About

“Owens Valley” Honorable Mention in the Landscape category for Pastel Journal Magazine’s 19th annual “Pastel !00” competition.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Mike Ishikawa is a retired architect  by profession, and a pastel painter by discovery.  During his vacations, or any time he had some free time he sketched with pen and ink, filling many sketch books with interesting places he visited .   Semi retirement allowed some time to think about new interests, which led to the world of pastel paintings. He started painting in pastels in early 2009. Learning to apply pastels with its variety of vibrant colors are unlimited, being a skier, hiker, and fisherman, painting the outdoors has been one of his passions. He  likes to create paintings that, when a viewer looks at the painting, it stirs good memories.

He uses bold bright colors, strong strokes, shades and shadows and varied textures, to create an image that is similar to the actual image, but with more interest, color  and textures. He paints as a hobby and his favorite subjects for paintings are seascapes around PV, old fishing boats, high sierras, deserts and night images of buildings.  He paints quickly and his paintings have a “painterly” quality to them.  He loves learning new techniques and is now including night scenes n his repertoire of paintings.

This year 2017. he won a Honorable Mention in the 19th annual Pastel Journal Magazine, Pastel 100 competition.  His painting was selected as one of the 100, out of 2,200 entries.  He is a member of the Southern California Pastel Society and Pacific Arts Guild.

Contact: mike1sh1@aol.com