"Plein Air at Xidi Village (Day 2)"

I have started another large painting. When I was at Xidi last September, I saw so many artists plein air painting all over the place. I really want to do several serious paintings to reflect the lives in this small place. You have seen I painted quite a few doorways there, but that was just the necessary foundation work. This one I start to involve more figures, which are the artists in the village. I know it is a challenge for me to paint any serious painting with my fragmented time, but I will give a try.

"Blue Umbrella" --- Sold

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Two days have been spent on this painting. 90% of the time, I just stared at the board thinking. "Painting by not painting" was the goal for this painting project. I tried to paint as less as I can but wanted to show as much as possible. I painted rather abstractly, but still representational. The process was painstakingly slow, but it looks spontaneous and fast. Do all of these sound oxymoron to you? Maybe I should call this approach: the oxymoron style.

"Morning in Zhouzhuang (Day 5)"

Now this painting is finished I consider. I will send it to the 23rd Annual National Juried Exhibition of the Oil Painters of America. So please wish me luck.

I enjoyed this painting project. The semi abstract background really gave me challenge and opportunity. I was hesitated and clumsy, but gained some experience.

I thought this painting is 12" x 16", but I was wrong. I was trying to find a frame for it today, and just realized it is 11" x 14". Qiang, you make more mistakes than before.

"On a Guilin Street"

For these 3 days. I have been concentrating on doing one painting. I used one of my photos I took during my China painting trip. When we were in Guilin, it was a very hot day. The mid-day sun was so intense that people use umbrellas to shade. The pavement was marble creating beautiful reflections. The colorful umbrellas were like floating flowers. I shot this scene with my phone. I decided to paint very loose on a 12" x 16" canvas. It was a struggle.

For the entire year of 2013, I was so busy teaching and traveling. I did almost all small paintings and studied other artists' styles. One thing I should do but really have no time doing is provide larger paintings to my galleries. I hope my gallery owners do not get mad with me. So this one will be a gallery paining.

"Special Recipe" --- Sold

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This is another large painting on a small painting surface. My experiments have gained more momentum. I have spent quite a few significant hours on it. It is a gallery level painting, but I want to see if I can market it myself. The price is different from the most of my daily studies, but I guarantee it has a high quality. The scene was from a photo I took in Kinston, NC. I was invited by a group of workshop artists for a dinner in a very good restaurant. The food was so delicious. Moreover, we sat by a window to the kitchen. I snapped many photos of the chefs working there.

In current representational art world, one of the master artists I really admire is Quang Ho. It happened several times in the past, some artists mistakenly thought I am Quang. I was flattered every time when this happened because I knew Quang and I are not in the same level. When I just joined OPA, Quang is already the judge of OPA National Shows. I really like Quang's painting of kitchen scenes. Before I paint this one, I looked and studied Quang's paintings. They helped me significantly.