.  

We've hosted a Homestead High School high school reunion, a miracle fruit flavor tripping party, a speed dating session, a community photography contest, and a series of speakeasies. We host a weekly neighborhood breakfast club, a monthly bible study group, monthly tango night, weekly art critique groups, a bi-annual arts summit meeting, and a weekly class taught by PBS art instructor Stefan Baumann. 

Before we opened on October 17th, 2009, friends of the gallery volunteered by joining us for cleaning parties, painting parties, building a wall party, taking down that same wall party, vacuum parties, sandwich making parties, and the list goes on.  Friends and family have believed in us by investing into the gallery.  To those that have helped create this place and to those who support it, I offer my eternal gratitude.  Thank you!! This place means a great deal to me, and I truly believe it has created a lot of good for the community. 

I'll give an honest effort to update this blog.

Please continue to support the Sunnyvale Art Gallery. 

 'Like us' at www.facebook.com/sunnyvaleartgallery for updates and to raise our 'like' count!

Write a positive review on yelp.com ;)

Send suggestions to make this place better to: tim@sunnyvaleartgallery.com 

Love and Gratitude.

next door neighbors

Meet Santiago's Tailoring, Cleaning and Fitting Boutique store!
Whether it's alterations, custom tailoring or resizing, they seriously put detail and quality in their works and we love the staff there!

Click here to visit their website 


Also next door to us is Nova Salon & Spa!
There not just a nail salon and spa but they do hair, facials and other services. Open 7 days a week, the lovely ladies at Nova will truly have you feeling well pampered!

Give them a call at (408) 720-8314 for more information!

New Year- New Show!

Happy New Year from all of us at Sunnyvale Art Gallery!

We have great things lined up for 2012 and we have feeling, it's going to be the best year ever

With the new year, comes a brand new show.
Our January show celebrates local artists! All original work and you won't believe it until you see the quality and detail these artists put into their creations
The show features many artists who have shown here before but we are proud to present to you two new artists! (More coming!)

Robert DuVall who specializes in Gouache (that's pronounced goo-ahsh) brings a new kind of medium to our gallery! Gouache is opaque watercolor! Cool! 

Wilbur Hamilton brings in a new batch of watercolors! We know there are watercolor fans out there

So bring your friends, family or a neighbor to your local Sunnyvale Art Gallery! 

need a wine consultant?

We love to meet new people so we're thrilled to introduce you to Pat Mercedes (aka the wine guru) who started coming to our gallery cafe as part of a small networking group. She's hosted a wine tasting here and teamed up with jewelers and other wine professionals! She knows her stuff. She knows food comparisons, what's good, what's not and where you can get ultimately great deals! She can literally bring the wine country to your home and do a wine demo, wine consulting and even make custom wine labels! 

We received this awesome wine with her company label and we love it! 

Check out her website: Grab Your Glass and refer her to anyone who you might know wants to do a corporate/social wine tasting or purchase wine bottles! :) 

bringing back the board games

when was the last time you played board games?
 Here at the Sunnyvale Art Gallery we've got a wide selection of games from the classics of Monopoly, Guess Who, Clue to puzzles, Sudoku and Chess!

Oh we forgot to mention we also have coloring and crayons (relive your childhood!)

Perfect with friends or for family night!
We recommend a nice cup of tea or hot chocolate!

WATCH "Where the Canvas happens"

The Canvas which is our open mic posted a video yesterday and it is a must see video! The 2 year anniversary is only a few weeks away and it is going to be one big celebration! 

We hope to see you at our next Open Mic which will be Thursday, January 5th! Spread the word to your friends who are performing artists. We welcome all talents and love meeting new comers to our place! If you don't feel quite ready to perform don't worry just come on by sit back and relax hey it might just inspire you to go in front of the mic

See you there!

green tea latte please

It is officially the week of Christmas! with all the chaos of Christmas shopping stop in our cafe and enjoy a delicious hot green tea latte. It's the perfect drink before a weekend of apple cider, eggnog and alcoholic beverages.

We use mighty leaf Matcha powder. You can spice it up by adding almond, vanilla or peppermint syrup.

Cheers!

and the winners are...

This year Sunnyvale Art Club's People Choice Award is a three way tie!
When you come into the gallery, you were given the chance to vote for your favorite painting, well the ballots were all tallied up and not one, not two but three winners were chosen!

