2022 Paintings

 

Happy New Year to all of you. This video contains almost all the paintings I have done in the year of 2022. As matter of fact, I do not consider I personally did all those paintings. They are all manifestations of the Devine. Usually, people talk about the new year’s resolution at this time. We want to use what we’ve learned and hope to correct the path of life toward a better direction. 2022 is a special year for the world, and it is the first year after I survived the cancer. I have learned tremendously. If I consider to have a new year resolution, I will say I will try my best to live. Business, career, and personal achievements are all start to fade away. The only thing left is sincerely living. Be a sincere witness with gratitude to experience the beauty of the real Art of the universe.

Surgeons at Work

 

I hope all of you have had a great Christmas. I want to share a painting with you today, which is a 24" x 30" figurative and narrative painting . I also made a short video to document the painting process. For this relatively large painting, I do not have enough experiences, especially figurative work. To get the proportion correctly is the major challenge. I want to say that the apps I have on my website have really helped me to see better. This painting took me more than ten days to do. I have learned quite a bit.

DIY Solar System for Off the Grid Living

 

First of all, I want wish all of you a Merry Christmas. Hope you all are healthy, happy, and peaceful. Today's post is not about art. Perhaps you have noted that I have been crazy about video making lately. I am trying to vlog (video blog) what I do and what I see. Many years ago, I have talked about how important of leaving engineering and and choosing art, which I really wanted to do. Having doing art for quite a while, now my journey have found its new orientation. I am no longer consider art as a career or business. It is simply something I enjoy doing. Having reached the age of retirement, I have realized now it is the time for LIVING. It is not necessary to label ourselves specifically any more. Engineers or artists are all those specific labels. The purpose of our lives is not to make those labels bigger and shinier. The real purpose (if we think we really need one) is to know who we are. My friends, please enjoy your life and be really living!

 Some of my still life paintings will be shown on the January 2023 issue of the American Art Collector Magazine. I have received copies of magazine this morning and made (my first time) a YouTube Short video to brag about what I have done. I have been keeping telling myself that bragging is not a good thing since the ego is the source of all suffering. I think I will suffer for sure because I had this bad karma today.

The Day of the Dead

 

It is almost Christmas, but my time is still at Halloween. I am still posting my EPAT paintings.  I was at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art, and it happened to be the Day of the Dead celebration. I don't think I am ready to talk about death, but that day was all about it. I really liked the attitude of the Mexicans toward death. The celebration was quite joyful. Colorful skulls and skeletons were all over the place. People wore colorful cloths and danced happily. Children got their faces painted like skulls. Death we usually think is a sad thing, but the atmosphere that day was quite the opposite.  I still felt reluctant to relate death to happiness, but I start to accept the mortality is significantly important. Our planet is finite. If we all were immortal, there would be no places for us to stay. I painted a small roadside memorial that day. I kind of like it, but of course no collectors want to touch it. That was all right. My wife took quite a few photos and video clips. I made a YouTube video with them to document this lively dead day.

Solo Show

 

I am happy to announce my first solo show at the InSight Gallery in Fredericksburg Texas. It is a new milestone for me. Please visit Qiang's Solo to see the paintings in the show. It has been eleven years since I left my engineering career and became an artist. I have been experienced and learned a lot. My general feeling about these 11 years is appreciation. I have met so many wonderful people, got so many wonderful opportunities, and visited so many wonderful places. The only thing I want to say is THANK YOU. I am so fortunate.

Still life study 112722

 

I hope all of you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I have completed all my planned art business activities. Now I am in the learning mode again. With this still life painting study I have tried combining acrylic and oil together. I did my underpainting wash with acrylic inks, then I painted oil on top. I really like the acrylic inks. They are transparent and dry super fast. So I don't worry about the under painting darks contaminating my foreground colors. They are water based so I can wet my canvas with water and apply watercolor techniques. I just loved it. Applying oil on top of the acrylic has no problem. I have left massive areas of underpainting showing through to maintain an abstract quality for the background. I used a small amount of opaque paint to build the contrast of transparency vs opacity. Using a due light sources to make the colorless metal object colorful. It was so much fun going through the design process of this study.

My painting calendar 2023 is available

 

It is the holiday season again. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. As usual I have made my painting calendar for the coming new year. You can browse all the images on my NEW website.

