"Green Center"

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I have received comments kindly suggested that I should vary my subject matter and composition. I agree absolutely, and I will try my best to improve. I step out my comfort zone a little with this one. Using green for the center of focus is new for me. I am not 100% happy with this one. It does not match the image in my mind. I may paint another one similar to see if it will get better.

We are approaching to the end of the year. This painting is highly possible to be my final painting for 2007. I really enjoyed this year. I have achieved more than I thought I could, even with a shoestring budget of time. I hope you have had a wonderful year too. Happy New Year to all of you!!!

"Texas December" --- Sold

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This is another morning painting. It is so good I can paint when I am fresh and energetic. You can see I still practise using vignetted background. This abstract-vs-realistic contrast gives more dynamic range.

"Old Tech" --- Sold

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I painted this one this morning. I can't believe I did this painting at a morning of a working day. After Christmas, there are not many people in the company. So I decided taking a half day off and painting. It feels odd not doing my engineering work at the time, so I put this old camera into my setup to give some sort of "technical" background. This painting is a kind of my self-portrait: an engineer with a passion for art.

"Disintegration" --- Sold

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Today is the Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas to all of you!!!

"Two Pots" --- Sold

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I am testing this new composition. It is dark and moody.

"To Your Health"

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Cheers! To your heath! I wish all of you to have a wonderful holiday season. Actually I did not do this painting today (or last night). Because I did not finish the painting yesterday, so I post this relatively old one. I hope you like it.

"Rose Concerto 2" --- Sold

This is a commissioned piece for a Cello player. I am still work on my photo skills. There is too much glare on the image.

I have received many emails asking about my "Pears in Light" painting, and I might have disappointed many of you by giving an unexpected quote. Not long ago, A gallery owner had a long talk with me. He likes my work and has an intention to show my paintings in his gallery, but my price range on eBay is just too low to be compatible with the gallery prices. Well, it is a tough call. I like to see my paintings showing galleries and get sold there. At mean time, I also like what I am doing now on-line. I have thought about this issue for a long time. Finally I decided that I will show my relative large (9x12 and above) paintings in galleries with prices making sense to them. At mean time, I still handle smaller paintings on-line myself, and the prices are much more affordable. I also have seen many times that my small paintings reselling in galleries with price tags multiple times larger than my eBay prices. I don't have any problems with that. Thank you for creating a win-win situation. I am happy to see my paintings become collectible, and I also keep creating paintings affordable to everybody. I sincerely hope and appreciate if you can give me your tips on running an art business.

"Winter Rose" --- Sold

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This winter in Texas is rather mild. The roses in the yard are still blooming, but they slow down the process quite a bit. This one kept as a beautiful bud for four days. I think it was waiting for me to paint it. Well, I have painted a few roses now, but every one of them was quite a challenge. I think my understanding is still inadequate. There is so much I don't know. Learning is endless.

"Pears in Light 2" --- Sold

I have received at least 3 messages saying that I have been tagged. Well, I guess I must expose some my secrets to be off the hook.
1. I won my first art award when I was in a daycare: 5 color pencils.
2. I started my first grade education when I was 9.
3. I decided to enter a college far away from home because I could travel by train.
4. I got my first ticket before I got my driver's license.
5. The top secret to be a good still-life painter is being a vegetarian. If you don't believe me, please contact David Leffel, Sherrie McGraw, and Gregg Kreutz.

In today's painting, I worked on the distribution of the light. I did a small one with similar composition before, but decided to do another one a little larger. I have not decided what I am going to do with this painting. I may submit it to a show, but if you like to have it, please email me: qhart002@yahoo.com for a quote.

"Two Apples" --- Sold

I have got a new gallery representing last week. The Riverband Fine Art Gallery will start showing my paintings at Marble Falls, TX. This painting will be my first one showing there.

"Persimmons" --- Sold

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I really enjoyed your comments on my previous painting. To answer your question, it took me about 1 hour to paint it, but another hour to set it up. I spend more and more time to setup something interesting now. I am pretty convinced that using cool colors like blue for the focus center is hard to do. We get excited much easier when seeing warm color colors like yellow and orange. That is why the yellow vase is competing with the blue ornament for being the center.

For this painting, I am experimenting using more brush work for the background. I think it is called "vignetting". I used it a lot for portraits. It creates a contrast of realism vs. abstractness. I think it enhances the dynamic range of the painting? Don't you agree?

"Blue Ornament"

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I usually use warm colors for the center of focus, but not this one. Does it work for you?

