"Harvest Season" --- Sold

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Calvin Liang's second workshop was another successful one, but I didn't get chance to see his last demo. I rushed out to the airport and today I started my workshop teaching at Melbourne, FL. This is a little painting I did last week. Calvin watched me doing this one. We had a wonderful discussion about a lot of things in art. Calvin is on his way back to California tomorrow. I wish him a safe trip back, and thank him for bring his great art to Texas.

Now I am in Melbourne, and finished my first day of teaching. The workshop went very well. Every one is happy. I was expecting to see the space shuttle launch this afternoon, but Nasa has postpone it. What a pity, I missed my chance, but I enjoyed the beautiful scenery here. People are so nice here. I will show you my demos later.

"In a Cool Spot" --- Sold

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Using temperature contrast to enhance the colors at the center of focus is an effective method to make the painting looks more colorful.

"Apple Demo" --- Sold

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In my previous post, I borrowed the term "chromodynamics" from quantum physics to identify the color theory I would like to practically use and share with everybody in my teaching. It will take a while for me to organize all my logic, but in a nutshell, what I tried to say is "the way color moves". These a couple of days I received many comments and emails asking what I really learned from Calvin Liang. I remember he told me: "I really like to paint the scene that more than 60% of it is in shadow". This statement zapped me. I suddenly realized that 90% of my paintings were the opposite. I like the scene that more than 60% of it in light, and put most of the colors in lighted area as well. Calvin directed me to a new way of think. I interpreted his saying meant: "Why don't you put most of the good colors in shadow and see what happens?" This suggestion opened tremendous amount of opportunities for me to be creative. Instead of having one piece of vibrant color doing a solo, I can have many grays and subtle colors to perform a whole symphony together. You know I was not too fond of high key paintings. Now I changed my mind. Well, my today's painting is still belong to my old category, I will talk more about it next time.

"Flute Study" --- Sold

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One of my collectors loaned me a flute. She hopes I can do painting of flute someday. I thought about this project for a long time. I found my usual approach didn't work well with this elegant and intricate instrument. It is very different from painting flowers. I have to follow many of my engineering discipline for this painting. Now I am out of my comfort zone now and explore new territories. I am glad I did it. There is a lot of fun to give precisely designed mechanical parts a painterly look. I think I will involve high-tech stuff into my still-lifes soon.

By the way, the magazine that has the article about me is on the shelf of major bookstore now. I hope you enjoy reading it.

"Three Roses" --- Sold

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I did this painting on Tuesday night. It felt like doing en plein air. At that evening, my son had a concert. He plays trumpet. So we went to see and cheer for his show. Due to the time constrain, I knew I didn't have enough time to paint. So I asked my wife in advance to set up something she likes. Well, She did a very complicated one for me. I didn't change anything in the setup, but painted only a small portion of it. Can I call it plein air still life even it was done indoors? Maybe not, but who cares.

"Dark and Light" --- Sold

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This painting has a similar composition of the previous one. I really like the strong light effect behind the dark object. Starting from tomorrow, I will teach a 3-day workshop in Austin. I will share with you my demo paintings soon.

"Morning Calm" --- Sold

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2008 has been a remarkable year, for the two countries I call home, I shed tears for the victims of the devastating earthquake, I cheered the spectacular Olympics, I was excited to see the historical election, and I shared the pain of the collapsed economics. The world is like a Jackson Pollock’s painting. I feel myself like a small insect holding on a piece of leaf floating on a vast sea full of excitements and turmoil.

It has been a good year for me as an artist. Without much of the professional training, I have jumped into the art world. Far from maturity, but I had made some progress. With the great Internet, I shared my joy and frustration with you. With your uninterrupted support, I have been inspired and encouraged to surf the art waves.

At this New Year’s Eve, my small boat is docked. The water is calm; the air is misty. I am having a sweet dream….. without aware of that 2009 is just around the corner and the new challenges are approaching.
Thank You and Happy New Year !!!