"I did not know you have a "new" website" you might have asked me. Well, now you do. About two weeks ago, I found all my images disappeared and some funny noises showing on my sites . My web host refused to help, but only requested more money. They also refused to refund my annual renewal because it just past the 30 days. I also could not download my sites to my computer... I felt being robbed. Many hours later, I have built a new website from scratch and transferred out one of my domains. It almost has all the info. You can check my workshop schedules, buying my videos and the new calendar, and most important, you can access the Apps. Please visit my new website. If it does not work, please copy-and-paste: https://www.qhart.com . Please let me know if you think I need to improve this new site. Friends, no matter how old and no tech savvy we are, we will learn. Life can be improved with you own hands and brains.

Sunset at the Block 1

 

I painted the downtown San Angelo (locals call it the Block 1) late afternoon on October 26, 2023. It was quite an experience. The perspective was not hard, but it was very time consuming to make all the buildings look right proportionally. The light was moving super fast and the bright sun was shinning right into my eyes. I was blind by the strong light and hardly could identify any local colors. At the last moment of the sunset. The colors was so beautiful, but the brightness of the light faded so fast and my palette got dark so quickly and it was hard to identify and mix the right colors. Can we really capture the genuine colors on a sunset painting with a plein air approach?  I doubt it. However, the easy part of sunset painting is the colors do not have to be "genuine". The color scheme is so simple. The chroma is high, and the local colors have been dominated by the light source colors. If you have painted a few times, you will find the freedom in this apparently difficult subject.

Blooming with hope

 

A homeless woman stood nearby watching I painted this rose. She was so fascinated with excitement. Perhaps it was her first time seeing a plein air painter at work. She told me she had learned some art when she was in jail. She really liked it. But she had never practiced because life is too hard for her. She has no money and no place to stay. Only thing she got is cancer. My wife gave her a few dollars. She said she will go to the Dollar store and get some colors and brushes. She will make a painting before she die and will give it to her daughter who lives far far away. With her beautiful hope, she left the rose garden. I finished this small "mini pearl" painting for EPAT, and named it "Blooming with Hope".... I woke up in the night. It was cold and raining outside. I thought about that homeless woman. I hope she found a relatively warm place to stay, and art...That might be too luxurious for her. 

Funky Chicken

 

I didn't know why I painted this one. I was in a plein air show and knew this wouldn't sell. I was in this so called "Chicken Farm", which is a artsy studio area. Everything here are so corky. I must have been in a whimsical mood. It was quite amusing when people saw me painting this. Much laughter went with my funky entertainment. I hope you can laugh as well when seeing my today's post.

Cool Clear Water

 

Waterlilies is always my favorite subject to paint in San Angelo. I love the International Waterlily Garden. Waterlilies give me endless freedom to design. I don't need to follow specific pads or flower to obtain the realistic presentation. I was looking for all the opportunities to combine multiple kinds of pad distribution patterns and involve different types of texture to create my composition. This painting has won two awards: the Waterlily Award and the 3rd Place of EPAT competition. I feel so fortunate and happy. I have made a video to document this painting endeavor. 

A Quiet Morning

 I was late when I arrived at downtown San Angelo on October 25. Most of the artists there had already engaged their painting project a while ago, but I have a complete blank in my mind. I drove around several blocks, but I still could not decide what to paint. Finally I ended up to a location quite far away from the iconic downtown area. I did this small oil sketch. The scene is a little too empty, but the geometric design wasn't too bad. The lighting was pretty good, but it moved too fast. I think the true spirit of plein air painting is maintaining cool when you know you are completely out of control.

New YouTube Video: Painting on a Texas Ranch

 

I have made a YouTube video to document my ranch stay. Making video is my new endeavor. The media source is simply my and my wife's phone. I use Photos app and DaVinci Resolve to edit and cut. I got background music from YouTube. I am learning little by little to streamline the required time to generate the video. The monetization part is tricky. I have almost made it to earn a couple of bucks a month ago, but now I came back to zero since my channel does not have enough viewing hours to qualify. That is not important. The important part is to get my information to you. As a matter of fact, it has a lot of fun to generate videos. 

It is just an urn

 

This outdoor still life was the last painting I did at my ranch stay near Junction TX. I was very comfortable with this subject matter. During the painting time, the light changed from sunny to cloudy, but it didn't bother me at all. As an artist, I constantly try new things, feeling I must go beyond my current self. Now I doubt this kind of mentality is right. Why couldn't we just simply accept who we are and be comfortable with ourselves?

