“Demo at Kinston 2013 1" --- Sold

A couple of hours drive brought me from Cary to Kinston. I want thank Kinston Community Council for the Arts for organizing this workshop. Thank you all new and old friends for attending. This is what I did today. Warm light and warm shadow. Do you get more confused now?

"Demo at Cary 2013 2" --- Sold

As usual, my second demo was about flowers. Also I did this one with a high key scheme. I demonstrated this painting on a Ampersand Gessobord. It show the brushwork very differently than that on a stretched canvas.

My Cary workshop was very successful. A couple of hours from now I will drive to my second North Carolina workshop location, which is in Kinston. This area is also called the Research Triangle.  Many boitech and pharmaceutical industries are located here. I am no longer technical. Otherwise, I maybe interested in visiting some of the companies.

"Demo at Cary 2013 1" --- Sold

I am traveling again. Now I am at Cary North Carolina teaching a workshop. I want to thank Monica and Waverly Gallery for organizing and Beth and Howard for hosting me. I want to thank the artists from all over for attending. The first day went very well. This is my first demo.

"Quiet Dock" --- Sold

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This is my first painting after I return to the US. It is based on a photo I took at Wuzhen China. In this water town, the main transportation to the local people are boats. This is one of the sites people get on their boats, or load and unload their stuff. I love this place. There are fantastic painterly scenes from any arbitrary spot and orientation.

Since my "on the Beijing Street" series, I feel I am in the mode of doing more landscapes. My color is getting subtler. I am learning how to pick up my interest from the overwhelmingly massive amount of details from the scene. It took longer from me to paint landscapes, because I have not painted enough yet. This is a good start, and more to come.

I am recovering from my jet lag and fatigues from my China trip. Many thanks to many friends for your warming and caring words to me and my family.

"When We Are Not Able to Paint"

Tears were in my eyes when I left my parents in Beijing. Holding my father's skinny hands and looking at his misshaped face, both of us were getting emotional. He might have wondered if this were the last time we were together. Those a couple of months. I saw he suffered. I did the best I could do, but wondering how much would have been really effective. My mother looked very tired and overburdened. She has to face all the challenges during the time I am not able to be with her.

Reality is reality. Now I am back to the States, facing to the other part of my life. I am so happy seeing Song and Jonathan again. It has been hard on them when I was on the other side of world.

Real life likes a sharp knife, slicing and dicing our time and energy into smaller and smaller pieces. I found it becomes more and more difficult to do paintings, even small daily's. I am not alone. So many artists nowadays are facing this challenge. Should we give up now? Well, I leave the answer to you.

Now, I am on the road all the time. In the airport, or in my hotel rooms, I see my time gets chopped. On my way back from Beijing to Austin. I have to wait in SF airport for more than 4 hours. I found several small pieces of paper from my previous hotel stays, and a pen. I turned on my laptop and copied some of the images I like. They took very short time. and they are kind of cute.  It will definitely help my composition. This is at least one method to keep my art going in this difficult time.

"Photo: Goodbye Beijing"

I have spent more than two months in China. Tomorrow I will be on my way back to the United States. It has been a very significant trip. I've learned a lot and accomplished a lot. The photo was shot yesterday at the Tian-An-Men (Gate of the Heavenly Peace). There were and will be many historical events happening here. Nowadays, China is a super capitalistic country. However, only at the Tian-An-Men square. I still feel nostalgic of the Red China days. The history is so dramatic and the time is so ironic. Now I am leaving China. My very dynamic 2013 in the America will begin. Goodbye Beijing!

"Photo: Frozen Beauty"

Here in Beijing is the second day of the Chinese New Year holiday. These a couple of days I didn't do anything except giving company to my mother and father. 27 years have passed since I had Chinese New Years with them. This is my second dream came true after I left my full time engineering job (my first dream was fulfilled after I attended AAU last summer). Besides all the difficulties with our family, I am happy I had time spent with my parents. In this changing world, nothing is permanent. We are here only temporarily. We are responsible to make this short life significant. Several days ago I took this photo. It has shown me that beauty can be formed in a difficult time. It may exist for only a short time, but no matter what we have encounter, we need to remain positive.

"Demo in Beijing 3"

This painting was the third demo in my Beijing workshop. I should have posted it two weeks ago, but as usual I am behind on many things. Tomorrow will be the last day I teach in Beijing, and I will do a portrait demo. I did quite a lot in art teaching in Beijing, besides the 5-day painting workshop, I also gave quite a few private lessons, and an senimar on art business. I made many new friends and so happy of spending time with artists. I want to thank all the artist friends attending my classes and specially thank Patty Hudak for organizing all the events. China has a great potential for my art. I will come back again, and I would be more than happy to bring artist friends from all over with me.