Congratulations to Elvy Vera (left painting)- "Brussels- The Metropole"
Congratulations to Bernard Mont-Reynaud (middle painting)- "The Journey"
Congratulations to Suzanne a'Becket (right painting)- "Logging Off"

We invite you to come see their work along with many more members from the Sunnyvale Art Club. Their work will be up on display till the end of the month!

Neighborhood love

We call them the Saturday morning crew
They call themselves the Taffe St. Flashmob
I think that sounds much better!

What started off with just a couple of people drinking coffee on a Saturday morning developed into a community hangout spot for one local neighborhood... We welcome you Taffe St! (Not all of them are from there)

Our gallery sits right between Frances Street and Taffe Street on El Camino Real  so if you live on those streets and haven't been to our place before, what are you waiting for? Just walk here!

We have gotten so used to their presence, their bubbly personalities, walking in asking for breakfast and coffee that we even have a sandwich named after one of them. Introducing the ANNE
 
A bagel sandwich with avocado, tomato, onions, cream cheese and sprouts.
You can choose with or without egg and some prefer cheddar cheese oppose to cream cheese.

These Sunnyvale residents sure know how to have a great laugh, I promise you they don't bite and are super friendly. We open at 9AM on Saturdays so come grab a bite, a cup of joe and browse through our art magazines and books. 

Open Mic Thursday December 15th Recap!

A big thank you to everyone who came out to Open Mic tonight. It's 11:00pm on this cold chilly night but that doesn't seem to stop these performers. There's a constant flow of vibrant energy in this room. We had 16 performances total, 6 being first time performers at The Canvas! We had an assortment tonight: singing, guitar, violin and guitar duet (it was awesome) and a bit of comedy and beat box.

Mark your calendars for The Canvas 2nd Anniversary, Thursday January 19th! It will be a night you don't want to miss. I hear it will be epic!

All videos from tonight's performances were recorded and will be on the Sunnyvale Canvas YouTube page in a few days.
From everyone here at The Canvas, we wish you a great holiday season and will see you at our next Open Mic which will be Thursday, January 5th!

Cheers!

Miniature Art Show!

Calling all Artists to participate in a Miniature Art Show!

In March 2012, the Sunnyvale Art Gallery will be hosting a fundraiser for the Sunnyvale Community Services.

We are asking for donations of original artwork to put on display for an exhibit of miniatures.

Visitors of the gallery will be able to purchase raffle tickets to bid on their favorite artworks. At the end of the show there will be a drawing for each artwork.

100% of the proceeds from the raffle will be going to the Sunnyvale Community Services and their continuous effort to help homelessness and hunger for low-income families and seniors facing temporary crisis. The Sunnyvale Community Service have been around since 1970 and have impacted thousands of families.

We hope you can spread this event to your friends and families!

Participating artists will:

• Have their donated artwork displayed during the month-long show
• Be acknowledged both inside Sunnyvale Art Gallery and on the website
• Be invited to receptions for the show
• Be considered for the "People's Choice Award" given to the artworks that receive the top number of raffle tickets, including $100, $75, and $50 gift certificates towards art supplies for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, respectively. 

Requirements
1) Create a miniature artwork. Maximum size for 2-D works is 6x6" or 5x7" with a maximum frame size of 10x10". Maximum size for 3-D works is 5x5x5". Smaller sizes are fine and all mediums are welcome!

2) Complete a form which you may pick up at the Sunnyvale Art Gallery

3) Please bring your artwork into a bag and drop off at the Sunnyvale Art Gallery

You must be age 18 years or older
Only 1 artwork per artist; a maximum of 200 artworks will be accepted. All entries must be received no later than January 15, 2012.

If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Alvarez-Horine at sv.minishow@gmail.com

mmm mocha

nothing beats drinking a nice hot delicious mocha. Whoever thought of the concept chocolate and coffee is genius. For those of you that don't know what a mocha is, it is made with chocolate sauce, espresso shots and steamed milk. Your choice of whip cream or not! (Although let's face it having it with whip cream makes it a whole lot prettier)

In addition to regular chocolate sauce we offer sugar free mocha as well!
If you feel adventurous try it with a shot of hazelnut, peppermint or cinnamon!

Enjoy!