"Red and Green"

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This is dangerous. Red and green are almost complimentary. It is rather difficult to harmonize these two colors together, but I did it anyway. Do I like this color scheme? I don't know. It is kind of interesting.

"Green Yellow Scheme 050820"

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Continuing on my color scheme research. Yellow and green can be analogous, but we need to be careful. When I paint this one, I significantly tone down the chroma of the green to almost gray. If both yellow and green have high chroma, the scheme may not work. If the green is darker, it will be even worse. On the color wheel, yellow sits between orange and green, and we all know yellow and orange get along well. They can form a very harmonious analogous scheme, by why green and yellow can not getting along?

"Complementary color scheme test 050620"

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This is another test of my color research. Today's scheme is complementary colors: red and turquoise. As a matter of fact, "color scheme design" is a big topic. It does not have to have any realistic base. How should we group a set of colors together and make a good presentation? I don't have adequate amount of information to answer this question. That is one of my purposes of doing this research. The colors of my paintings (this one and previous one) are NOT from my still life setup. I got on the internet and searched for "color palettes for website designs", and decide which online palette I want to use. Then I choose objects and background drapery to match as much as possible to computer color palette. I also plot the colors on the color wheel so I know which category of schemes the set of palette belong to. So I had a complementary one today and an analogous one last time.

"Harmony with warm colors"

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This simple painting has shown the fruition of my color research. After getting deeply into color theory and measurement using math, and strategies of color mixing, now I move onto aesthetics, color psycologry and color scheme design. This one uses an analogous color scheme centered at warm yellow. It has developed from my earlier monochromatic scheme with yellow. The palette I used for this painting was burnt umber, yellow ochre, cad yellow lemon, cad yellow deep, cad orange, cad red light, quinacridone magenta, radiant red, and white. I did tested this color scheme on the computer first. Science does work.

"Still life under cool light"

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This is another daily painting exercise. I used all cool colors to obtain an analogous color scheme to maintain harmony. The paintwork is rather rough to give a painterly look. I will tweak this color scheme more to make it work even better. If you have any suggestions, Please let me know. I appreciate it.

"Still life in green study 043020"

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I did another monochromatic still life study. Today's color is green. The colors I have used for this one is sap green, cadmium green pale and white. Green is relatively easy color for tinting and shading. It was fun doing this kind of studies, and it is very helpful to know the colors. I wish I did this kind of work a long time before.

"Still life in Yellow study 042420"

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My today's post is a monochromatic painting using my yellow scale. The colors I used were black, burnt umber, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow lemon, and white. This kind of painting probably has no market value. I did this purely for my academic curiosity. Maybe I should pay more attention to the action items on how survive in this difficult time, but some how my mind has been trapped deeply into this research. I am following my heart, and let the future manages its course.

"Still life in turquoise study 042120

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This is a painting I did for my color research. During my color scales exercise, I have figured out what colors to use to produce a value scales for any tube color I use on my palette. For this painting, I used my turquoise scale, which has black, phthalo blue, cobalt teal, radiant turquoise, and white. I can get any value for the turquoise family with relative high chroma, so I decided to do a monochromatic painting. It is exciting to see the result. The color is so intense that is hurting my eyes. I can use this kind of painting to study the psychologic impact of a color.

I also want to test the market effect of this kind of painting. I am going to post this painting on Daily Paint Works (https://www.dailypaintworks.com/) as an auction to see the reaction.

“Demo in Sacramento 2020 2" --- Sold

Metal and glass: how can you show different textures of the objects in your still life setup was the intention I did this demo. Of course they all boiled down to light and shadow, but they do have their own characteristics.

Now we all need to be a home as much as we can. You might want to think more about painting, which it can keep you occupied in a positive way. I consider painting is an activity that can "solidify" time. Your time is not simply passed away, but you can preserve it on your canvas.

"Demo in Sacramento 2020 1"

My workshop in Sacramento started in the gloomy atmosphere of the Covid-19 pandemic. That was March 14. At that time, 50 was the maximum number for people gathering. I had 12 wonderful artists coming to my class. This is the image of my first demo. I put a bottle of "Dawn" detergent in the setup. Of course, I was checking the color variation when I set it up. In hindsight, I can see now my subconsciousness at the moment might imply that we need to wash our hands more often before we touch the tea cup and fruit.

To follow the restriction rules during the pandemic, my workshops and painting competitions either canceled or postponed. I sincerely apologize the inconvenience to access my teaching at this difficult time. I am learning in full speed of making videos and online teaching. Currently I have one DVD available on my website (http://www.qh-art.com/dvd.html). Please check it to get more info.

"Demo at Templeton CA 2020 1"

I am teaching a workshop at Templeton CA, and this is my first demo. The world of 2020 is very different from the good old 2019. I hope everyone of you be safe, wash hands, and take care.

"Demo in Charleston 2020 2" --- Sold

Red roses in my 2nd demo painting.

"Demo in Little Rock 2020 2" --- Sold

The workshop in Little Rock went well. This is my second demo. I have some free time today and I will tour this beautiful city. Excited.

"Demo in Little Rock 2020 1" --- Sold

I am in Little Rock Arkansas teaching a still life workshop. I want to thank all the artists for taking this class. This is my first day demo.

"Demo in Austin 2020 3"

We think time is linear. It comes from past and gets to now, then goes to the future, but why the instrument which measures time is always goes in circles. The clock does not tell the past and future. Maybe there is no such things called the past and future. The hamster in a wheel does not know it, me neither.

"Demo in Austin 2020 2"

I had some odd feeling lately (well, maybe you felt the same but not odd any more). My college attending son came back home for the holidays. So we are under the same roof for a while. The odd thing is: every time when I see him, I feel I see myself. Some how my son has become my mirror image. However, every time when I watch myself in a mirror, oddly, I see my father. He has passed many years ago, but he is in front me vividly. Is that strange? The time is playing a trick on me, well, all of us.

I like this painting. simple and consistent. The design is what I like.

"Demo in Austin 2020 1"

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year, all the holidays and festivities have passed like a mirage. Before we know it, we are in the year of 2020. As usual, I have started teaching my painting workshops. Apples, dark backgrounds, glasses and metals, I painted as I usually do. Nothing seem happened. (however, so many have already happened.)

"Demo at Gainesville GA 2019 1"

My final workshop teaching of the year was at Gainesville GA. Having done so many landscape paintings, it felt really good when I was painting still life again. Nowadays, my paintings get a kind of "stylish". I don't know it is good or bad. Definitely, the painting is recognizable. I am happy about that. However in a negative connotation, my painting is getting more cliched. I am not surprised this happens. As a human, I never dreamed to become a super man. I just wish I could have been smarter, so I could have not fell in traps the commercial world. I will try harder and come out of the "burn out" phase. Let us allow the art being "cliched" for a while. I will cook something new when the future comes.

"1914 Case"

One of those ranch painting days, I found this old tractor in Christoval. It is quite unique; it has a steam engine. I had so much fun painting it. I was told that the owner of this machine found this old clunker abandoned somewhere in Texas wilderness. He disassembled it and shipped all the pieces back to his home in Christoval. He put it back together. Moreover, he made it run again. I myself really admire those handy people who can do almost anything.

This painting is still available

"Tea Party" --- Sold

My 2nd painting at the Wayne PA Festival was done at a placed called the Willow Brook Farm. It was raining heavily. I decided to paint inside an old barn. I found whole bunch of antique items and formed a typical still life setup, which is indeed my "cup of tea". I did not set up a light and use the existing lighting in the room. It was fun, and I completely forgot the rain outside.