"Heavy Metal"

This is the last painting of the year. It took me 3 days. I feel happy about this one. The abstract shapes in the lower left corner and the solid realistic presentation of the metal object have a good contrast and a smooth transition. My colors have be more on the light source colors instead of obvious object local colors. I want to submit this painting for the 2015 OPA National Show. So please wish me luck.

This year I have done 125 paintings, and taught 23 workshops. Recall the year that will pass in a few hours, I feel satisfied. 2014 has been a super busy and difficult year, full of challenges and frustrations. However, I did feel happy and rewarded, especially the support from all of you - my dear artist friends. At this special moment, I want to wish all of you a Very Happy New Year. I will see you in 2015.

"Brass Kettle" --- Sold

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Back home late at the Christmas night, I did this painting in the morning of 12/26.

Every time I came home from a trip, there always are overwhelmingly amount of chores waiting for me. (Sounds familiar?) I decided this time that painting is the absolute priority. I will paint without listening to phone messages, without open the mailbox, without checking emails, ..... even without any idea of what to paint, even without the desire of wanting to paint. Just throw any object in front and paint mechanically.

It sounds insane, but it is absolutely necessary. Our living environment has been deteriorating day by day. So many things have mercilessly hijacked our time, energy, and well being. We must take abnormal actions to make this short life meaningful.

You have got my message. Go to your studio and start to paint right now.

Merry Christmas from Zion

Merry Christmas to all of you. I want to thank you so much for giving me so much support. I wish you happy and joy at this holiday season.

Abstract Art by Nature

These a few days I have been wandering in multiple National Parks in Arizona and Utah. Besides in awe about the beauty of nature, I am pondering about art as well. As an representational artist, I have spent massive amount of time to achieve skills such that I can achieve the likeness of my subjects. As a matter of fact, the ability of achieving resemblance of the subject has been as a very small portion of skills of an developed artist. When I look at the giant mountains, interestingly shaped rocks, and fast moving waters, I was stunt by the extreme beauty which impact me so tremendously, it is not because this rocks resemble a face or an animal. It is simply the abstract beauty. 

This is a piece of rock formation at the Hidden Canyon in Zion National Park. I was so attracted by the patterns. As matter of fact, all I saw these several days are shapes, patterns, and textures. However, it is the beauty that really moved me. But why those patterns and shapes in those National Park moved me so much, but one piece of broken concrete in my back yard doesn’t. They are all patterns and shapes for sure, but what makes a pattern, a shape, a texture, a color beautiful is really the question we should ask. Abstract art can be beautiful, and can be ugly too. I believe that a good piece of art is not always necessarily need to resemble a real world subject, but it must be aesthetically appealing. 

Double Arches

Song is doing her usual yoga exercise in an unusual place.

"Demo at Sedona 2014 2" --- Sold

This is my 2nd demo painting at Sedona.

After the workshop, my family and I are taking a vocation. We have visited the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and we have just arrived at Moab, UT.

"Demo at Sedona 2014 1" --- Sold

Time goes by so fast. I came to Sedona teaching a workshop. Today the workshop is already over. I want to thank Sedona Arts Center of organizing another successful workshop for me, and thanks to all the attending artists from Arizona, California, Colorado, Columbia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan,  and Montana. I don't know I have missed anybody from other States. This is my first demo painting. Please enjoy.

"Pansies"

I did two paintings between my workshop teaching trips in December. This is one of them. When the time is fragmented, and too much going on. Very often painting will be the first event to be sacrificed. But now I must try all my might to paint, even though I don't have time to do it. So I did it.

I have arrived at Sedona. I will share with you my demos soon.

"Peony - Demo at San Antonio 3" --- Sold

I have not painted peony until this one. I confronted my challenge in front of a group of enthusiastic artists. These flowers were overwhelmingly complicated. I wasn't very confident I could do it. The result wasn't bad. I kept reminding myself: I am not painting flowers. I am painting shapes and forms, lights and shadows.

Now I have enough galleries willing to show my work. While I was feel happy, I feel more worried. I have promised too much more than I can possibly deliver. Oh! boy, what should I do now? Like an Ostrich, I bury my head in the sand.