"Beauty at a Texas ranch

 

It was a good day with perfect temperature. I did this oil sketch. Recently, I have been pondering how to compose landscape paintings "correctly". When I started painting many years ago, I concentrated on still life and portraiture. I really like the high lights on an apple or someone's nose as my focal points. However, I hardly see any high light spots on an landscape scene. So I have lost the charm I am always looking for. To get an exciting landscape composition has been a constant challenge for me. So far I have not find my favorite landscape compositions yet. I just let my whim lead me to any landscape compositions spontaneously. In other words, I have painting intuitively when I deal with landscapes. This makes my engineering mind very uncomfortable. This composition is still whimsical, but I will figure out and get enlighten eventually.

Gentry Creek

 

The second painting during my ranch stay was "Gentry Creek". I want to thank the ranch owner Stephen for showing us his property. It was a windy day. I managed to make the painting work under the windy condition. The pile of rock by the water was so beautiful. I really like the warm afternoon sun light against the cool purplish shadows. The color at the site was so rich, but I only captured a small portion of it. The painting experience at the Gentry Creek has implied that I still have a long way to go on my journey as an oil painter.

Morning Sunshine

 

I have just come back from San Angelo TX participating the En Plein Air Texas painting competition. This event started on October 21 and ended yesterday on October 29. For the first 3 days, I stay at a Texas ranch near Junction TX. I want to thank Ramsey Koschalk for his hospitality and kindness of inviting artists staying at his ranch. I did 4 paintings there. This is first one. I emphasized the warm and cool play of the morning sun on this beautiful masonry work. I have enjoyed the curved geometry to lead our eyes from the near field to the afar background.

Susan's Garden

 

I did this painting for my friend Susan. I used a photo she provided. I examined the photo and found the elements to make the painting work. I documented my approaches and share the process with you via a YouTube video. I hope you like it.

My Neighborhood

 

I live in a typical Texas subdivision. Every morning, I like to take a walk in the neighborhood. It happens it is the time when the light is fantastic. I snapshot quite a few photos. Now I start to use them as references for painting. For this one, I emphasize the warm and cool color relationship. I hardly used green and any other local colors. The entire color scheme is dominated by the light source colors. This project helps me to develop a practical strategy for landscape paintings. I have documented my approach and made a video to share it. 

Bull Creek Plein Air

 I did this small plein air painting a week ago. A week has passed without being noticed. It seems I  did a lot this week, but it also seems I did not do much. Painting is easy, but life is much more complicated.

Small Figure Study

 

I did many landscape paintings, but I have not put figures in them very often. Now I want to study more and make myself comfortable of using figures. I post this recent small figure study combined with a video showing my step-by-step approached to do this painting. Please let me know if this video is helpful. Thanks.

Gallery Verde

 Painting figures has been my dream, and it is still my dream. I hope my life is long enough and this dream can be fulfilled. I am taking baby steps. First I want paint figures as a part of landscapes. I don't have to work on details. I just need to suggest and let viewers to fill the blanks. 

Gallery Verde is located in downtown San Angelo, Texas. It is the meeting place of the En Plein Air Texas painting competition. I am very fortunate to attend this event. I am looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new friends. 

Gardener's Storage

 Continuing the exploration of shape designs. painting looks realistic enough, but my attention was on the geometric shapes. I used to use abstractness to enhance realism. Now my way of thinking is the other way around. This "other way around" thinking will take us closer to the truth. 

New Youtube Video: Painter's Guide App Tutorial

 

I have just uploaded a new video on Youtube. It gives a comprehensive overview on how to use our Painter's Guide App. Two years have passed since our engineers and I created this app, and many people has used this app to assist their painting projects. However, I have not updated you a detailed information on the functions of this app until today.

I have used Youtube as a teaching tool for more than a decade, but I was so stupid and didn't know I can make some money from it. For So many years I posted so many videos and got so many people subscribed my channels. Do you know how much money I have made so far? The answer is ----- a big fat ZERO.... I really did not know how to set my Youtube correctly. Recently, I really learned Youtube from Youtube. So, wish me luck this time. In addition, if you can like what I did and subscribe my channel, I will really appreciate your help. 

