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.

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. 

Sunflowers for Mary Alice

 

This one is a commissioned work for my friend Mary Alice. There is no cadmium colors in the painting. I am happy my painting momentum has come back. Painting is therapeutic. I feel very fortunate I have something I can concentrate on and over-ride all the other mental chatters. Painting is a cosmos event, the individual who puts colors on a panel is merely a carrier of the universal energy.

Rose study 012922

 

I have adequate amount of understanding (I think) about non-cadmium red color family, and also I get a little tired of painting individual red roses. I mean the result was not bad, but I felt I became a sort of handicapped in painting after I started to develop my non-toxic palette. Many skills I used to have are no longer working any more. It just like our physical body. We take it for granted until we get into a injury. I must be patient during this healing time. I use to be so picky about the difference between oil primed and acrylic primed painting surfaces. Now I just laugh, and let it go.

Rose Study 012722

 

The red rose opens up more, so I did another study. I have put transparent orange into radiant red created a much warmer and lighter red. I also use dark background this time. I used the water mixable burnt sienna and ultramarine blue made the dark. The issue with WMO is the viscosity. They are too sticky. 

Rose study 012522

 

I don't paint many red roses, because they are so hard to do. Since I am working on my non-toxic red palette, I painted the today's study. I will say that the cadmium red light is a color that is very hard to replace. I use napthol scarlet as the replacement, but have a hard time to get the opacity and vibrancy. I used alizarin for the darks of flower. When I need opacity I put a little venetian red. For the high light I use radiant red. It might be slightly too cool. Anyway. the experiment went well, but not great.

Rose Study 012222 Sold

 

After having a set of non-toxic colors for the yellow family, I moved on to investigate the red. I did this study using radiant red, napthol scarlet, quinacridone red, alizarin, venetian red, and portland grey deep. I feel I am in the right direction. Napthol scarlet still has some toxicity. I will keep on the research until I have a satisfied result.

Rose study 011822

 I feel satisfied with the rose study I did today. The paint opacity finally worked effectively. I did not use the water mixable oil today. I used regular oil but no cadmium and no solvent. The dark opaque color in the shadow was Portland Gray Deep and Transparent Orange to start with, then I add Permanent Orange and Hansa Yellow. The light yellow was Radiant Lemon. I feel Gamblin's Radiant colors have good opacity, and so does the Portland Gray. Now I have a set of non-cadmium colors to use for the yellow family. 

Rose Study 011222

 

I used the same palette I used two days ago, but introduced in Portland Gray Deep, and Transparent Orange. The opacity is still not ideal. Look at the petal on the right in shadow. It is rather difficult to make the color uniform. Can anybody tell me if it is OK to mix a water soluble color into regular oil colors? Thanks.

Rose study 011022

 

I have done another rose study today, I used ultramarine + burnt sienna (water mixable) for the dark under painting, then used paper towel and water wiping out the rose area. The colors for the rose were Hansa yellow, Indian yellow, Permanent orange, Quinacridone red, and White. They were regular oil colors, but there were no cadmium colors at all. I used Gamblin solvent free gel as the medium. No Gamsol this time. The result was not bad. The major issue was that the opacity was weak. The light area was easy. I can use white, but the mid value area is still weak. I may try some sort of ochre next time.

Rose study 010622 Sold

 

I have started painting again. I did this small study yesterday. I am experimenting the water mixable oil. I used ultramarine and burn sienna (both from Holbein) to mix my dark, and use my wiping technique with water to create the light shapes. Then I use regular oils for the color part. It feels the water mixable oil and regular oil go together OK, but I have no experiences and will know better in the future. If you are using water mixable oils, I will appreciate if you give me your advices. I am glad I did not use any mineral spirit for this study.

"Richard Schmid's Roses"

 

I have spent quite a few days to copy a painting from The Master Artist Richard Schmid. I admire this exceptional great artist, and learned a lot from his teaching. My copy will have no commercial value. I will keep it at home to remind me how beautiful oil pigments can generate. 

Now I have started to review my journey as an artist. I feel all good paintings are manifestation of the great Universe. The artists are the vehicles to carry out or reveal the greatness of the Cosmic Devine. We, as individuals, are in this world for only a short time, and can do very limited things. However, the appreciation of the Super Creation will last throughout the entire mankind.

"San Angelo Roses" --- Sold

 

This one is a plein air piece I did at the San Angelo Community Rose Garden. It was a wonderful day. I will paint more flowers outdoors. It is so different.

"Red Rose 041220" --- Sold

I did this small painting a few days ago as a small commission. A friend sent an image of one of my small paintings I did a few years ago and asked if he could buy the painting. The painting was sold long ago. So I said I can do a similar painting. So I did this one. When I was painting this one, I felt I have gone back to my old "Daily Painting" days. It was so nostalgic. It was the good old days. Well, if you have similar request, please let me know. I will work with you. 

"Demo in Sacramento 2020 3"

It was my first time painting daffodils. It was a difficult flower to paint. I think I did all right.

I have been back home at Austin for about two weeks so far. Like the majority, I did not go anywhere and I am pondering what this Covid-19 pandemic means to an artist. I am learning how to move my teaching online. My floral painting DVD is coming in a few days. My son Jonathan is helping me. We have finished the video and audio editing. Now we are finalizing the file conversion from a mp4 to a DVD. Now April comes, I hope the turning point comes soon.

"Symphonic Water Lilies"

The World can move to whatever directions, but we just simply paint. Among all the bad news we got lately, I received one piece of good news: I have been juried in this year's Oil Painters of America National Exhibition, and I will show my recent work "Symphonic Water Lilies". It is a big painting 24" x 30". Since the show will be in Fredericksburg Texas, I can deliver the painting myself. It saves me a whole lot of shipping money.

"Pink roses in cool light"

I am painting in my studio, and I decided to do some color experiments. This is what I did today. I used two light sources, one cool and one warm. I ended up with this.

This painting is available. It is a small painting. I want to sell it myself. If you are interested collecting this one, please contact me. Thanks.

"Demo in Little Rock 2020 3" --- Sold

Of course my last demo was floral. All the students brought flowers to the class in the morning. I have 15 people in my workshop, so we go tons of flowers. I took one flower from each students and form a bouquet of flowers. Now here is the painting. I have got better with this composition. Painting flowers is hard, but practice makes perfect.