"Demo at San Antonio 2014 2" --- Sold

This is my second demonstration at Coppini.

I have another news to share with all of you: the Greenhouse Gallery in San Antonio has accepted my art and wants to show my paintings. I am honored and feel very fortunate to be represented by three nationally very well known galleries: InSight Gallery, Trailside Galleries, and Greenhouse Gallery. At the meantime I am humbled. I know the status of my art. So many further developments are needed. I need to work even harder to learn, to progress, to paint better.

"Demo at San Antonio 2014 1"

This is my demo number one at my San Antonio workshop. I want to thank Coppini Academy of Fine Arts for organizing this workshop, and thanks to all the artists who are attending this workshop.

Pewter and Brass

The experiment keeps on going.
The journey is far, the time is running out, I am slow moving.
I know I shouldn't be so ambitious, because I know so well that greed causes suffering.
However as a human, I am not wise enough, like a moth, light craving.

"White Cup with Blue Stripes"

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I did this painting last week. There are too much things going on so I did not get a chance to post it timely. It seems my daily painting practice has moved to a new phase. I have not done any 6" x 6" for several months now, and my comfortability level in dealing with relatively large painting surfaces is increasing steadily. Showing painterly effects on larger canvases is my effort now, and this effort will continue for a while. The visual impact of a larger painting is significantly stronger than that of a small painting, so now I am a more serious painter than before.

My 2015 Painting Calendar

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Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. My 2015 painting calendar is ready. Please preview the images and purchase

“Yellow Rose in Blue Vase"

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You can see I am practicing the design of my brush work. This is the third painting in this series. Painterly painting style does not happen accidentally. It requires a thoughtful process. I am still in the early stage of my style design. I heard comments like this: so and so's painting is too stylish. It has a feeling of some degree of negativeness in it. It sounds like the painting is developed by following a formula. Personally, I am not against using formulas. When I was doing my scientific research work, I used mathematic formulas all the time. The same principle applies to art as well. However, the issue is how many formulas do you have? If you only have one or two, that is problematic. Moreover, if your formula was not derived by you, in other words, you don't know why but just simply follow the steps, then the painting will be boring. So my "two cents" is: 1). painting from life, 2). summarize your own formulas, and 3). cumulate formulas as many as you can.

"Shower in Cool Light"

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Am I getting crazier? Am I going too far? Please let me know. I felt pretty good about this painting. Finally I gained some freedom in relatively large paintings. This one is 11" x 14". Painting loose, but can not be sloppy. All the perspective, symmetry, and value need to be correct. Don't you agree?

"Yellow Chrysanthemums" --- Sold

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This is my dream direction: I want to paint loose on my large paintings. This one is 12" x 12". If I don't tell you, don't you think it is as loose as one of my small 6" x 6" paintings. This painting is not perfect. It is an experiment, but it does have some of the effects I have been trying to obtain for a long time. To be honest with you. I did not feel confidence when I paint this one. I have to concentrate on the aesthetic designs while to place adequate amount of realistic information to make it representational. It is a balance between the abstract design and convincing realistically.

Nancy Tankersley Workshop Announcement

Besides painting and teaching, I feel I have another mission to accomplish. That is to bring top-notch artists come to Austin to share their art and techniques. This painting was done by my friend Nancy Tankersley. I really like her impressionistic figurative work. I am very excited to announce that Nancy will come to Austin in March 2015 and teach a painting workshop entitled "Keeping it Fresh - Painting Figures from Photos". If you are interested in learning Nancy dramatic way of painting, please check: Nancy Tankersley workshop in Austin for detailed information and sign up.

You will notice as well that I have a new website. I want to thank Jane Frederick tremendously for developing and managing this new site for me. My old website is still working as well, but eventually my two websites will merge.

"Still life with four objects"

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I am sorry I give such a lousy title to this painting. I feel I am not sophisticated enough to handle "Zen of something" type of topic. So I start to push my understanding of "Grey" into the background and introduce a few more recognizable colors into this painting. This painting was started as a demo for my Austin mentoring class, then I added a few more things after that. I intend to come out of my grey study for a while and shift the gear to "modeling". How to balance between detail and looseness in the modeling stage is another very important field I want to spend some time on.