"Holiday Time" --- Sold

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December is a colorful month. I am excited and put many colors on this painting. I wish all of you a happy holiday time. At this happy time, I want let you know that a new website on daily painting has started showing wonderful art on-line. Please check: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/. I am so happy to one of the artists in this site.

"Silence" --- Sold

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This painting has almost no color. I was concentrating on the value and edges. It gives a meditative feeling. When the mind is quieted down, the subtleness of the world will reveal.

"Goldmelons" --- Sold

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I picked two small watermelons and painted them not long ago. The winter comes and the remaining watermelons in the yard have no hope to grow bigger, but instead, they turned into a beautiful gold color. So I call them the Goldmelons.

"Orange and Oak" --- Sold

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From the bottom of my heart, I want thank all the artists who commented on my post yesterday and the collector who bought the painting. I feel very encouraged in my journey pursuing high quality in fine art. It is so great that we have the Internet so we can help each other and share our feelings in this cyber world.

In today's painting, I worked on the oak leafs to generate interesting shapes to give a geometric contrast to the center of focus - the orange.

"Ornament on Oak" --- Sold

I usually post paintings I am happy with. Well, this one is different. I thought I had a good concept before I start, but it didn't work out the way I wanted. Please shoot bullets to it and let me know your comment. I am not going to post it on eBay, but in case you want, please make me an offer by email.

"Red Tangerine" --- Sold

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In this painting and the previous one, I worked on the folds of the drapery. I try to figure out some sort of formula I can apply in generating convincing drapery folds. I know many art teachers are against teaching "formula" in art. I agree with it absolutely. Mechanically applying "formula" in art without understanding can limits the artist's development. However, If you have studied, there is nothing wrong to summarize your approaches into some sort of "formula".

"Morning Roses"

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This painting will be in a gallery show. Using cooler background color gives a feeling of fresh air outdoors. It is pretty rare in my paintings and my life. So I decided to catch some fresh air during my Thanksgiving holidays. I am going camping.

"Shining Couple" --- Sold

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Thanksgiving is coming. I feel grateful to all of you. You make my work meaningful. I am really happy being able to share my art with you. Have a great holiday.

"Watermelon and Apple" --- Sold

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Watermelons are larger than apples ... Wrong. I found these small watermelons in my yard.

"Hulu"

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Hulu means gourd. Ancient Chinese used Hulus as containers for medicine. In this painting, I sustained the object so it casted an interesting shadow.

"Afternoon Tea" --- Sold

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I am doing a large painting (24" x 48") right now, so I do not have a small one to post today. This painting I did at the workshop I took several weeks ago. I really like the effect of the light on this one. You may see the objects on the setup are rather suggestive. The light is the real center of focus. I have this painting in my studio. If you are interested in to buy, please contact me directly.

"A Bowl of Apple" --- Sold

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Using strong color contrast to emphasize the center of focus.

"Fascination" --- Sold

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I used two days to finish this painting. I am trying to create a rhythm that this carnations repeating, but varying in forms. I understood that the purpose of the composition is to control the pace, or the reading speed, when a viewer seeing a painting. Does it work on this painting? Your call.

"Beauty Stays" Sold

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I painted these roses a week ago, and now they are completely dried up. Although the life is no more, but they are utterly beautiful. I must paint them because I see eternity.

"One and Three Quarters" Sold

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Shape variation is my scheme for this painting.

"Gentleness" Sold

I am keeping practise my flower painting. I still do not know what I am doing at this moment. I often feel that the painting tells me what it needs. I am simply the assistant providing what the painting demands. I often feel lost in the mist of the painting process, but I always remind myself not giving up and the painting will tell me what to do. It works most times.

I have received more than one request for me doing more demo videos. I will do that when I am less busy, probably it would be next spring. I need to setup at my studio, so please be paitient with me. I am also planning more workshops for next year. I will let you know when they are ready.

"Harvest Time"

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Nowadays, we don't have much of a feeling of the harvest time. It belongs to the good old days. As an engineer, I am sitting at my cube, facing multiple computer "windows", but there is no single real window at the sight. All the lights on me have broken spectra. All the information to me is digitized. My coffee mug is half empty, and I feel drowsy. As a nocturnal animal, I am long for the dark night to come. That is only time I see colors become analog again.

"Golden Age" --- Sold

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The idea for this painting is using silhouette for background. It gives more depth and makes shaddow more interesting.

"Gratitude" --- Sold

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I am practising painting flowers more lately. It is much harder than doing apples. I have not achieve the freedom of doing this kind of paintings yet, but I believe it will get easier if I do more.

"Three Roses"

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This is another painting showing at Whistle Pik Gallery. Someone asked me how to mix grey, I like to use Ultramarine Blue + Cadmium Orange to give me a greenish grey, then I did Naples Yellow to lighten the value. You may also put some red the change the saturation.

