"Water Lily Impression"

 

This is another plein air experimental piece. The location was at the "International Water Lily Garden" in San Angelo. The painting was relatively large (18" x 24"). My intention was concentrating on the color design and using as less as possible representational elements. I would not say the experiment was successful, but it was not a failure either. I did gain color freedom, but the harmony needs quite amount of work. I have learned.

"ICU Heroes"

 

I have finished the painting "ICU Heroes" I want to acknowledge Mr. Phillip Reese and "The Sacramento Bee" for the reference photograph. I kept the paint work rather rough presenting a feeling of movement. It must be very exhausted and stressful working in ICUs. Let us help them by not getting sick. Please take Covid 19 seriously: stay home as much as you can and showing you care by wearing masks.

"ICU Heroes" Phase 2

This is my second session on "ICU Heroes" I am using my "Color Picker" app (on my website) to identify my colors, and mainly using a palette knife to block in. I want to thank all the wonderful friends who commented on my previous post. We will go through this difficult time. I can not predict the future, but I know well that we should use the time we have to grow, to be a better artist, and a better person. 

 

"ICU Heroes" phase 1

 

I have decided to do an ICU painting, because I feel personally grateful to all the doctors, nurses, and other medical workers fighting Covid 19 on the front line. In the morning of April 8, I got a call from Toronto. My brother told me that his wife has got the Covid and moved into ICU. Three days later, my brother was also hospitalized and in ICU as well. For more than a month since then. I have been calling ICU daily to check on my brother and sister-in-law. I have talked with so many wonderful people in the ICU. My brother was on a ventilator for more than a month, and my sister-in-law was in ICU for about two months. Finally both of them have recovered. I want to thank all the wonderful people in the ICU for saving their lives. They are risking their own lives to help others. This pandemic has been disastrous for so many people, so many families. We all should try our best to help.

"Memory of the Old Days"

Recently, I didn't post as frequently as I wanted, but I was literally a daily painter. I painted everyday. Instead of doing many small paintings however, I did only one, but a relatively large painting. I have spent more than 10 day on it. This one is different from most of my paintings. I emphasized on the subtle details, but not much to the boldness of the paint quality. This was a wonderful exercise for me. I practiced more on the long term painting process. I was confronted in many areas that I was lack of skills and ideas. For a couple of days I was in real ageny (spelling? the checker didn't work today). I wanted to quit many times, but I am glad I didn't. I think I have grown quite significantly by doing this serious painting.

I am going to submit this painting to this year's Oil Painter's of America National Exhibition. I hope I get lucky.

"Gold and Silver"

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I did another large painting over the weekend. The composition is different from I used to do. It has shown more depth and gives more airy effect. The brushwork varies quite a bit from detail descriptions to loose suggestions. The background is highly abstract and vignette. The Richard Schmid influence is very obvious here. It is so interesting to see how the style changes. When we study from someone, our work will show the similarity. I will let the time to determine my style formation. This time I did use retouch varnish when I started the second day. I was really careful to protect the area that was still wet. I think it worked.

"Backyard Harvest"

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Having been painting small daily paintings for a while. Now it is time to do some serious large pieces. I did this 18” x 24” over the weekend. You know I have been concentrating on painting leaves. This one starts to show a real progress. Painting large feels so different from painting small ones, especially the second day. I paint without using any medium. I have started to see issues with this approach. On the second day, my dark colors have dried quite a bit. They looked mat and lose the dark value. The paint surface is so sticky and difficult to get the effect I wanted. If you have experiences of finishing a painting in multiple days, I appreciate if you can share some of your tips.