"Ready to Perform"

This painting will be shown in this gallery

Today is the last day of 2010. At this moment I am so grateful to all of you, my dear artist friends. Thank you so much for your inspiration, your support, and your encouragement. I don't feel lonely because you are with me. I paint regularly because of you. I progress consistently because of you. Everyday, I receive so many feedbacks through my blog, from my Facebook friends, and via emails. I am sorry I did not reply to you individually. However, I read all of them. Your words warm my heart. You keep me going.

2010 is a good year to me. My art has improved significantly. My workshops brought me wonderful opportunities to meet new friends and travel to many places I have not been before. My business in art have become more solid. Of course, there were difficulties. I have learned many lessons. In the coming 2011, I will try harder. I sincerely hope 2011 will be a better year for all of us. I wish all of you the best luck in 2011.

Happy New Year!

"Specular"

I am continuing on my gallery paintings. This one I was concentrated on presenting the glossy surface of the copper kettle. A specular surface does not have a specific local color. You must consider the influence from the surrounding colors in terms of reflections. No matter how busy the reflections are, the form of the object must be accurate to produce a convincing representation. It was challenging, but it was fun.

Workshops in January

Dear my artist friends,

2011 is around the corner. In January, I will teach two 3-day workshops:

January 7 - 9 at Houston Civic Art Association, Houston, TX

January 28 - 30 at Capital Art Center at S12, Sacramento, CA

At this moment, we still have several openings for both workshops. If you are interested in my approaches of still life painting, please click here and contact my workshop organizers to get information and sign up. I am looking forward to meeting you.

"Onion Study" --- Sold

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These several days, I enjoyed the true daily painting experience. I painted everyday and posted everyday. I wish I could keep my art practice like this, but my crazy life will start again after New Year. I don't think I can keep an controlled life pattern like this. I studied painting onion today emphasizing on the volume contrast. I want to generate the feeling of the mass of the onion body in contrast to the thin peels: heavy vs. light, regular shape vs. irregular shapes, Freshness vs. dryness, live vs. death. Wow!

"Christmas Star"

My Christmas moment has been solidified into this poinsettia fulfilling my time-to-space transformation. I display this temporal memory eternally with chemicals adhering on fabric. Cadmium and Pthalo sprout organically and bloom into dazzling photons. Time is linear toward infinity, and circle back endlessly. This is my Christmas. This is my celebration.

"Holiday Time" --- Sold

We are back from Arkansas. I did this gallery painting. I need to accumulate a batch of paintings for quite a few shows coming in 2011. It is Christmas Eve today. I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas at this moment. Different from most of you, I didn't grow up celebrating Christmas. I learned about Santa Clause from my English class when I was 20 years old. I had a few American English teachers when I was in college. I still remembered my first Christmas party. Our English class decorated a classroom. I drew Santa with color chalk on a blackboard. The image was copied from a card given by our teacher. We played Christmas songs with a cassette player. We all spoke in English at the party. It was really exotic I felt. At that time, America was so far away, so foreign, and so mysterious. I didn't know I would go there and had spent a half of my life time there (here to be exact) already. Life is full of surprises, but every moment has its meaning. I am going to keep painting tomorrow, because it is the most celebrating and enjoyable time I can have.

"Arkansas Countryside"

I am in Hot Springs, AK. There are quite a few crystal mines. Song and Jonathan went to digging crystals. I am not really interested in that. So I set up my easel and did a plein air sketch. It was so cold, but I enjoyed what I was doing. Here is what I did. BTW, I sent out quite a few calendars from this small Arkansas town. I am sending this message from a McDonald's.

"Orange Dance" --- Sold

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This a couple of days, Song and I was so busy shipping and handling the calendars. It took me a while to figure out a systematic way to handle a huge amount of shipping without making mistakes. Song and I spent a lot time in the post office. I still have quite a few calendars have not been sent out yet. I apologize if some of you could not receive the calendar before Christmas. We will do better next year.