I had some Internet problems lately. My website was down for several days. Now the problem has been solved. People who are interested in participating in Colley Whisson's workshop in Austin you can get detailed information on my website now.

In China the Internet is very different. Many websites are not visible. To post my blog, I have to remote control my computer in Austin. This post has already been late for a day

New Workshop Announcement: Colley Whisson's 4-Day Workshop: Impressionist Painting in Oils

Time: May 2 - 5, 2013

Locations: QH Art Studio, Leander Texas (near Austin)

Tuition: $530

Contact:Yuehong Song for information and registration (15 students maximum)

Workshop Description:

Colley's students will be learning techniques to paint subjects matters for seascapes, landscapes, interiors and city scenes. This will help you produce works that are "bold, confident, and skilfully handled; paintings filled with sunlight". We will be covering edges, tonal values, composition, brushwork and focal points. The workshop will be conducted in a daily step-by-step process. The class will focus on the core principles of painting from photo references that Colley supplies from his native Australia finishing with instruction custom tailored for each individual's specific needs. All Colley's studio workshops are conducted in an inspirational and positive environment. We will paint from 9 AM to 4 PM daily.

Artist Bio:

Colley Whisson is an internationally recognized artist born and raised in the northern regions of Brisbane, Australia. He held his first Solo Exhibition at the age of 24. His early career was guided by his father respected Queensland artist Eric. Colley has held over 25 Solo Exhibitions and many magazine articles, books and DVDs published. He has long believed &quot It is not what you paint but how you paint it &quot. He sees himself as a painter of light, aiming to paint with precision to convey the purest message possible and striving to capture spontaneous loose impressions each time he returns to his easel. He is at his happiest professionally when he is painting full of confidence using his brush like Zorro would wield his trusty sword, dashing in marvelous darks, highlights and rendering each painting with as much skill and accuracy as possible. He loves nothing more than the challenge of pushing himself to find new subjects to paint. In the near future he will revisit and travel to the USA, Italy, France, New Zealand, United Kingdom and new locations like China, Russia & Greece. He is happy to carry the tag as one of Australia's finest young Impressionist painters. Colley has a strong belief that he is not copying nature but giving expression to visual ideas.

Artist's work:

Please check: Colley Whisson's website for his wonderful art work and information

Wu Zhen

I finally find it. This is the place I really want to paint. This place is called Wu-Zhen. It is about 100 Miles west of Shanghai. I want to come back here in the near future and spend several days painting here. It is also an idea place to run a workshop. It is so beautiful and quiet. Not very commercial so far (I really hope it keeps that way). If I organize a workshop here, would you come and paint with me?

Su Zhou

I am traveling again. I took a 5 hours super fast train ride today. Talking about the high speed trains, I must say that China is more advanced than the United States. The conditions are superb. The stations are well built. Much better than Amtrak.


I have arrived at a beautiful south China city called Su Zhou. This trip is basically for me to search future places I would like to paint and may run plein air painting workshops at. I will visit a few places like this one. I like small towns, trying to avoid big crowd. Find a place to slow down. Zu Zhou is very different from Beijing. People are living around many water alleys. If you like Venice or San Antonio, you will like here too.

"Courtyard for the Queen" --- Sold

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This painting was done based on a photo I took in the Summer Palace. The design of the gate indicates that the owner of the courtyard behind it was a female. Now this one is a special one. It belonged to the queen of the second last emperor. Different from the several Beijing landscape paintings I did earlier, I start to add trees in the scene. I am now more comfortable of painting landscape.

"Demo in Beijing 2013 2"

As I have mentioned before, I decided not to talk about "demons" in my life any more. However without my attention, it comes by itself. Last week, I did my first demo painting in my Beijing workshop. When I sent my painting email, I had misspelled "demo" as "demon". It might be simply a typo, or it might have reflected the struggle I am have constantly encounter in my daily life. Well, we all have difficulties, it is just part of the life. I think the best attitude we should have when we confronting problems is to accepted them, keep positive and calm as much as you can, and do what you can only do.

This painting is my second demo I did it on my Beijing workshop. As usual, painting flowers was the topic. It has been more than a month since I came from the States. I think I have adapted the living conditions here, and found more and more beauty and opportunities in my hometown.