"Calm Down in Chaos"

I don't know how genuine this image showing the painting. It is the worst time taking the photo (3 or 4 days after the painting started). I have so much glare, no matter what to do I can not avoid it. Anyhow it kind of matches the title I give to this painting.

Today I have something I feel exciting to share with you: Trailside Galleries has contacted me, and my paintings will be shown in Scottsdale, AZ and Jackson, WY. This is another high prestige gallery after InSight Gallery represents my work.

I have spent two days on the painting showing today. I want to keep it painterly as much as possible. It is also another grey dominant work. I don't have enough experience of painting larger paintings. so I will keep working.

“Demo at Lafayette 2014 3" --- Sold

This is the third demo at Lafayette. My flower painting gets more abstract now. If you zero into any individual roses. you will see they are just several abstract shapes. They don't look like roses at all. My crazy mind starts tickling. Maybe one day in the future, I will paint roses blue and my art has turned into something completely strange and bizarre (but price tag shows a few Ms). Then you may say: "This guy used to know how to paint, I have seen his earlier paintings before". Just kidding.

The Blue Dog Phenomina

In the evening of the last day of my Lafayette workshop, a group of artist friends and me went dinner at a very famous restaurant in town --- The Blue Dog Cafe. It is a very "artsy" place showing the "Blue Dog" paintings of the famous artist: George Rodrigue. I saw the blue dog painting before. They are ubiquitously distributed on art magazines. Surrounded by various colors of "blue" dogs on the wall, I was pondering about modern art. The friend sitting next to me said: "George Rodrigue did know how to paint, You can see that from his early works". I think I heard similar argument about Picasso's works as well.

Artists can do whatever they want to do, and collectors can buy whatever piece of art they want to buy. However, the question is what is people's taste about art. This "taste" will determine which artist will be successful or starving. Picasso and Rodrigue are phenomenal artists, and our taste has determined that the art world goes to dogs.

"Demo at Lafayette 2014 2" --- Sold

I felt really good about my second demo at the Lafayette workshop. Similar to my "Zen of Grey" painting series, this painting has not much of high chroma colors, but the subtle color change in grey makes the painting have strong feeling of light. I use the metallic objects to demonstrate the way to manipulate the high lights and show the metal texture. This painting shows how effective of using opacity vs. transparency to achieve the light effect.

"Demo at Lafayette 2014 1" --- Sold

After a very problematic trip, I have arrived at Lafayette, LA. My workshop here started yesterday, and this is my demo painting number 1. I want to thank Lafayette Art Association for organizing, and all the artists from Louisiana and Texas for coming. The blue pot in my demo is an art work of another artist displaying in gallery here at LAA. It gave me a great opportunity of using pthalo blue. I am in the cajun country now, looking forward to some great cajun food.

"Demo at Falmouth 2014 3" --- Sold

This morning, I have arrived at the Logan International Airport really earlier, got on the plane to Houston, then to Lafayette, LA. Before the plane took off, the pilot found an engine problem. We have to turned around, back to the gate, and deplaned. Now I have several hours waiting for the new plan.

This is my third demo on the Falmouth workshop. Besides the rose, I placed a few New England Fall foliage into the setup. After I moved to the South, I have been longed for the beautiful Fall time in the North. Now after I became a full time artist and teacher, I feel very fortunate that I have opportunities to come to New England every full to see the beautiful colors.

"Demo at Falmouth 2014 2" --- Sold

This is my second demo at Falmouth. The copper object is so much fun to paint.

"Demo at Falmouth 2014 1" --- Sold

Another phase of workshop teaching has started. This is the first demo I did at Falmouth in Cape Cod, MA. I want to thank the Falmouth Artists Guild for organizing this workshop, and thank all the New England artists who are attending this workshop. This is a very typical demo: a dark bottle, a shinning pot, and colorful fruit.

