“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