"Painter's Gadgets" --- Sold

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I continue working on my grays. I have a long way to go.

"Fixing Everything" --- Sold

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“If you have WD-40, you can fix everything.” I don’t remember where I heard this saying, but it is definitely very handy for most of people who like to working on cars or anything mechanical. I am not a very handy person, but I do have the wishful thinking that there is something existing that can eliminate all problems in the world. We have too many problems, especially now. Well, let us keep our wishes in dreams, and confront our everyday challenges face to face. For my today’s painting, I included the WD-40 as a carrier of blue and yellow. Different from my usual flower and fruit paintings, this one has more interesting shapes and designs. I spent much longer time setting it up, and really enjoyed painting it. Whether or not this type of painting has a market, I am curious. I put this WD-40 into the test, and see if it can fix a problem in art.

"Distorted Mirror" --- Sold

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Recently, you have seen so many my demo and plein air paintings. However, painting small still life, which is the center of my art, has been neglected for a while. I finally freed some of my evenings, and resumed small paintings. I hope it is the sign that my life has started to be normalized. In this painting, I focused on doing the reflections on the steel cup. The distorted image of the apple makes an interesting shape. It is completely different from the apple itself. This makes me think. In our minds, the images of ourselves are usually formed from the reflections of the world. They are often distorted. We should always maintain a balance mind no matter how good or bad we think we are.

"Morning at Marina"

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I had another wonderful plein air day today. It was my first time painting boats from live, and it was also my first time using wide panorama format. I still feel clumsy of using grays. It will take me a while to develop the sensitivity. At least I feel I know what I am doing. This marina is only 5 minutes from my home. I will go there more often doing more boats.

Demo at LSAG 2010 Convention

Last Friday evening, in pouring rain, I was on the road again. We travel to Conroe, TX attending the Lone Star Art Guild 2010 Convention. I did this demo in front of a large crowd. I had a relatively large canvas this time as well, but I have only two hours. I didn’t cover the canvas completely, but I kind of like the spontaneous look of the painting.

"Chapel Dulcinea" --- Sold

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When I was in Scottsdale, AZ, my friend Li and Mark told me that there is beautiful place in south Austin called Chapel Dulcinea. Coincidently, the local Plein Air Austin group had a paint out there this morning. I went out with them and did this small oil sketch. The weather was great. I had a wonderful time. I started to have some feelings about plein air painting now. My value range is improving. My colors are more under control. The paint quality has not reach to the level I like yet, but it is getting closer. In a nutshell, I feel good about this one.

"A New Drink" --- Sold

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With one tomato, three quarters of an orange, and a bottle of beer, can we make a good drink out of those? Maybe, maybe not. My life is kind of like this. I am doing several things, which are completely unrelated to each other. I draw myself pretty thin now. My eBay store is very empty; I am behind on gallery paintings. I am flying all over the places. Some time I woke up in the morning, and couldn’t figure out where I was. On our company meetings, I felt really odd that I still blurted out gobbledygook that sounded technical. Many people told me that I have a wonderful problem. Well it is a problem for sure. I am learning really hard to manage my life. At this moment, I am still a lousy manager. It might take me while to go through the learn curve. My art will definitely suffer during this period, but please hang in there with me. In my technical career, I have learned the hard way. I have understood now that I must be an entrepreneur to survive in this money driven culture. Being talented can be a curse if you are not careful.

"Wild Texas Beauty"

Different from most of my workshops, I did not do a demo of painting roses this time. I was so overwhelmed by the beauty of wild flowers around me. I got a handful of Indian Blanket and Coreopsis. Without much of adjustment, this composition came out naturally. I had a great time painting this one. Submerged in all kinds of colors in the wild Texas hill country, I feel we are so blessed. We do not need to travel long to find beauty. The beautiful flowers are everywhere. They are free, and they are priceless.

"Demo at Wenmohs Ranch 1" --- Traded

This is my first demo at the Wenmohs Ranch. I want to thank Dena Wenmohs for organizing this wonderful event. I met many new friends and saw a few old friends as well. When I did this painting, I enjoyed so much of the vibrant red color when light transmitted through the grape fruit.

"Wild flowers at Wenmohs Ranch"

I am in the beautiful Texas hill country. The Wenmohs Ranch is very large and full of wild flowers. After the class today, we did a hike in the wild. Under the late afternoon sun, the scene is just incredibly beautiful.

"With David Leffel at OPA"

I am sorry I don’t have a painting to show you today. I just came back from the OPA National Show at midnight yesterday. It was a great event. I was so excited meeting and seeing so many great artists. The photo above showing I was with the still life painting master David Leffel. I am very grateful to have David as my teacher. I did not win anything this time, but I am very happy that my painting was sold right away at the reception night. I learned a lot this time from observing great paintings, watching masters demos, and discussion with other artists. It was a quite phenomenal and inspirational event.

I went to work as a regular engineer today, but tomorrow I will be on my way to the Texas hill country. I will teach a painting workshop at Cypress Creek, TX starting on Wednesday.

