"Louisiana Bayou Country" --- Sold

This is my 4th demo on my Black Mountain workshop. The reference photo was taken at Houma Louisiana. It was early spring, I used a large amount of grey and brown to depict the humidity in the atmosphere.

"Demo at Black Mountain 2016 3" --- Sold

This is the third demo, high key with roses. I used to think that high key is not the way I want to go, because it can not present the dramatic light effect like a low key one can do with a strong value contrast. Now gradually, my high key paintings have reached a certain degree of maturity. I feel the abstractness and color temperature control have to do a lot to make a high key painting successful. I am getting there.

"Demo at Black Mountain 2016 2" --- Sold

I painted my second demo a little tighter than my first one. I like the classical look. There is not much of color in this one, but the realistic prevention described the delicate craftsmanship of the clock and the brass candle holder. It makes the painting an elegant look.

"Demo at Black Mountain 2016 1" --- Sold

My workshop at Black Mountain, NC started yesterday. I want to thank Sheryl Keefer for organizing and all the artists from Alabama, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina for attending. This is my first demo. Somehow I moved more and more into the abstract direction.  Look at how many edges I have destroyed in this painting.  If you see I am going too far, please tell me. I am counting on you to check my sanity.

"Demo in Atlanta 2016 3" --- Sold

I need to come out of the darkness. So my third demo was a high key one. I just love that Japanese lantern. I got this one really abstract. I have enjoyed the feeling of all kinds of textures.

After my Atlanta workshop, I drove northeast into the Great Smoky Mountains. I have arrived at Black Mountain, North Carolina.

"Demo in Atlant 2016 2" --- Sold

Wow! it is so dark. I don't know why I like low key painting that much. It must reflecting my subconscious insecurity. The world is a tricky and mysterious place. I am holding a small candle to explore my way. I can see only a short distance in front. The vast and deep darkness challenges me. What should I do? Well, we have no choice. Let's keep on going.

"Demo in Atlanta 2016 1" --- Sold

After some down time, I resume teaching workshops again. This one is my first demonstration painting at The Art School in Sandy Springs. I want to thank Laura Shainker and Donna Thomas for putting this workshop together, and thanks to all artists from Georgia, Alabama, and Texas for attending my workshop. I have introduced my 5 steps painting procedure in the first day.

"Rock Piles in Sedona"

I completely ignored the composition of this painting. It would make a better painting if I would of introducing more layers and showing more areal perspective. All of that was not my intention of this work. I forced myself NOT to paint intuitively, NOT following my "feelings". However I concentrate on this "research" to develop a system. My intention is still on "how to paint a pile of things", which is texture development. There are two treatments when we approach to the paintings elements: depicting and suggesting. For still lives, figures, and portraits, we depict more. However for landscapes we suggest more. Developing a suggesting technique is what I want to know.

"Rock Piles in Yellow Mountain"

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This is my second painting in my "A pile of things" series. The scene is the Yellow Mountain in Anhui China. It has a pile of rocks and a pile of trees. I felt slightly better than my previous painting. The rock pile seems more solid and tree piles start to show more believable structures. My objective in the current project is the texture presentation. I am glad I can see tree trunks in the painting. There still has quite amount of ambiguity in my tree mass, but I have progressed.

"Rock Piles in the Canyon"

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I have started a new project called "how to paint a pile of things". I know how to paint individual things well. So  still lives, buildings, figures, and portraits are relatively easy to me. However, it is hard for me to paint landscapes.  I feel it is very un-natural for me. I really don't have the intuition of landscape painting. Well my right brain is dead now. I have no choice but use my left brain. I analyzed, and find the problem is that I don't know how to paint "a pile of things". If I have to paint a tree, I feel I must render all leaves one-by-one. I need to develop a process of dealing with objects in a large quantity. That is motivation of doing this research. This is my first experiment. I don't rely on the mercy of happy accidents. I want to know why and how like a scientist.