"The True Love"

I visited the Summer Palace in the winter. It is special treat. There were not many people, but many stray cats. In this quiet corner, in front of this empty house, in this cold afternoon, in this grey scene, in this world full of misery, I SAW TRUE LOVE.

"The Great Wall"

These several days, the air quality of Beijing has reached to the dangerous level. However, it didn't stop me going out (not very smart). In this strong foggy day, I went on the top of the Great Wall. I was stunned by its remarkable beauty, especially in those bitter cold winter days. Thousands years ago, the ancient Chinese built this grand structure trying to stop the bloodshed of barbaric battles. Now thousands years later, are we really civilized? The blood and bones have resulted in the beauty of the Great Wall. The history is so ironic.

The sun light has being putting a great effort to penetrate the super dense smog, and only the bloody red rays can go through. The human greed and selfishness have made the mid-day sun looks like dusk. Beijing is so surreal.

"Demo in Beijing 2013 1"

On last Thursday I started my painting workshop in Beijing. Artists are coming from France, Germany, Japan, Argentina, Columbia, Taiwan, and the United States. It feels like a miniature United Nation. Quite a few of them we met in my last Beijing workshop in 2011. I also met a few new friends. I want to Thank Patty Hudak for organizing this international workshop. This is my first demo on a local canvas with local paint.

"Beijing Tangerines"

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Having not painting still life for a while, but I need to prepare for my workshop tomorrow, so I did this small daily painting yesterday. To overwrite the predominate grey color I see everywhere, I chose the objects with brightest color possible, and used the best quality paint possible. Of course my bedroom (used as my studio) is full of oder of paint. but you just can't take care of everything in life.

Gate with Red Lanterns --- Sold

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 I have spent more than two days on this painting. It is a little larger, and I used regular oil colors. After several monochromatic paintings, I decided going back to color. Since the buildings in Beijing are dominated by grey color, I have to be careful about subtlety and try my best not produce mud. The light area is warm and the shadow area is cool. I still use palette knife a lot to create the texture.

In Beijing, I am going to give a 4-day painting workshop. It will be on the Thursday of 4 consecutive weeks starting this week. I didn't advertise this one since the workshop is already full before I know it. It will be a very international one. I will let you know how it goes.

On a Beijing Street 6 --- Sold

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I thought I was a still life painter, but some how I can't stop painting Beijing cityscapes. It must be my childhood memory keeps me going. When I paint these paintings, I feel I am still a little boy playing there. Hua: please post this one and create an auction page.

On a Beijing Street 5 --- Sold

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Now I resume painting in Beijing. This painting took two sessions: majorly brush work on the first one, and palette knife for the second. The perspective of this painting is rather interesting. A couple of days ago, I went on the street taking pictures. I saw one of courtyard very similar to the one in this painting. I went in and found out it was a hotel. The price per night was 1680 yuan (about $280).

Back to Beijing

After another 24 hours train ride (really enjoyed). I am back to Beijing again. Yesterday in the subfreezing temperature, I went to the old Beijing streets and taking picture for my future painting projects. Since most of old Beijing districts have been demolished and replaced by ugly high-rises, the few remain Hu-Tongs (narrow streets) have become tourist attractions. I snapped many shots, and I will paint them and share my approached with you. I came to Beijing about 20 days ago. I did 4 paintings, and all have been sold to America and Europe. Yesterday I sent one order out. It is rather challenge to take care of basic logistics here: such as finding packing boxes, printing packing slips, and finding reliable shipping services. All of these issues, we take for granted in America, but at here, I have to be very creative.

Life is very exciting when you travel to exotic places. Recall my 2012, I am very satisfied. My art brought me to all places. I met so many friends. I have survived and supported my lovely family with your generous support and my effort. I had several dreams came true, such as two intensive art study at AAU and extended stay with my parents in China. I am very blessed and grateful. Now the New Year starts, full of challenges and excitement. Let us be happy facing the future and experience the even better 2013.

At a Hong Kong Market

I went to Hong Kong a couple of days ago. Nowadays in China, I have experienced more capitalism than I was in the US. In almost all the conversations I had here, people talk about money, money, and money only. commercials are all over. All the peoples here have involved in this life long vicious competition of money making. If you can't win, you will fall into cracks. I feel so overwhelmed and tired. What about art? what about morality? Nobody cares. I feel this society is so off the balance. It is very scary. I have not given up yet. I am still looking for true friends who I can share art and something I consider more important than the all mighty money.