"Yellow Rose 2"

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This painting is predominantly grey. I only used some color for rose to make the center of focus stand out. Starting from November 16, I will have two paintings showing at the Whistle Pik Gallery at Fredericksburg, TX. This would be one of them.

"Pumpkin Tree" Sold

Do pumpkins grow on trees? Well, that is a good question? Actually, Pumpkin tree is botanically known as Solanum... a member of Eggplant family. I like its color, shape and texture. I think it makes a good still life subject.

"In and out of shadow"

This is another painting I did at the workshop. I was experimenting different compositional ideas. All the objects participated to create an environment that formed an interesting light distribution. I am planning to submit this one to one of the gallery shows, but if you are interested in purchase it, please let me know.

"Yellow Rose" --- Sold

"Red in Front" --- Sold

This is another painting I did at the workshop. It got sold at the spot, but I still post it here for your enjoyment. Now the workshop is over, and I am back to my studio. Gregg is a wonderful teacher. I picked up quite a few tips from his teaching. I had made many new friends in this class, and had a wonderful time. I have the best wishes to all of you in your future art endeavors, and hope to see you again.

"Fruit Array" Sold

This is my first painting I did at the workshop. I have some problems getting on line here at the Hill Country. I post this one in a gallery near the art school. The owner of the gallery is so nice. I really feel grateful to him.

"Purple Flowers" --- Sold

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For each still life painting, I usually spend some time to figure out a setup to convey an artistic idea. Before painting this one, I was so tired. I took nap and asked my wife (Song is her name) to do a setup for me, and I would paint whatever on my stand. Here it is. I didn't have any ideas when I started. I hope you like it. The purple flowers are from the beans we grow in our yard.

Starting from tomorrow, I will attend a 5 day workshop at the Fredericksburg, TX, offered by Gregg Kreutz. He is a wonderful still life painter. I will let you know how it goes if I can access to the Internet.

"Apple and Glass" --- Sold

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This is another high key painting. I think the lighter background enhance the color of the apple more effectively. However, the light effect on the apple may has been reduced. This could be a trade off. Am I comparing apples with apples, or oranges? I am not sure.

"Roses in Glass"

Recently I posted some paintings I did for gallery shows, including this one. I want to share the images with you, so you know what I am up to. If you are interested in purchasing the paintings, please let me know. I will let you know the contact information. Thanks.

" Red and White"

This painting will be showing in a gallery. I really enjoy painting the peels of the onions. They present interesting shapes and sharp edges. They other day I was shopping in a grocery store getting some onions. I put quite a bit of onion peels in a bag and carefully selected their shapes. I looked around and felt really weired. There are not many grocery shoppers buying onions the way I did.

"Tibetan Prayer" --- Sold

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I have been long for a Tibetan prayer wheel, and I got one finally last week. I was meditative when I did this painting.

Workshop Annoucement

I have received multiple emails asking if I offer workshops. Well, today I have good news for you. Pat Walker Art School in Rolling Fork, Mississippi will organize a 3-day workshop for me starting on October 11, 2008. Please check: http://patwalker-workshops.com for more detailed information. I hope to see you in Mississippi next fall and paint together.

"Autumn Started" --- Sold

Fall is a colorful season. I hope I will get more colorful subjests into my paintings.

"Red Delicious" --- Sold

This is my first high key painting. Generally, I like to keep my background dark to allow the center of focus get the spot light. Using light background, I thought it might weaken the center. So I broke my rules with this one, but I kind of like the result. What do you think?

"Dancing Colors" --- Sold

I had a lot of fun with the colors when I painted this one. The color harmony is on the cool side. It wasn't my intention, but I think it works all right.

"Before Cooking 2" Sold

This painting will be submitted to a gallery show, but I like to post it here for your enjoyment.

"Pomegranate" --- Sold

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Is "pomegranate" the correct name to call this fruit? I really spend some effort to figure it out. You know there are things which are very easy for everybody here but they can put quite a challenge to me. Do you know I have spend more than a day just figuring out how to spell "pecan" correctly? In my day time job, every Friday is my culture day. my friends at work teach me one thing related to the local culture or English. Last Friday, my topic was "gung-ho". It is surprise to all of us. This word is actually Chinese.

"Tang Horse" --- Sold

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This painting is again an experiment of not using bright colors for the center of focus. I think the result is pretty good.

"Fresh Pecans" --- Sold

I usually like to use warm colors (red or orange) for the center of focus of the painting, but this one is different. I used green instead. Do you think if there is problem with it?