China 2025

 I am cordially inviting you to join us to this one of a kind of touring and painting trip this September. We are organizing a 15 days painting and sightseeing in China trip. The detailed information and itinerary of this exotic trip are listed in the webpage: https://www.qhart.com/china-2025. 

We are living in a very special time. The world is changing. There is too much information, and we don't have a clear idea who is telling the truth. However, I still believe that most people are kind and companionate. We want to share the beauty of the world, and enjoy reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones. I think the best way to know if a piece of information is right is to check it with your own experiences. The world is full of beautiful and peaceful places. We should spend our limited life time wisely. We have organized successfully six international painting events so far. I hope you can take advantage of this unique opportunity.

Demo 3 at SAS

 

My 3rd demo at SAS last month was a floral painting. I hope you like it.

Painter's Guide App on iPhone

 

We have been developing computer apps for helping artists to paint better. So far I have used my website as a carrier so artists can use the apps for free. Since we designed the apps mainly for computer and iPad users, these tools do not display well on phones. Recently, I spent some time redesigned the user interface of the "Painter's Guide" app so it looks well on iPhones. If you are a plein air painter, you may simply snap a photo of the scene, and view the color data immediately with the app on your phone. Please follow the simple instructions shown with above images to use this app. I hope this simple tool can help you to clarify the colors you see. Painting practice shouldn't be confusing and ambiguous any more.

SAS Demo 2

 

Demo 2 at SAS was emphasized on value. The chromatic effects got minimized. If you can manage the value right, you are not far from successful. You know I have spent massive amount of time doing color research, but I know that is all icing on the cake. 

SAS Demo 1

 

I have taught a workshop at Scottsdale Artists School about a week ago. Thanks to all the artists coming from all over for attending my class. I have tried my best and will keep on trying to make my teaching more effective. I hope your art have been improved since the workshop. Because I believe the fare way to evaluate if a teacher is doing the job right is the progress of the students' paintings. I hope my work satisfies your requirement.

Water Cascade Study

 

Recently, I organized a painting workshop for the master artist Albert Handell, and I did this one on his class. I am still in the mood of researching of grays. I have enjoyed the color subtlety and it is closely related to my previous village paintings. I hope my color will have more chromaticity soon, but now I want stay in grey a little longer.

Painting Pingyao

 

I am painting a scene of Pingyao, an ancient city in Shanxi province, China. This coming September I will stay at this place and do plein air painting with a group of artists. So I am better to be prepared. This painting is not done, but I want to share with you how I started. It has been so enjoyable seeing the painting evolves right in front of my eyes. This time I don't want the painting to be too tight, so I deliberately to keep of my early spontaneous marks. As the details come more and more, it will gets harder to keep it loose. We will see. If you are interested in going with me to this exotic place, please check: https://www.qhart.com/china-2025. We will have a lot of fun there.

Painter's Guide App 4.0

 

I have just upgraded the "Painter's Guide" app. The major change is the data display dashboard. I have added a new color parameter called the "Tint", which measures how green or purple a color is. As a matter of fact, the color temperature and tint are two orthogonal axes forming a Cartesian coordinate system crossing the color wheel. The conventional hue/chroma polar system and the temperature/tint Cartesian system can be transformed from each other. We artists usually emphasize on color temperature, but not on tint. So we have only 50% of information the nature offers us. After I put the "tint" bar on the data display, the dashboard shows a marvelous symmetry. I was stunned by its mathematical beauty.  If something looks good, it usually means something is significant.

The "Painter's Guide" app is a computer tool created by two engineers and myself. It helps artists to see color more accurately. It is also a measurement tool helping us to understand the behavior of the color. The app is free for anybody to use. Please visit: https://www.qhart.com/apps and press the "Painter's Guide 4.0" button. I hope it will help you to make your painting process easier. 

Derek Penix's painting workshop

 

Although we still say "Happy New Year" to greet each other, 2025 has already passed its first week mark. I am getting so busy alternating painting, color research, communications with friends, plan for future events, and so on. Many of you are probably living and working very similarly. No matter how much out of control I am, I try to keep cool, at least I appear to be. However, when a real master works, the situation is the opposite. They are in control for sure, but they appear they can achieve what they want casually. They have all the freedom on their side. This kind of feeling reminds me Derek Penix's painting process. He seems start his painting pretty randomly, but he is in control for sure. His mind follows his plans. His colors and mark making appears arbitrary, but he establishes accurate relationships in value, temperature, geometry, and all other design elements. It is so exciting to watch Derek paints, and his teaching has wealth of information about his think process. I am so happy to let you know: Derek Penix comes to Austin again and teach a 3-day painting workshop next month. We still have few openings at this moment, please take this opportunity to sign up at https://www.qhart.com/dereks-workshop-2025 as soon as possible.

Village painting study 2

 

Continued working on this painting. Concentrated still on the accuracy of the greys. Measured and compared numerically. This is rather an engineering project than an artistic one, but it is OK. After I figure out all the engineering issues, I will then do art. I feel content so far, even I can't really verbalize what is going on. I feel I have adequate amount of tools now to put "grey" under control. I feel I am learning like an AI robot. At the beginning, I am so slow, and clumsy. Until one day, I really get it. I will .......