Da-Fen-Cun

You may not know what I mean if you see the title of my today's post, but you must has seen some very cheap original oil paintings selling in hotels, shopping malls, or even on the street. Have you wondered where all those paintings come from. Well, Here it is. Da-Fen-Cun is the place where the main business here is mass producing oil paintings. Many studios in Da-Fen-Cun hire young people with very low pay, and provide basic art training, then produce oil paintings as assembly line. I visited Da-Fen-Cun yesterday. Took a few photos and chatted with several artists. It is amazing how art is produced here.

Handmade RV

I was on my way to the railroad station, and I saw this special vehicle. I call it RV, but it is not relevant at all to what we call "recreation", because it does not amuse me at all, only sadness . This man modified a small junky pickup truck with whatever material he has. I saw a chimney on the upper rear. He must have a coal burning stove inside to keep him warm in this -15C winter night. The red banner on the side of the vehicle says: "My dear wife, where are you?". I don't know this guy is homeless or not, but he must have all he has on this RV and travel all over the country looking for his wife. Like all the people in this modern society, I was in a hurry all the time. I quickly snapped this photo and rush to catch my train. However this image just cannot be erased from my mind. I don't think this guy knows what the Christmas is, but I sincerely wish him merry and happy, and find his dear wife in the near future.

Snow Sweepers

Beijing is cold, very cold now (-15 C tonight). This photo was shot after the 2nd snow storm after I arrived here. I don't see any snowplows to clean the road and anyone use snow blowers. I saw quite a few snow sweepers cleaning the road with those giant brooms made of bamboo stems and leaves. This scene brought back some of my childhood memories. People swept the dirt road and snow with the big brooms like in this photo, leaving beautiful and calligraphic brush strokes on the ground. I was very impressed by their "art" work. It is highly possible I was influenced subconsciously by the giant broom marks, and now they are shown on my canvas. Tonight I will take a 24 hour train ride to Shenzhen and Hong Kong. I will keep you posted what is going on there.

"On a Beijing Street 4"

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I want to thank all friends sending me emails and comments concerning my father's sickness and difficult situation of my mother and me. Your message really warm our hearts. We are very touched, and happy to know so many people are care and supportive. My father's condition is stable, and our maid came back two days ago. She is very helpful, so I have more time to paint and doing other things.

I continue on my Beijing cityscape series. My today's painting is another Hutong scene. I really like using palette knife now. My texture variation is still very limited, but I became more comfortable and freer. The subtly and drama of the painting are improving.

"On a Beijing Street 3"

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I have been back to China for about a week. I did not go anywhere since my father needs attention all the time. We have a living-in maid to take care him and other chores, but she happen to be off for a while to take care of her own family issues. My father has lost the control of his body. He does everything in bed now. Being sick for a long time, he became very very skinny. I can see his skeleton very clearly. All I have learned from human anatomy study has demonstrated vividly right in front of me. Lying there with pain and all kinds of problems, my father now is the best teacher showing me about life. I feel sad, shocked, and frustrated. Human suffering is inevitable. No matter how rich and famous we are, we never can escape from aging, sickness, and death. The colorlessness of my recent paintings did show my current feeling. On the other hand, my father has also shown me that the time is very very short. I will just like my father or even worse in the future not long from now. I better not wast any minutes I have now. Our maid is coming back soon. I hope our life will get a little better then.

"On a Beijing Street 2"

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Continuing on my Beijing cityscape experiment. I used a lot of knife work on this one. I kind of like this water based oil colors. They are very different from acrylic colors. They dry very slow, and they have no oder at all.

"On a Beijing Street"

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I have established a small painting station in my bedroom. Because there is no ventilation and I can not open the window, I decided to use water mixable colors to minimize the oder. I didn't bring full palette of these kind of colors with me, so I decided to do a monochromatic one. Since I am here in this very old city, I want to try to paint some local landscapes. Houses in old Beijing has a very special courtyard design. They joined together forming many narrow allies (I mean narrow streets, but don't know how to spell). The gate of the courtyard has many different styles implying owner's social status. My painting for today shows one of them. Since color is not a issue here, I want to explore the texture presentation like the brick walls and tiled roofs. I used more knife work and thick paint. I hope soon I will have the freedom of this kind of painting style.

"Snowy Morning"

It has been snowing during the night. I saw this scene in the morning. Beijing is a very busy big city, even in this cold snowy day. Cars are all over. The traffic is always in jam. Like all the pedestrians, I waded through the semi thawing sludge, trying to keep my balance on the slippery and grey world.