"Orange in Green Light" --- Sold

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Transparent objects like bottles provide great opportunities for putting high chroma colors on a painting. Unlike the opaque objects, the light filtered by the bottle remains high color intensity. In contrast, the light reflected from an opaque object, like the orange, usually gets bleached, and pushing the high chroma color into the area closer to the shadow.... bla, bla, bla.. You know what I mean. I had too much technical junk at work today. My brain has not shifted to the artistic mode yet.

"Go-erds" --- Sold

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"Go-erds" is way to say "gourds" in Deep South. I learned it when I was in Mississippi last month. I really enjoy traveling. It is a good way of learning new things.

"Sew Much 4 U" --- Sold

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It took me three days to finish this small painting. After I returned from my Mississippi trip, I found my wife was in bed. She had a severe back pain and could hardly move. Our neighbor and some our friends helped her during my absent. I want to thank them for their kindness from the bottom of my heart. For more than a week. I had to take up all the chores in the house. In the mean time my daytime work had increased its load. We have a major deadline approaching. I don't even have time to unpack my painting stuff until about four days ago. My wife is getting better now, and I started painting again. However my painting time is still fragmented. I even can't finish a 5"x7" in one session. I said it before: being able to paint is a luxury. We should not take it for granted.

"White Nectarine" --- Sold

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I was informed by the Riverbend Gallery today that there is an article about me showing on a newspaper. Please check Lake Country Life page 6 for details. I am really happy to see my art growing healthily, and I am even happier to see my work make you happy.

"Sweet Colors" --- Sold

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Can a color be tasted? Maybe not, but beautiful colors give us such an enjoyment very similar to the experience of tasting a sweet fruit. As a matter of fact, the fruit on this image provided both wonderful sensations to me, because I ate them after I painted them.

"Copper Kettle"

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A friend of mine loaned me this hand made copper kettle to paint. At our technology-flooded age, I still enjoy more hand made stuff. I admire astonishingly the craftsmanship created by human hands. When I touch this copper pot, I can feel the relationship between its creator and me.

"Fresh Nectarines" --- Sold

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My wife got these nectarines the other day. They are so juicy and sweet. More important to me, they make such a great still life subject as well. I am so grateful that we have so many wonderful fruit for our enjoyment. I remember many years ago I met a group of friends in a meditation retreat center. They were fruitarines. They belong to an extreme group of vegan vegetarians. They only eat fruit because they think eating vegetables are cruel, because we destroy the life of the plants for our consumption. But fruit is the gift from the mother earth. There is no killing involved. We can have them with a peace of mind. Well, I respect them whole heartily, but I don't think I can do that. In any rate, this tells us how special a nectarine really is.

"Prayer Wheel" --- Sold

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I was glued to my computer checking horrible photos and video clips of the devastating earthquake in Si-Chuan, China. Thousands of People are suffering and dying at this very moment I am writing.

We have too many disasters lately. What is really going on? I don't have the answer. As a member of this big family we call the World, I will try my best to help. Let's help each other. Let's help the world.

"Indian Blanket" --- Sold

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Indian blanket, what a name it is for this wild flower. It is beautiful and strong. It will sustain in any kind of harsh weather. We can learn a lot from it.

"Orange Pot" --- Sold

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One of my favorite landscape artists is Calvin Liang. I really like his way of using color. This painting is my experiment of using Calvin's landscape color scheme into a still life painting. I hope this approach can work.

I recently placed a link of my workshop schedule on my blog. If you are interested in attending one, please click the small yellow thing on the upper right side of my blog page.

"Pears on Purple Drape" --- Sold

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After more than 10 hours working and commuting, I started painting around 8:30 PM yesterday. Exhausted, but I am glad I didn't crash in front the TV. I had the most meaningful two hours of the day. I felt good before I went to bed.

"Pear and Grapes" --- Sold

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I really enjoy painting the reflection of the pear on the small steel dish. It is amazing that human brains can identify real life objects from the arrangement of abstract shapes.

"Red Rose Blue Back" --- Sold

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I am working on handling negative space with this painting. The rose in front creates some nice shapes on the blue bowl at the back. I really enjoyed this composition. I hope you do too.