"Morning Calm" --- Sold

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2008 has been a remarkable year, for the two countries I call home, I shed tears for the victims of the devastating earthquake, I cheered the spectacular Olympics, I was excited to see the historical election, and I shared the pain of the collapsed economics. The world is like a Jackson Pollock’s painting. I feel myself like a small insect holding on a piece of leaf floating on a vast sea full of excitements and turmoil.

It has been a good year for me as an artist. Without much of the professional training, I have jumped into the art world. Far from maturity, but I had made some progress. With the great Internet, I shared my joy and frustration with you. With your uninterrupted support, I have been inspired and encouraged to surf the art waves.

At this New Year’s Eve, my small boat is docked. The water is calm; the air is misty. I am having a sweet dream….. without aware of that 2009 is just around the corner and the new challenges are approaching.
Thank You and Happy New Year !!!

"Hide and Seek 2"

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This is another mid size painting maintaining the painterly look of my small ones. I used this composition before, but I really like it and decided to paint it again. I used very big brushes (2" wide) to do this. I may have to use brooms and mops if I paint a 30" x 40". If you like to paint large, do you use very large brushes? Would you tell me what kind of large brushes you like and where you get them?

"Feel the Heat" --Sold

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You might have noticed that I have been illuminating my still life setups from the very same direction since the very beginning. That is because I use the same light to illuminate both the setup and my canvas. It worked and I didn't bother to change it until this one. I finally setup one more light so I can separate the setup and canvas illumination. What a revolution it is to me! From the almost back-lit setup, I see so many beautiful colors within the shadow in form of reflections. It reminds me sitting by a camp fire seeing the red hot flames glowing on everybody's faces. So feel the heat.

"Red and Black" --- Sold

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I am back to my still life painting again. This one is so typical of my small painting style. Do you see anything new on this one? If you say no, I will get my purpose fulfilled. The truth is: this painting is not that small. It is a 12" x 16". I am working on the paint quality today. I want to see my large paintings as painterly as my small ones.

"Happy Holidays"

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Happy Holidays to all of you. No matter where you are, and what type of religion you have, please enjoy the merriest time of the year. I cannot send a card to every one of you, so please accept this image as my best holiday wishes to you. I want thank you for your uninterrupted support, inspiration, and guidance to my art. Without your help, it is not possible for me to keep my daily painting practice going. I really appreciate it.

"South Wind" --- Sold

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It is pretty cold these a couple of days. So I did this one trying to bring some south wind to warm you up. This is not plein air. It is from a photo I took at Rock Port, TX in spring. I loaded the photo on my laptop and put it on my still life stand. Maybe we can call it computer plein air.

You know I was having problems earlier of painting darks on top of lighter colors, and many of you provided me tips. Through few studies I find a way I like, and practised on this one. I thin the sky color with turp and paint it on first, it dries pretty fast. Then I paint darks on top. It works well for me. So thank you for your help.

BTW, the murder whom the police was searching for last weekend killed himself. His body was found two days after my last plein air day.

"Oaks in a Park" --- Sold

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Last Saturday I went to plein air painting again. When I arrived at the small park where I did my first plein air of the year, I saw more than a dozen police cars on the parking lot. There was even a police trailer with several cages for search dogs. Later on I was told that there was a murder at large in the area. That is a part of plein air painting. You never know what you will encounter at the painting site. I did this oil sketch on a picnic table while the criminal might be lurking in the nearby woods.

Workshop Reminder

Upon the request of my workshop organizer at Cincinnati Ohio, I would like to pass the following information to you if you are interested in taking my workshop in April 2009:

Please send $50 to hold your spot for the workshop made out to WACCF. Mail the check to Deborah Ridgley, 8326 Wetherfield Lane, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236. PLEASE SUPPLY YOUR NAME, ADDRESS AND EMAIL ALONG WITH YOUR CHECK.

If you have already sent in your reservation check but did not include your contact information, please email Deborah Ridgley at Dgrstudios@aol.com so you can receive my painting supply list.

As of December 2008, there are only 6 spots still open for this workshop.

"Rock Climbers" --- Sold

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I enjoy painting grapes, but this is my first time using grapes as my center of focus. They are full of translucent colors. The shadows on the white cup have very interesting shapes. The composition is a kind of new as well. I was pondering on my still life painting for a while and felt I need to put something new to it. I think this one works nicely.

"Ski Friends" --- Sold

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I was planned to go skiing at New Mexico around the Christmas holidays, but this morning I finally decided not going. At my engineering job, we are under a lot stress because we are approaching a major deadline. It would be very helpful if I can keep working during this holiday season. In addition I can save several more vocation days. I can roll them over to next year so I can use them for my workshop teaching. I may do more paintings as well during this time instead of wasting my time driving two days.... All these excuses sound reasonable, but the true reason I am trying to cover is that I am a LOUSY skier. Now you know.

"Morning Cedars" --- Sold

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This is my second plein air of the year. Compared with my previous one, this time was much better. It was a sunny day and I painted with a group of Plein Air Austin painters. I was still working on trees.

"Desolation"

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I did this study to practice how to paint trees. It is really difficult to paint darks on the top of lighter color background. I tried doing darks first then use lighter colors to cut off the branches, but I can't get fine twigs that way. I have to finish this painting in two sessions. I have to wait the lighter background dry enough so I can paint darks on top. Do you have a good way to do this kind of thing in one session? Please please let me know.

"Colors of White 2" --- Sold

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I have received many comments and emails after I posted my plein air painting. Many friends shared their plein air stories with me. I really enjoyed reading them. Now my regular working week started and I lost my daylight again. So I come back to my still life studies. Similar to my previous still life painting, I try to use colors to present white. My colors scheme is purple for the shadow and blue for the light. I am sure there are other good color schemes for painting white object. If you have a good one, would you mind sharing with me?