"Pink Lily Study 1" --- Sold

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My flower study is getting harder. I painted this pink lily (I don't know exactly the name of this flower. It is one of the cheapest kind in my local grocery store). It is totally different ball game. I can't make it very painterly like a sunflower. I literally painted every peddle accurately with delicate color changes. Painting the edges is the key to make this flower believable. So far, this painting is the most time consuming among my recent flower studies.

"Sunflower Study 3" --- Sold

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I used an odd angle for painting sunflowers. I don't have much of experience of painting the backside of the sunflower. I dealt with mainly the stalk and sepals rather than the peddles. This angle is not as attractive as the front. I feel a little uncertain if I am on the right track. Rationally, I believe it is needed to keep my study as thorough as possible. So inevitably, I will encounter situations that may not be in favor of me. However concerning my business, I might have shot myself in the foot. As an artist, I want to be successful just like everybody else, but must I show the good side always? Well, it is a question, and I don't have a firm answer for it. I feel a little foolish today, but it may not be a bad thing for the long run.

"Red Daisy Study 2"

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This is my second try of painting a red daisy. This flower is not as picturesque as a sunflower or a rose, but I get stubborn on it. I want to see if the ugly duckling can turn into a swan. You may have noticed that I have placed quite a few restrictions on my recent flower studies. The background is absolutely black and always a single flower. I used to have all the freedom, and my composition process is basically a "cherry picking" process. I turn to be painting similar things. Now, I have forced myself to confront unfamiliar subjects. I think my today's daisy is a little better than my previous one.

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. I want to say THANK YOU. Your support makes my endeavor in art significant. I am so grateful.

"Sunflower Study 2" --- Sold

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My sunflower study continues. This study gives me more opportunity to practice and understand more the peculiarity of the sunflower. I am working on different angle now. This angle may not be my best choice, but I don't want to paint the flower in only one angle. This angle is more challenge than my previous sunflower painting. I enjoyed specially painting the stem part.

"Red Daisy Study 1"

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Many friends commented and wanted to know what I did to fixed the image problem. I want to thank Andy, a friend who sent me a link to webpage addressing this image issue. I followed the guidance and changed my settings. I didn't download Google Chrome. If you have similar problem, please click the weblink above and change your settings as well.

The problem is not difficult to fix if you know how. I still have a few problems I still struggling and try to find solutions. For instance, I found recently that my blog widget that getting people to sign up for my painting emails is broken. After entering email address, you don't get a confirmation email, so the registration is incomplete. This is another Google problem. After Google Groups "upgraded" their stuff, my widget is no longer working. If you know the solution, I appreciate if you can contact me.

My today's painting is my first red daisy painting. I struggled. I am not in my comfort zone, There are issues, but I still want to share it with you.

I have fixed image problem

I think I have figured out the solution to fix the image quality problem. On your side, do you see this image look better? I feel frustrated that the online tools are keep changing. You just managed how things work, then suddenly it has changed. You have to re-learn everything again. The world is a completely different place now. We all need to learn how to keep a peace of mind when you live in a place you have no sense of in control.

Face the Light --- Sold

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It happened again, the photo of my painting today is lousy on the blog because Google manipulated my image, and I haven't got enough time to learn how to fix it. This problem does not appear everyday. It seems happening if I use very dark background. To see a better image, please go to my Chinese blog. I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I have not done any small paintings for a few months. You may think I may quit painting small. No, I will not do that. Small daily paintings are my major exercises. It is a very effective way to learn. I am considering doing a set of small flower paintings so I can understand the anatomy of flowers much better. Another change I did is: I shorten the bidding time from 7 days to 3 days. So if you are interested to buy this painting will know your result much sooner.

"My 2014 Desk Calendar"

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It is the holiday season again. As usual my New Year 2014 desk calendar has come out. I added on my blog a widget for it. You may preview all the images by clicking on it. I want to thank Jane Frederic and my dear wife Song for putting this calendar together. It has been a great year for me so far. Many things had happened. I traveled so many places, and made so many friends. My art is growing. This calendar is a brief documentation on what I did this year. I feel grateful for life and great appreciation to all of you who have been supporting me. Thanks.

"Song's Portrait"

I have completed my painting project: Song's Portrait. This is my gift to my dear wife Song for her birthday today. This is my first time painting a formal portrait. The size of the painting is 24" x 30". It took me five days to paint. For the first two days, I knew what I was doing. I did her face and got the likeness. However on the last three days, I have exhausted my knowledge and skills. So I painted intuitively. I did her hands, hair, and dress. I really had a hard time painting her hands. I have not painted many hands, so I have used almost two days just for the hands. I finally got it. I am pretty happy about this portrait effort. If you are interested in my process, please check: Song's portrait painting steps.