"Superstition Mountain, AZ"

I arrived at Scottsdale Yesterday morning. My friend Li picked me up, and then we did some sightseeing. The beauty of the desert stunned me. This is the Superstition Mountain. I am bewitched, couldn’t move and turned into a saguaro.

"Cantaloupe Glow"

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I did this gallery level painting over the weekend. Somehow recently, I really enjoy using the complete dark background. The glowing warm colors show my passion about life. As a matter of fact, my life lately is rather chaotic. I got disorientated with my multi-tasking business, and tried my best to manage all aspects to make sure nothing was falling apart. Oh boy! It is rather hard. But I am hanging in there. I like what Beethoven had said: “I will seize Fate by the throat. It will not wholly conquer me! Oh, how beautiful it is to live - and live a thousand times over!”

I will go to Scottsdale, AZ this Thursday, and attend this year’s OPA National.

"Demo at Las Cruces 2" --- Sold

It was so much fun doing this demo. You probably have seen many of my demo paintings now. I usually am conservative when I do demos. I want to make sure that I do not run into unexpected difficulties that not only make me struggle but also waist other people’s time. For this one I went out my comfort zone a little. I placed an old book in this one so I was able to show students how I measure and make the perspective correctly. I haven’t painted many old books before, so I hesitated a little. But it turned out good, and it surely was an enjoyment.

"House in Austin 2"

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I took this morning off, from both my art and engineering. It was a perfect morning for plein air, beautiful weather and no wind. but …… I didn’t paint. having been working my two professions for a long while; I did feel a little tired mentally. Coming back from my workshop trip, I went immediately to my lab and had a long day with lasers and lenses yesterday. So I want to do something else today. About four months ago, we bought 2 acres in the Texas hill country. It is about 20 minutes drive from our home. So I went to this country land this morning. Chainsaw in my hand, I worked my butt off cutting down old cedar trees. You know I am not in good shape. Not for too long, I was exhausted physically. Panting and sweating, I crashed by a small creek. Hearing the water gurgling down. Men! I felt sooooo good. The simplest life is the best. To make myself not feel too guilty for not painting, I post this plein air I did about a week ago. I was so busy, and didn't get chance to show it earlier.

"Demo at Las Cruces 1" --- Sold

I came back from New Mexico last night. I had another successful workshop. Mrs. Julie Oliver did a great job of putting this workshop together. I would like to thank her and all the workshop attendees. I had a wonderful time in Las Cruces. I enjoy the mountains and openness of the south New Mexico. I am really lucky that the workshop I taught gave me opportunity of traveling to many new places. I spent some time in the White Sand before capturing my flight back at El Paso. The beauty of the desert has blown me away.

"Apple Blossom" --- Sold

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We have an apple tree in the back yard. It hasn’t given us any apples yet, but recently it has beautiful blossoms and new leaves. I did this painting a couple of days ago. I was practicing doing leaves. You have seen many of my flower paintings. I did not emphasize the leaves much if the center is the flower. However for this one, I gave more time to the leaves.
I am going to Las Cruces, NM tomorrow to teach a workshop.

"Let Me In"

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After several plein air landscapes, I want to go back to still life. I also want to paint something I haven’t painted before. Kiwis are new to me. The translucent dark green is so enticing. I just love it.

"House in Austin 1" --- Sold

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It was cloudy Sunday afternoon. I did this plein air near the Lake Travis, close to a very affluent neighborhood. After painting several plein air paintings, I realize that my plein air is completely the opposite my still life. My still lifes are low-key, with very wide value range, with high chroma colors, and very bright light in the focal point. Well, my plein airs are high key, narrow value range, with subtle grays, and dark accent at the center of focus. I have tried using my still life approaches to do plein air, but they did not work well. I don’t understand why. It does not make sense.

"My Neighborhood" --- Sold

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To you plein air painters, where do you go to paint? Do you travel to exotic places and paint special historic sites with spectacular natural beauty? I do. I did this painting yesterday morning. I had about 2 hours daytime before I sent my car to have its brakes replaced; then I went to work. I traveled 50 yards from my house. All houses here will have special history in the future. The ordinary sidewalk made a spectacular turn. If you are checking my image from other countries, this is a quite exotic American neighborhood.

"Demo at Magnolia 2" --- Sold

This painting was my second demo at the Magnolia workshop. You probably noticed I use more and more complete dark background recently. I got a little bored with my dark triangle on the left corner type of background design. I think you may get bored as well. You are experiencing the growing process of my art. At the beginning, I didn’t know what I was doing. I simply just paint. Then I developed some comfort zones. So you see similar paintings. I did stay in those comfort zones for a while so I could adjust the fine structures. Now I think I am in the third stage of growing. I come out from my comfort zones and explore new possibilities. We may experience together that my painting quality could have some fluctuations, but it is natural. We have to go through the growing pain.