Tuscany Geometry

 I am testing new ideas using geometric shapes to create a design. Although you may still recognize the scene as Tuscany rolling hills, but I have minimized the realistic presentation as much as possible. So the abstract geometric design was my goal. However, the color relationship I try to be as realistically correct as possible so people can see this is still a landscape painting. Since I am so new for this idea, and I will not consider this design is a really good one, but it is a good start. I have enjoyed using knifes for this painting. I hope I can push this approach to get some good paintings.

Download "Painter's Guide" app on iPad/iPhone

 

You probably already know that I have an app called the "Painter's Guide" running on my website to help artists paint better. Now I want to announce that this app can be downloaded freely to iPad and iPhone. If you go to my website > Apps > Painter's Guide (or http://www.qh-art.com/painter-s-guide-app.html), you will see the download buttons on the upper right corner. I have given detailed instructions on how to download this app on your Apple devices. We are not using Apple Store. I hope the download process is not too challenging. If it is for you, please do not hesitate to contact me. Maybe we should bite the bullet and put our apps on the Apple Store. What do you think?

Positiveness of Covid

 

Positive means bad, and negative means good. Isn't that ironic. Recently, I was tested positive for Covid 19. I have to cancel the recent OPA event, which have been planned a while ago. I sincerely apologize to OPA for the problem I have caused. This painting was planned as my demo for OPA. Now, I have done it during my isolation.

I try to look into the positive side of being Covid positive. It is a good learning experience. Humans are invincible only in the movies. The Nature (or ourselves) can destroy our "long term" civilization so easily. The purpose that we come to (or come out of, to be more exact) the world is not to prove "I am better than you", but to witness the miracles around us. So be humble, respectful, and egoless. 

Demo 2 and 3 at SLC

 

I just came back from Salt Lake City. The workshop went well. Here are all the demos I have done. I feel very grateful that I have the opportunity of teaching. I tried my best to provide tangible information when I painted my demos. 

Demo at Salt Lake City

 

I am teaching a still life painting at Salt Lake City, and this is my first demo. I hardly have any colored objects in the setup, so it is good exercise of using colorful grays. 

Specular Quartet

I usually do not paint tight paintings, and many people in my workshops expressed that they want to learn to be "painterly". However, this one is an exception. I worked on the details intensively. I have learned that a specific painting "style" is actually the limitation of the artist. If you don't mind to be "nobody", you have opened the possibility of being anybody.

Timeless Beauty

 

Peace, Happiness, Love, and Beauty are the nature of our being. They can not be gained externally. They are always here. If you still look for them, you are moving in the wrong direction, because they never leave you. The flowers bloom only for a short while, but the Beauty is timeless. Therefore, stop searching, because you are Perfect.

Silver Prismatics

 

"Silver Prismatics", 11" x 14". After exploring the unknown art world for a while, I came back to my comfort zone. I am painting still life again. As an old dog, I have had a hard time to learn new tricks. Now I am at home, enjoying my own cup of tea, laying back in the homey coziness. We love the world, but we should love ourselves first.

Backyard Apples

 

We planted an apple tree in our backyard about 15 years ago. For more than a decade, it did not bear any fruit. Finally, we saw a few apples in the summer of 2019. I took 2 photos of them and waited for them to ripe. But we are not lucky, The squirrels got them first. For then on, we have not got any apples from that tree. Our only harvest was two photos. 

I decided to paint from one of the photos. The result was not bad. I like the color opportunities and the shadow patterns casted on the fruit. I must admit this kind of heavy texture painting is not my cup of tea.  The true expert is Derek Penix. I announced Derek's Workshop in Austin recently. The registration has been very active. Now we have only 5 openings still available. So please take your action as quick as possible. 

New workshop announcement: Derek Penix 2023

 

Now we have adapted to the new norm, and I will gradually resume my usual art activities. Before Covid, I had invited well known artists to my studio to teach painting workshops. Now I am going to do that again. I am very happy to announce that Derek Penix will come and teach a 3-day workshop in Austin. Derek is such a phenomenal artist that his expressive brushwork has inspired so many people. I have been so amazed to see how he can paint so freely and abstractly but still be able to represent whatever subjects he paints so accurately, vividly, and dramatically.  I wish I could have that kind of skills in my art. So this will be a great opportunity we can learn from the master. If you are interested in taking Derek's workshop, please check: http://www.qh-art.com/derek-penix-2023.html for detailed information and sign up. I know the time is still early, but this workshop will be full in a very short time. So please take an action quickly. 