"AAU Portrait Painting 9"

This my favorite  portrait I did at AAU last summer. With the cool and warm light illumination, I got so many opportunity playing color. It is a relatively large painting (18" x 24") taken me three days to paint from live.

My current painting project is going well. It is the 4th day since I started. I am working long hours everyday and run into quite a few challenges. I think it will take me two or three more days I can reach to a some sort of finishing point. Different from my AAU time, I don't have much opportunities doing long term art projects nowadays. However, I try my best to do at least one or two more in depth paintings every year.

"AAU Portrait Painting 8"

After a couple of days of thinking, I decided to do a few large paintings for the rest of the month. I am still painting everyday, but I need to spend a few days to complete one painting. So I am going to post some of my old paintings you have not seen. Last summer I painted quite a few portraits at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Some of them I have posted, but I still have several I have not shown. So please enjoy.

"Persimmons"

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I had a group of artists coming to my house yesterday, and this is the painting I demoed to them. The two persimmons captured most of the attention because I did not have many colors in the rest of the painting. You don't need to have many colors to create the impact. As a matter of fact, isolating color in a small area produces the strongest color power.

You have seen too many of my demo paintings. You know what, I feel a little lost as well and don't know what I should do next. Hiking on my art trail, I need to sit down on a log nearby, wipe the sweat on my forehead, and drink a little water. The persimmons not only have vibrant color for a painter, but also very sweet to a ordinary person. So I am going to enjoy this sweetness now.

“Tibor Nagy Study 4"

I came back to Austin yesterday. From now on to early December, I will have a relatively long time at home. It is good time I will shift to study mode and hope I can have some progress in art. Nowadays, I have less and less time to learn, but I know many areas I need to improve. I am trying my best to use any of my fragmented time to move on.

This painting I did last month before the four workshops I have taught lately. It is a relatively large painting (18" x 24"). I wanted to see if it is possible I may keep the painterly style even with a large painting. I am still examine the marvelous paint work that Tibor Nagy did, and tried to achieve a similar effect. I used the monochromatic approach so I was able to concentrate on the paint application, but not color. This painting was done with both acrylic and oil. Different from my alla prima approach, I did 4 layers on this painting: acrylic darks, acrylic lights, oil for details, knife work with oil. You all know I did many small daily paintings, but I want to do more larger paintings from now on.

"Demo at Montgomery 2013 2" --- Sold

This is my second demo on my Montgomery workshop. I feel rather happy with this one. I had a few very interesting props to paint with. I just love this delicate white plate and the copper pot. I had a lot of fun doing this one.

"Demo at Montgomery 2013 1" --- Sold

Left Memphis TN, I have arrived at Montgomery AL. Quite a few old friends were waiting for me here. I am so enjoyed seeing them. I also enjoyed meeting many new friends. Another workshop started today. I want thank Sybil Dees for organizing this one. This is the first demo I did. Painting that wonderful blue glass vase was so enjoyable.

"Demo at Memphis 2013 2" --- Sold

This is my second demo at my Memphis workshop. Different from my previous post, the image looks fine. I want to thank all the friends commented and emailed to help me solve the imaging problem. I have not taken any action yet, but I will look into Google+ and see what is going on. It is so wonderful I have this supportive artists community on the Internet. I feel so grateful.

The Memphis workshop went very well. I hope all the workshop artists can practice what we have talked about and show progress on your paintings. I am on my way to Montgomery AL tomorrow. I will let Y'all know what is happening in the Deep South.

"Demo at Memphis 2013 1" --- Sold

Today I started teaching a workshop at Memphis TN. I want to thank Sheryl Hipps for organizing, and thanks for all the artists for attending. This is my image of my first demo.

Now I have a technical issue. You see how bad the image of the painting is. It is not because I took a bad photo. I took a very good photo. I did some minor processing on GMIP. The image looks great on my Mac. However, when I uploaded the image on Blogger, it has changed completely. It became lousy like this. If you want to see a good image of this painting, please click my Chinese blog.  This is second time I have noticed that Blogger change my painting image. This is big problem, because I don't know how to show the genuine look of my painting on my blog any more. Currently, I don't know how to solve this problem. If some of you know what is going on and know how to fix this problem, please contact me. I appreciate it very much.