Visiting Adelaide Cummings

We have arrived at Cape Cod this afternoon. We visited our friend Adelaide Cummings at West Falmouth. Adelaide is a legendary lady. She has just turned 100 years young in June. She wears a special pendent, which is her Olympic gold medal. She is winner of 4 Olympic gold medals in Tennis. Now she is also a very well known poet, and still writing every day. We met Adelaide the first time at Hope Town, the Bahamas in February. She was our next door neighbor at the hotel we stayed. Her story inspired me tremendously. She spends a part of the year in Bahamas, and the rest of year at her home in West Falmouth. I am so happy seeing her again here. Now I want share a verse of her poem with all of you:

Centenary

Folks are prone to blink, then rue,
What they think an aging mind can't do.
So, here are facts they need to heed...
We still read, enjoy a drink,
Rarely think we're on the brink,
Seldom call on help from shrink,
So to brush us off is oh so sad.
It's true we don't pursue each fad,
But we still have the brains we had!

"Zen of Grey 2" --- Sold

I have abandoned the painting project I posted previously. I felt it went to the wrong direction, well I mean the direction I don't want to go. First of all it started using "good" colors on the cup to capture attention, but I intended to let the grey to tell the story mainly. Secondly, It gets into too much details so the painting turned into a long term project.

This painting is larger (12" x 12"). I managed to finish it in one session. To prevent me going the "wrong" direction like my previous painting, I gave myself a few rules: 1. do not remove my glasses during painting, by which I must stay quite far from the painting to see clearly; 2. use only large brushes (half in to 2 in wide). I really want my large paintings have a similar look of my small (6" x 6") daily paintings. This one is sort of on track.

The most important for this project is let the grey tell the story, not the "good" colors. Grey colors are very delicate colors. You can not be sloppy with it. We all know the absolution neutral grey is the center of the color wheel. It likes the bull's eye on a target. Can you get it casually? In Texas, there are many good shooters. They work hard to control their guns and get the bull's eyes. For artist, grey is difficult to mix. If you are not careful enough, you will make mud. In other words: mud is an insensitive (or uncontrolled) grey. So, Improving "grey sensitivity" is a serious homework we all need to do.

"Zen of Grey" (Day 2)

I need to prepare a few small still life paintings for a gallery show in December. However, my mind is a complete blank. I started anyway. Beijing has taught me a lesson about the color grey. So I did this painting still working on my grey. This is very difficult project. I even has no confident it is going to make it. Definitely it will not go the gallery this December. However, my grey is progressing.

I like the word "Zen". Its meaning is loud and clear, but it is unspeakable. Just like grey. I hope my grey will have a "Zen" quality soon.

"Beijing Hutong 2014 9"

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This is the last painting I did in Beijing, and it is another plein air one. A couple of days before I left Beijing, I went to plein air painting with a new friend: Kuang Han. Han (is his first name, the Chinese always put their last name first) is a very well known pencil drawing artist in Beijing. However, he may not be known enough in the Western world. I don't need to say too much about him, please check Kuang Han's Art, you will know.

I have been home for a few days now. Due to the jet-lag, I have not started any serious painting project. However, I have been thinking a lot on what I have been doing. It is getting clearer and clearer that my art career has entered a relatively quiet phase. It feels like a novice sailor coming out of the busy harbor now. In front of me is the vast ocean, endless and exciting, but some sort lonely. For a few years I have touch_based a few areas in art. I felt quite frequently that I am either just see "the tip of an iceberg" or  "open a can of worms". Now the icebergs are getting bigger, and the worms are crawling all over (Man! what a mental picture I am painting). Well, we have no choice. Let's keep going. Maybe slow, and  maybe disoriented, but keep going, since we are determined.

"Zai-Jian Beijing"

Zai-Jiang means Goodbye in Chinese. I have left Beijing and back to Austin. My painting email newsletter should be back to normal now. I will continue painting more cityscapes, and hope this new endeavor can bring you more flavor of my art. I took more photos like this one serving as wonderful references for my future paintings.

Beijing Hutong 2014 - 8 SOLD!

