"Lonely Onion" --- Sold

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It has been two days after I came back to Austin. I have sent out all the filter orders (Sorry for the delay). Last night I resume my daily study. Here you have it.

We were in a rush when we left home for California, and this onion was left on the kitchen counter. After we came back, I found it has sprouted beautifully. So I select it as my model for my first painting during this time period I stay home. I am continuing my high key study. As a warmup session, I didn't design seriously. I like the colors in the shadow and the texture of the leaves and the onion. The color scheme is ok.

“Demo at Los Angeles 3" --- Sold

After my previous post, I have received very large amount of comments and emails. I am very happy to said I have received UNANIMOUS support and encouragement. I wish I can write back to all of you individually to thank you, but that is beyond my ability. So here I want to express my deep appreciation to all of you for supporting me, my art, and my teaching . You give me confidence to keep going. I feel the best way to say thank you is to make my art better and my teaching more effective and accessible.

My today's painting is the third demo at LAAFA. Since my teaching load has increased significantly than last year, my time used for studying is very limited. So I started to combine my exploration into my demos. In my most recent 3 workshop (Nashville, Sacramento, and LA) I did three high key demos. there is a blue tea pot in all of them. I remember I mentioned once that I want to entitle these paintings as "This Is Not My Cup of Tea", because high key is not a comfortable way for me to paint. I hope my workshop artists do not mind I do experiment in my demos. There is a risk I may fail right in front of you. So far I feel lucky. My high key still lives are progressing.

Last night I met the young master artist Jeremy Lipking. I want to thank my art friend Christy Young for introducing Jeremy to me. I have been admire his work for a long time. I had a great time in Jeremy's studio. He is such talented artist.

"Demo at Los Angeles 2" --- Sold

This is my second demo at LAAFA.

Recently, I visited a friend of mine. From the conversation with him, I have sensed something new. My friend is a very successful artist. He told me something interesting: The night before I visited him, he had a party in his house. He told everybody that he will have a visitor tomorrow. This guy was a Ph.D. in physics, but now he has quitted his job and became an artist. The party reacted unanimously: This guy is nuts. He must have a brain problem. Moreover, He is not only stupid, but also selfish and irresponsible to his family. They can not rationalize the behavior of this stupid guy. Finally, they concluded that this behavior is the symptom of the mid-age crisis.

I really appreciate the honesty of my friend. It is true that I work harder and make less, but I have never regretted I made my decision. It is not surprise some people not agree with me, but why people UNANIMOUSLY disagree with me. Maybe I am a real self-centered fool. I heard Ph.D. stands for Permanent Head Damage. So please let me know what your think. Please comment and email to me. Thanks.

"Demo in Los Angeles 1" --- Sold

I felt very good doing this demo painting. Thanks to LAAFA for organizing this workshop and thanks to all the artists for attending. I found a few unusual props here. I enjoyed very much of painting new stuff.

"Demo at Sacramento 3" --- Sold

According the request, I painted my third demo showing how to do leaves and folds on the drape. I like high key color scheme more and more now.

I have arrived at LA. Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art (LAAFA) is a very professional art school. I am very impressed by what they do here.

“Demo at Sacramento 2" --- Sold

The second demo does not have much of color. As usual, I showed how to paint a rose.

"Demo at Sacramento 1" --- Sold

This my third time teaching at Sacramento. I want to thank Patris Miller for organizing this workshop and thank all the artists for attending. This is my first demo. This year I have a very busy teaching schedule. This workshop is my 7th of the year.

Visiting Zhaoming Wu

I arrived at San Francisco a couple of days ago. I stayed with one of the best figurative master painters Zhaoming Wu. If you draw or paint figures, you must know his work. If you don't know this artist, google him right now.

"Demo in Nashville 3" --- Sold

Rules are made to be broken. So on the third day of my workshop, I showed how I destroyed the procedures I have established in the two previous days. Am I contradictory to myself? No. Artists really need both side of the brain. On one side, you need the controlled process to execute the effects you want to show. On the other hand, you don't want to be restricted by the process. You try new things and explore new territories. This demo is high key with cool color dominant. I don't usually do this kind of paintings in workshops. I have mentioned to the class: I want to entitle this painting as: "It is not my cup of tea".

"Demo in Nashville 2" --- Sold

This is the second demo. I found several "kisses" and put them in my setup. They are very decorative giving me more color opportunities for the foreground.

"Demo in Nashville 1" --- Sold

My workshop at Nashville started yesterday. I want to thank Jeanie Smith for organizing this workshop, and thanks all the artists for coming and painting with me. This is my first demonstration.

Nashville Tennessee

I have arrived at Nashville, TN. A moment ago, I took a short walk from the B&B I am staying. I stepped on the campus of the Belmont University. It is a quite a lovely place. After sunset, it was getting dark quickly. I snapped a few shots with my phone to document this visit. New place and new experience. Life is so dramatic.

I stayed at my Austin home too short, only got a chance doing one small painting. However I have got many other things done. In comparison, painting is rather easy. Life itself is much harder, and it gets more and more complicated and challenging. I keep reminding myself: I came to the world, the purpose is not to accomplish anything, but to experience the whole life process as sensitive as possible: the Time, the Space, the Change, and the Eternity.

"Blue Flower" --- Sold

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I don't know if you have noticed, when I do low key (i.e. dark background) paintings, I hardly use any cool colors with high chroma at my center of focus. I feel it does not look colorful when a cool color object against a dark background, it looks more black-&-white to me. Imagine a lime with a black drape in the back. I feel the lime look pale. However, if I put an orange against the black, it looks much more colorful. In contrast,  I did a high key painting today. I used a blank canvas as the background and high chroma blue color for my center of focus. You know what, I feel the blue showing beautifully, much better when using a dark background. From all above observations, can I generalize and say: warm colors show better with dark background, and cool colors show better with lighter background? Is there any aesthetic relationship between hue and value? Pardon me for being so ignorant, I have not heard anybody's comment about the value and hue are not independent if you want to form an appealing color design. If you know someone has documented this relationship please let me know.