"A Peach" --- Sold

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I just can't stop painting fruit. Apples, pears, grapes, plums, and so on, they are my color carriers. Today is the peach. My son is addictive to peaches. He can eat them without stop. There are only three people in my family, but we consume more than 30 lbs. of fruit each week.

"Being Preserved" --- Sold

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The odd shaped tomato is about 7 days old. It is from our yard. The Ball jar is more than 70 years young I think. An artist friend of mine Kathleen McElwaine loan it to me to paint. I like the contrast of these two objects, and the relationship between them. I think painting is a way of preserving time. It establishes the relationship between the current moment and eternity.

"Sweet Colors" --- Sold

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Can a color be tasted? Maybe not, but beautiful colors give us such an enjoyment very similar to the experience of tasting a sweet fruit. As a matter of fact, the fruit on this image provided both wonderful sensations to me, because I ate them after I painted them.

"Copper Kettle"

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A friend of mine loaned me this hand made copper kettle to paint. At our technology-flooded age, I still enjoy more hand made stuff. I admire astonishingly the craftsmanship created by human hands. When I touch this copper pot, I can feel the relationship between its creator and me.

"A Pair of Pears" --- Sold

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Pear in Chinese symbolizes leaving, separating, or going to a place far from home. I had this "pear" feeling last night. As many of you, I watched the Olympic Marathon at my American home. Through my HD TV screen, I really enjoyed Beijing, A city I spent 24 years in this place. Following the athletes from all over the world, I saw the place I was born, the place I spent my childhood, and the building my parent still live in. I felt I was at home.

"On a Glossy Surface"

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Newton first law of motion says: Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by force impressed. For these two weeks. I have been in a slow motion mode and have not painted as frequent as I used to. According to this Newton guy, I have to apply a force to get my momentum back. Oh boy, that is not easy.
Well, Forgive my excuse in terms of classical physics. On this painting I am continuing working on reflections. This light effect has been trademarked by many landscape painters. I think it works well with still life as well. Don't you think so?

"Fruit Pyramid" --- Sold

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It has been more than a week since my last post. The Olympics is so exciting to watch that it overwrites my painting time. Finally, I got a chance to paint yesterday, and here you go.

My main idea of this painting is the reflections of the light. The setup was on a glossy surface. I really enjoyed painting the red light surrounding the apple. Actually, this setup was done by my wife, Song. I don't think I could do this. I think the apple and pear are competing for being the center, and the vertical edge of the pyramid destroys the setup continuity. Well, She is the boss. I can't argue with her. Surprisingly, the painting turns out not bad. I think it demonstrates that rules are made to be broken.

"Afternoon at the Mission"

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I spent last several days and did this gallery level painting. It feels so different doing landscapes than still lifes. It was fun. I thought I would take a break, but I just couldn't. I am so behind in satisfying my galleries requests. Oh, by this way I am going to show a painting at the OPA Western regional exhibition in September.

I am not going to paint tonight. I will watch the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. I was told that there were painting related performance in it.

"Mission San Jose 1" --- Sold

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Under the harsh Texas Sun, I have been burnt out. On my still-life stand, grapes have turned into raisins. I am not very productive lately. Maybe it is the time, I should consider take some days off for a vocation.

I have received many emails and comments on my last post. I greatly appreciate peoples giving me so many suggestions on how to re-fresh a painting. I really am grateful to this artist community.

I hope my post today give you a fresh feeling. I have not done much of landscape paintings for about two years. Recently, I received quite a few requests from galleries and individual as well about my landscapes. Even I am not experienced painting landscapes, but it does not hurt to give it try. So I did this small painting as a warm up.

I really like San Antonio Missions. So many great artists have painted them. I did some plein air at the location as well. But this one is from a photo I took two years ago.