Sunset at a campground

 

It is the last day of July today. I am so grateful that I have had a full month of painting time. It was so much fun to be lost in the wilderness and painting something that I don't have much experience with. I feel the last sentence of my previous post might have been misleading. I don't mean I want to destroy art or give up painting.  I was trying to say that the process of creating art is actually impersonal. I should not label that I (Capitalized) created that painting. As a matter of fact, every time I stepped into my studio, I really don't know how that painting will turn out. The best approach is simply going with the flow. I often feel surprised when the painting happens. That is right: "Happening" is the word I am looking for. If you are an artist, have you had similar experience? 

The last piece of sunshine

I am still wandering in the Texas wilderness. With this painting I played the game of two light sources, one warm and one cool. Many people who have seen my recent paintings made this general comment: "Qiang, that does not look like your paintings any more". I agree absolutely. It is what I mean that I have lost my identity. I often ask myself why I paint. The reason is very simple: I want to be recognized. I feel good if I have got recognized. I feel I have accomplished something. That makes my life meaningful. Painting is the second face of mine, and the paint on it is the makeup. I want to my paintings look good so I can hide my weakness in other part of my life. However, I have understood now that my ego is the biggest trap of my life. I have lost my freedom with it, and I feel the hesitation to come out of my comfort zoon. I am suffering because of all the limitations I have. I have made my art. Now it is the time to destroy it.

Two Trees

 After I give up my identity, I feel I am lost in the woods. The senses of freedom and lack of security combined, my art path has led me to the big unknown. I suddenly realized I genuinely know nothing. Having a brain is a serious disease. If you let it go, you will get it.

Hot Summer in Palo Duro Canyon

 The purpose of this painting was for me to learn and practice on how to paint shrubbery and grass. I used to use random brush works to hide my lack of knowhows when encountering brushy and grassy area. Then I will say I just want the area abstract so it will not compete with the center of focus. This time is different. I selected a ref photo which has a large area of shrubbery and I spent about 7 days on this painting and most of the time I have worked on those green areas. I will not say I have got those shrubs nailed, but I have gained some experiences. This is a relatively large painting. My green colors are still a little boring. As a piece for learning, I feel content. 

Workshop Reminder

 

I will teach a 3-day still life painting workshop at Salt Lake City, Utah from August 26 to August 28.  This workshop is almost full, but we still have 3 openings. If you are interested in the way I paint, Please check: https://www.workshopslc.com/schedule/still-life-painting-with-qiang-huang for information and sign up.

"Rock Solid"

 

This is a painting I created recently. You might have noticed from my recent paintings that I have gradually lost my style and even identity. The painterly brush works and the dramatical ways of using light are disappearing.

Here is the reason. I reviewed my art career and found that I have been spending more time as a teacher than as a student. I have found that so many things in art I don't know. The month of July is very special for me. I have not arranged any outside activities. The only thing I want to do is to paint and learn. You have seen I painted so many new things the first time recently: lotus, detailed trees, aspens, and rocks. I will keep on trying new things.

Since my sickness, I have realized that all things related to my ego, like reputation and so called "success" are actually meaningless. Moreover, It is not only meaningless, but a stronger ego is more harmful. Because the ego is the source of all suffering. Most of us live our lives based on a false belief that we are individuals separated from each other, and have a limited time on this planet. We are not perfect, so we need to work hard to improve ourselves. So our ego grows day-by-day. We feel that is the major motivation and that is the meaning of our lives. Now I don't believe this anymore.

Cool Breeze Through Aspen

 

First time painting aspen. I have enjoyed it very much. The photo was taken last year in Utah. It was a cloudy day after a storm. The color temperature distribution had cooler light and warmer shadow. I like the color purple. It reminds me the cool weather in the parks. Austin was 107 F yesterday. It will be similar today. It is just another hot day in Texas.

Calmness

 

Did another boat painting. The scene was at Lake Martin, Alabama. I did a plein air demo at the site. Now at home, I used a photo and did a studio one. I enjoyed painting the water. It reflects so many colors. 

Nature's Way

 

Painting a tree in detail is my first time. I usually paint trees as background to support a center of focus, but this time I just want to do a tree painting. I thought painting a tree is not as interesting as painting a building or a figure, but the result makes me want to paint more trees. The scene was at the Lake Summerville State Park in Texas.

