"Refreshing" --- Sold

Click Here to Bid

It has been the longest break time to me for being not painting since I started as a so-called “daily painter”. It has been dangerously long that makes me wondering if I still know how to paint. I have to challenge this negative momentum, and now I am back. I am still in the warm up stage, but I am back. Still with my jet lag, I did this painting from 1:00 to 4:00 AM this morning. This one is from a photo I took in Beijing. Lotus flower symbolizes effort out of a difficult situation relentlessly to achieve perfection. It sounds like a daily painter’s spirit.

"Yesterday's Glory"

Click Here to Bid

After having a delicious Chinese meal, I cracked open my fortune cookie. It said: “being famous just likes a pig being big”. Wow! What a deep wisdom it is…. Well, I made this story up. However, the saying is rather well known. We all want to be successful, and work hard toward our goals. However, not everybody is aware that there will more work to do when we get there. It will be more difficult to keep in control. Michael Jackson died at ago 50. I felt very sad. He was very successful, but he lived a pretty miserable life for the last decade. I don’t consider myself successful yet, but I am on my way. Recently I have felt my life has changed quite a bit. I have spent more and more time on business, but not on art. I paint less and less. I feel I could do better, but there is no time and energy. Having a balanced life is hard to come by. Tomorrow, I am leaving USA for a month long vacation in China. I don’t know what I am expecting, but I will paint and keep you posted as much as possible. So long.

"Emptiness"

Click Here to Bid

This is my "Zen" painting. Well, be honest to you. I wasn't very "Zen" at all when I start it. I was deadly tired and the time was about 9:30 PM last night. My mind was completely blank, and I did not know what I want to paint. I scanned through my junk pile, and this small glass was glittering a beautiful blue light to me. Its chroma was so high, intense, and ptheloish (can I invent this word?). So I painted it with my 50% consciousness.

"Color Dances" --- Sold

Click Here to Bid

Hello from Salado Texas. I have just arrived at this beautiful small town. I will teach a workshop here for the next 3 days, and I will share my demo paintings will you. I have not got a chance to paint until yesterday. I did this one last night. You know apple is one of my favorite objects. I had a great fun playing colors on this small canvas. I hope you like it too.

"Brass on Red" --- Sold

Click Here to Bid

This one I was concentrated on the skills of depicting a metallic surface. The reflections on the small brass thingy were so rich. The perspective needed to be accurate for sure. I spent quite a time on it. It was a very different approach than that I used painting flowers. It was fun but tiresome.

"Queue of Grapes" --- Sold

Click Here to Bid

This one is very similar to my "Green and Purple" painting. But I was playing with the composition this time, and trying to create a viewing path with grapes. Grapes are wonderful balance adjusters in a still life painting. They are humble, shying away from being the center, but their subtle beauty always shines. They like to help each other to create a harmonious group effect, instead of being conquerors and overpowering the neighbors.

"Tulips" --- Sold

Click Here to Bid

I have tried something new last night. This is my first tulip painting. They are relatively easier to paint than other flowers I did, but I had some hard time to get a composition I like. I haven't figured out the way I feel really excited to paint tulips yet, since I don't know the flower well enough. If you know somebody painted great tulips, would you tell me?

"Green and Purple" --- Sold

Click Here to Bid

Sometimes, painting becomes wishful thinking. My last week was one of those times. I have to work overtime for my engineering job. My painting times got encroached. I finally got time to paint last night.

Green and purple are two wonderful colors I would like to use them more. They are kind of complementary, but they have similar color temperatures. Which one is cooler? Hmmm.... It depends.

"Ruby Red" --- Sold

Click Here to Bid

Having painted flowers for a while, I come back to my typical still life setup. I really enjoy seeing the translucent red color of the grapefruit, especially in the casting shadow of the green apple. The photo does not show the dramatic effect enough. It is so juicy. It is so yummy to paint.

"Lily Flames" --- Sold

Click Here to Bid

This orange lily is so vibrant that it looks it is on fire. It warms me up in these cold days.

"Red Rose"

Click Here to Bid

I have painted many roses, but this is my first time I painted a red rose, if I remembered correctly. I usually like my center of focus brighter than its background to create a glowing effect. I think it would be very difficult to do that with red roses, so I used lighter background for this one. Picking up the right red color for the rose is another difficulty. I will paint more red roses in the future and experiment with different types of reds.

I am on my way to Houston after this post. I will teach a workshop there and I will let you know how it turns out next week.

"Beauty Forever"

Click Here to Bid

Life has left these flowers a long time ago, but their beauty has been frozen so they can go beyond the limit of the time. I think it is the mission of the artists too. We capture the glimpse of the world or a sparkle of the mind, we solidify that beauty and preserve it on canvas or bronze, and then we share it with the rest of the world beyond the limit of the time (theoretically).

"Feel the Heat" --Sold

Click Here to Bid

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.

"Happy Holidays"

Click Here to Bid

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.

"Rock Climbers" --- Sold

Click Here to Bid

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.

"A Glass of Apple" --- Sold

Click Here to Bid

I have got so many responses on my post yesterday about naming a painting. Oh boy, I have learned a lot, both linguistically and culturally. Thank you'l so much, partner (got to sound like a Texan). You know I have lived in America for more than 20 years, but English has never been stopping challenging me, but I am grateful that people are very nice to me and tolerating my broken English. Meanwhile, I also got quite a few international messages. Art is a dramatic thingy. I am making friends all over of the world.