Yesterday, I went plein air painting with a group of local artist friends. I did this sketch as a demonstration. I have quite a few artist friends here in Beijing. Every time I come here. I like to get together with them. We went to this place called “the Orchard”. It is very beautiful. It was so enjoyable painting with old friends. For purchase information click here.

Beijing Hutong 2014 - 7 --- Sold

This painting took me several days. I really worked on the grey, making sure the temperature change and color harmony are as correct as possible. I was very careful to avoid any arbitrary colors on this painting. This is very analytical painting, rather tiresome. Painting grey but not dirty is so difficult. Fortunately, it is still doable. Click here for purchase information.

Beijing Hutong 2014 - 6 SOLD!

I feel good about this painting because it goes to a good direction. Too many artists, me included, if we see part of the painting having issues, we usually fix them by adding details. When the painting is getting more realistic, we think the painting has progressed. This approach works but it usually ends up to a tight painting, not that exciting and dramatic. I am glad this one did not go that way. I have large areas on the painting remaining abstract, especially the knife work on the lower right corner. For purchase information click here.

Beijing Hutong 2014 - 5 SOLD!

In the Hutongs, I saw so many clothes lines. They are the major color contributions on the top of the grey. I like this one. Under the yellow afternoon sun. I have the situation of warm light, cool shadow. I tried my best to mix clean grey colors. I feel the color scheme of this painting works OK. For purchase information click here.

Beijing Hutong 2014 - 4

I modified my grey. I feel the result is better than my previous one. Grey color is so tricky. If you are not careful it turns into mud in no time. Click here to purchase.

"Many Years Ago, There Was A..."

I have been to Beijing for about two weeks now. Almost everyday, I walked around the inner city capturing the glimpse of local people’s life. This one was shot in one of the Hutongs. The tour-guide on the tricycle is describing what was going on many years ago in this area. I may do a painting based on this photo in the future. I like the back light given a rich red glow on the tricycle. 

Beijing Hutong 2014 - 3

Grey is the color of Beijing. This is great opportunity for me. Although I have already spent quite a bit of time working on my greys, I am still not able to handle it in a controlled manner. Well, I have no choice, but keep going and keep learning. Click here to purchase.

Beijing Hutong 2014 - 2

I did achieved color harmony on my previous painting. However, I did not feel very comfortable about the warm tone for the cityscape in China. Today I have tried used much cooler tone. I used very few colors for today’s painting: ultramarine blue, transparent oxide red, and white, plus a touch of pthalo blue and red for the color  accents. I like the cooler tone much better. Click here to purchase.

Beijing Hutong 2014 - 1 (day one)

I started painting again. The conditions here are not ideal, but I can’t wait. This one is from a photo I took a couple of days ago. I used this almost monochromatic approach to achieve the color harmony. I don’t think it is finished, but I have to wait until the painting is dry to the touch to continue. Since I am using a medium I am not used to, there is a learning curve to cross.

Beijing Hutong 1

In Beijing, the old historical districts are called Hutongs. Many small houses and courtyards were clustered together along narrow alleys. I was born in one of those Hutongs. So yesterday I went to my birthplace. The courtyard was long gone, but the Hutongs where I spent my childhood are still there. The place was chaotic. So much construction going on. Old houses are disappearing, replaced by ugly modern structures. I passed this courtyard with a heavily decorated gate. A group of local people are chatting. They seem pretty happy.

Early Autumn in China

It feels like a blink. I am now standing on the streets of Beijing. This year I was not successful  in bringing a group artists  to China to paint. However, I still made it myself. After more than thirteen hours of flight I arrived in Beijing yesterday afternoon. Due the jet lag, I got up very early this morning. The weather is so great here. The cool breeze of early autumn feels so wonderful.

China is like a painting which has had too much color put on it randomly. Parts of it are so dramatic, and other parts the colors are getting muddy. Every time I come here, I always feel so excited, and so shocked as well. The modern looking buildings in this photo are actually an electronics flea market where I just bought a 3G data card so I can hook my my Macbook air to the Internet. The place I am staying has no WiFi. This is the only way I can talk to you. I will be in China for a month, and I will keep you posted about what I see and what I do. 