Afternoon at Tilghman Island

 

Happy 4th of July to all of you. The month of July is the time of Plein Air Easton, which is the event marked the starting point of my plein air painting journey a few years ago. Unfortunately, I am not attending Plein Air Easton this year. I did this small boat painting based on a photo I took from one of the previous Easton events. I really enjoy painting boats. The graceful curvatures, the color echoing of the water reflections, the illusive foreshortening of the perspective, and the vertical and horizontal rhythms of masts, posts, and the horizontal structure in the far field, are a few aesthetical elements of the marine paintings. 

Lotus at Mayfield

 First time painting lotus leaves. The green is intense. I have to use Cad unfortunately. I have tried to tackle the color of green, but so far I still have not got it completely. Of course I can say: I go with the flow, or I painted intuitively, but .... I will continue to work on it until someday.

Wild West

 

As an artist living in Texas, I need to paint cactus. I was at San Angelo State Park in June last year. It was the season that cactus bloomed wildly. I am glad I took a few photos with my phone. Now I have this studio painting done. By the way, I am preparing for a solo show in this December. This one will be shown in Fredericksburg, TX.

Demo at Dahlonega GA

 

It has been more than two months since I posted previously on my blog, Facebook, and my painting email. I have received emails from my art friends asking if I am doing OK. I am so sorry I have not been up to the date on the Internet. I have to admit that I have been slowing down since my health issue last fall. Besides that I also have some IT challenges. I am in a transition time of moving out of Mac and going into the PC system. Without adequate know-how in computers, I am having a hard time to manage my online activities. In any event, I sincerely apologize my delay of keeping you posted. I have been busy in art. Since March to now, I have taught 4 in-person workshops, and attended two Plein air competitions. The painting image I posted here was one of my demos at the Dahlonega workshop. BTW, I do maintain active on Instagram because it is much easier to post with a smart phone. If you have missed my posts, I highly recommend you following my on Instagram. My Instagram ID is: qiang.huang. In a nutshell, I am doing fine. I am learning about life every single day, and hope someday I will reach maturity.

Workshop reminder: May 16 -17 in Wayne

 

Teaching at Scottsdale Artists' School has given me confidence that I can go back my normal art journey. In May, I will participate the Plein Air Festival in Wayne, PA. I would like to remind you that I will teach a 2-day still life painting workshop right after the festival. If you are interest in getting a feel of my painting approach, this short workshop will be a good opportunity. Please visit the webpage: https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/wayneart/activity/search/detail/10427?onlineSiteId=0&from_original_cui=true for more info and sign up. Thanks

Demos at SAS

 

I have finished my very first in-person workshop after my medical treatment. I felt very happy that everything went smoothly. I want to thank Scottsdale Artists' School for the opportunity and their special arrangement so I was able to cook for my special diet. I want to thank all the students for their support. I am grateful to my body, which educates me that human structure is much stronger than I thought. We are indivisible from the entire universe. If we can see through the illusive ego, we are actually Divine.  

A day of gray

 I admit I don't have much of experience of painting this kind of white flowers, so I struggled, but I did enjoy playing with the gray colors. Life is not always colorful, we had so many gray days. Sometimes, I feel depressed, and scared. They are all parts of life. We might not always feel happy and comfortable, but those gray days teach us. They are opportunities of learning. I say thanks to my gray days. 

Eternal Glory

 

This painting has been done from the same bouquet of flowers for my previous floral work. There has been 9 days in between. I am so amazed that all those flowers did not collapse and die. I am even more amazed that most of them have even held their original shape for those 9 days without opening too big. The reason could be that they stayed in the dark most of the time because my studio is in the garage now. The existence of time is the biggest lie that we have believed.  The truth is that "Now" is eternal.

Life Manifestation

 

My obsession of painting flowers continues. I feel they really manifest the true meaning of Life. Beauty, freedom, egoless, and being at the present moment. They come and they go. They maybe short lived, but they exist forever.

Alive and Blooming

I named this painting: "Alive and Blooming". We are alive. We take this for granted until one day. Most people know it only theoretically, but some know it experientially. All those beautiful roses who modeled for me have passed away. They have demonstrated what "alive" means vividly in a very short period of time. However, we don't feel sad when those roses die, because we think flowers as entire species. Those individual roses have passed, but more will come. Similarly, if we don't emphasize too much our individuality, we will be a part of the eternity.