I started do more larger paintings now. I plan to join a group show next spring. To a part-time artist like me, it is not practical to do major shows in a gallery, but I will give it try and see how it goes. The painting for today is a small one I did some day this week. I have forgot when exactly I did it. What a crazy life I have!

I am going to do traveling during the holidays. In case I don't have a chance to post again, I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!!!

"Tea for You" --- Sold

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Last Sunday, a group of my students came and requested me doing a demo on painting draperies. I have not done drapes for a while, but I would like to give a try. So I did this small painting. Do you know what kind of drapery material I like the best? Well, I like to cut a white T-shirt. This material makes the best fold patterns I enjoy.

"Small Red Vase" --- Sold

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I have received overwhelmingly amount of orders of my 2011 calendar. In less than a day, I have exhausted all my inventory. I have placed a back order and hope to receive the new batch in 3 days. So please be patient with me. I will send out your orders as soon as possible. Thank you so much for your interest and support of my art.

I did this small painting after I did the violin painting. I really like the rich red color on the orange through the transparent red glass. I hope you like it too.

"My 2011 Calendar"

Click Here to Purchase

I have made a desk calendar for 2011 with 12 of my painting images. They are $6.00 each plus $2.50 for shipping. You may check the images I chose and/or purchase by click above link. Please enjoy and have a very happy holiday season.

"Classical Moment"

I owe quite a few my friends violin paintings. Now it is the time to do some. This task was a difficult one. I did this painting with 4 sessions in two days. I still not used to paint in multiple sessions, especially the second day. Every session, I almost had to paint entire painting on top of the previous one, because I can't stand to see dry spots. I start to use a lot of medium on the second day. I think we have discussed before about painting in the second day. I should have used retouch varnish to bring back freshness, but I didn't do that. I just painted over. This painting is very dark. I am in the middle of testing new lights, and I did illuminate my canvas too bright. Oh boy, I had a lot of struggle, but the paintings comes out all right, I think.

"Old Time for Coffee" --- Sold

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I got so many responses for my previous post. Your words warmed my heart. I am sorry I can't write back to all of you, but I really really appreciate your kindness. Thanks a lot.

I did this painting yesterday. I want to paint a still life without round objects in it. I had done so many of them and get a little tired. This old coffee grinder got my interest. I like the subtlety in color and texture in old objects. I didn't do much of composition design this time and did it more like a portrait. I plan to do a large painting with this item in it in the future. This painting is my small scale study.

"Spirit of a Lotus"

I don't have a painting for you today, but I want to share some thoughts. Yesterday, I had a medical checkup. The doctors put me into sleep. I lost about one hour of my life, but I didn't feel a trace of discontinuity of my consciousness. Has anything happened? I perfectly didn't know. This makes me ponder. Is time real? Is life a delusion? I have no clue.

I had a friend passed away recently in Huntsville, AL, and today is her funeral, probably at this moment I am writing. I am so sorry I can't attend. The last time I saw her was in October. She has been in a coma for 4 years. Life was very hard for her and her family. She was a very dear friend of mine like a mother. I stayed with her when I was a university student. She took care of me in any small details. I remembered she refrigerated my toothbrush every night to prevented gems getting to me. I felt sad when I saw her in a coma. I feel sad she is no longer with me. I ponder more. Is life a delusion? I think I have some clue.

I have this lotus flower bestowed on my friend. I hope our life is like a lotus. We started in a chaotic world like mud. We went through difficult times. but we should always remain conscious, practice and nourish our spirit, and purify our mind, like the lotus grow through water. Until someday, we will make it to the surface, and bloom splendidly with a spectacular beauty.

"Anderson Mill" --- Traded with an Artist

Anderson Mill is an historical marker not far from where I live. When Calvin Liang was here. He painted at this location twice. It is nice and rustic place. I did this plein air painting a while ago when I have a lot of computer problems. After Thanksgiving, I have been super busy with my engineering job, and haven't got a chance to paint yet. So I post this one for you.