Richard Schmid 80 Years Birthday

If you ask me who is the best artist I consider. I will say Richard Schmid. I admire many artists, some are good at painting still lives, some are good figures, and some are good landscapes. However, if you ask who is good at everything. I will say Richard Schmid. I am very fortunate for painting with Richard a few times. They were very great and very informative. They have strong impact on my art. I am relatively a late starter in art, but study with Richard Schmid has significantly accelerated my progress.

Richard Schmid will be 80 years young in this October. Please join me and friends all over to celebrate his Birthday by participating the Global Birthday Card Party for Richard by the Village of Arts at Putney.

Thank you

"Demo at Easton 3" --- Sold

For the third demo at Easton, I did not do a high key one. I feel I have some thinking to do about my high key approach. As a matter of fact, I have a lot of thinking to do in front of my entire art career. At the time you look at my art, I look at other people's art as well. I have found that making progress in art is so difficult. So many artists (including myself) keep painting the same thing. We like their works when we at the first place, but after we saw so many similar paintings, we start to get tire of them and stop following them, because we know they don't have any thing new to offer.

Why is it so hard to progress in art. There are several reasons. First of all, artists are human beings, they have their limitations. If we can do one or two things well in this short life, we should feel good about ourselves. Secondly, most of us are slaves of the all mighty dollar. We perform as puppets controlled by the market. I try my best to be mindful and live intensionally, but so many things are beyond my control. It sounds that I am complaining, but I am not. I am investigating and looking for potentials.

"Demo at Easton 2" --- Sold

For the second demo I used that red Japanese lunch box. With the orange red rose and orange warm grey back ground, the painting has a warm tone. I use to emphasize that the contrast is the key consideration to make an interesting painting, but recently I pay more attention on unification and harmony.

I am back to Austin now. The Oregon + Maryland trip was enjoyable. Now I need several days to recover my "Qi" (or energy). I really wish I will sit around and do nothing for a few days. Who knows if that is possible. Last night's full moon was so beautiful. I was pondering "unification" again. It was amazing. It doesn't matter where I am, west coast, east coast, or in Texas, the moon looks the same. Perfect, and bright, shared by the whole world.

"Demo at Easton 1" --- Sold

I am at Easton Maryland now. Today is the second day of my Easton workshop. I want to thank Easton Studio and School for organizing this workshop, and thank artists from all over for joining me and painting. This is very artistic town. I have heard Easton many years ago about the well know Plein Air Easton event. I am so happy to be here. This is my first demo.

"Demo at Springfield 3" --- Sold

This is the third demo. Now it gets more routine this third one is high key. However, I still feel my high key has not reached the level I want. I show my struggle right in front of my students. As a matter of fact, it is good. people see more genuinely how I paint. I made many mistakes and I try my best to solve problems.

Yesterday, Song and I flew 5 hours and arrived at Washington DC. Life is so surreal. At BWI, the rental car guy was very nice to me. He gave me a car with all kinds of advanced features. But I got so overwhelm of learning all the technology at the midnight, and not able to make the navigation system in the car to work. So I decided to use the GPS on my phone. In order to make the sound louder I tried to connect the phone speaker to the car via an auxiliary cable, but I could not find the jack to plug in. I ask the rental car guy. He told me there is no jack, but use my blue tooth to connect. I hesitated, I told him all my teeth are white, I don't have a blue one.

"Demo at Springfield 2" --- Sold

This is the second demo painting. I enjoy specifically painting the brass goblet. Every place I go, I always found some interesting objects I never painted before. There is excitement and risk.

"Demo at Springfield 1" --- Sold

I don't know why so many cities in America are called Springfield, but I have arrived at THE Springfield of America. If you watch the "Simpsons" on TV (I think all the Americans do), you will know where I am now. Springfield Oregon is the home of the Simpsons. I am so glad I am here and teaching a workshop. I want to thank the Emerald Art Center for organizing this workshop for me. I want to thank all the artists who attend my workshop. This is my first demo painting.