"Demo at Magnolia 1" --- Sold

I just came back from Magnolia, TX teaching a workshop. It has been the third year I teach at ARLC. Ms. Marty Hatcher did a superb job organizing these workshops. Thank you so much Marty. I was so enjoyed meeting wonderful artists in the workshop. Thank you all very much. This painting was my first demo. The dark vase captured the cooler light made this setup so enjoyable to paint.

I apologize that I have not posted for a while. It is the tax time and I have spent my already very limited painting time in bookkeeping a lot. I felt so wonderful for a week that my recent reduced time at my engineering work spared me some day light so I did a couple of plein air work, but I went back to my old working hours last week because I need to squeeze some hours together (you know physicists can do that) for the workshop. However, I am confident that my life will be more in control in the future. So please do not worry, and be happy.

"New Sweden Church" --- Sold

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On Thursday morning, I joined the Plein Air Austin group and painted this beautiful church. It was so wonderful painting with PAA again. I was a member for many years, but have not been active for a long time. This paint out was arranged by my friend Robert. As a matter of fact, he scarifies quite a bid finding this location. Several years ago. Robert was bicycling near Manor, Texas. He had a bad fall on a country road and lost two of his front teeth. With a blood covered face, he stood up and found this beautiful place. "What a painting it is!" Robert thought. Now he is back and with many artists coming with him. I felt quite good about what I did. The greys work nicely. I appreciate so much that many friends sharing their grey recipes with me. I can't wait to try them all.

"JMK Log House" --- Sold

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I did this little plein air sketch this morning. This is an old log house located very close to where I live. Compared with my painting posted previously, I felt a little better. I am working on the foundation of my plein air paintings. For this one, I am paying attention on mixing greys. I was using ultramarine blue, cadmium orange, and Naples yellow to get the grey for the shadow of the house. If you have good ways of mixing greys, would you mind sharing them with me?

"Texas Country" --- Sold

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I did this plein air painting the afternoon in the Texas Hill Country. I felt great painting outdoors, but the painting was very challenge to me. Since I have not painted much plein air. The scene was overwhelming, the colors were different. I was out my comfort zone completely. I can't use my still life approaches here. This is my first time painting cactus. I really don't know what I was doing. I let my intuition take the lead. My colors were undefined, and my composition was accidental. I just simply paint. So if you feel you don't know how to paint something, you just simply paint.

"Spring on Branches" --- Sold

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This is another painting I did in the morning. We have this peach tree growing in our back yard. We didn't plant it. It must come out from the compost pile my wife made. The blossoms are so beautiful giving our yard full of spring. I must paint them before too late. I have used some of my study results I obtained from investigating how to paint colors of white objects. It works. If the spring has not arrived at your place yet, I hope this painting will bring some warm air to you.

Workshop Reminder

I will teach a 3-day still life painting workshop at Magnolia TX (near Houston) from March 26 to March 28. We still have a few openings. If you are interested in this workshop, please contact Marty Hatcher at mart4art2@sbcglobal.net .

Thanks,

Qiang

"Red and Black"

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I really can’t believe it. I did this painting on a Tuesday morning - a regular working weekday. About a month ago, I negotiated with my boss that I want to reduce my pay and free some time for my art. To most of engineers, it is rather bizarre to propose something like that. After several push-pulls, I got what I want. Now I am allowed to work 30 hours per week. I am still considered full-time engineer so I can keep my benefit. I am so grateful to the company’s decision. You know I call myself a DAILY painter, but in reality I have been painting NIGHTLY all the time. Man, it surely feels so goooooood painting under day light. Now, I am able to FEEL the spring coming to Texas. I am so happy that life can be this good. I pinch myself to verify that I am not in my dream.

"Demo at Dallas 2" --- Sold

I am a little late on my blog posting. This is the second demo painting I did at Dallas. Now, it becomes a routine that I need to show how to paint roses at my workshops. I enjoy doing it too.

After I mentioned that my wife's email got hacked, we received many phone calls and emails showing tips and offering helps. We are really touched and feel grateful to all of you. Song has set up a new email account, and our life is coming back to normal gradually. I wish I could articulate our thanks more expressively, but our limited English abilities limit us to do so. The only way I can do is working more on my painting and teaching, and provide better paintings and more effective teaching to assist your progress in art. Thank you.

"Demo at Dallas 1" --- Sold

This is my first demo at my workshop at Dallas. I want to thank Mrs. La Rue Hunter and ACA for putting this workshop together. I really enjoyed meeting so many wonderful artists. We had great time in those three days.

Once a workshop is over, I usually have a couple of days I can relax my mind (I am always busy physically). However this time, I have no chance. On Wednesday morning, I just checked out from my hotel and on my way out, my wife, Song, called me in the mood of panic. She told me that her email got hijacked. The bad guys sent emails to all the people on her contact list and said that she was in UK and got robbed, she really needed cash, and asked people to send money to an address in UK. Song couldn't login her email account any more. She got a lot of phone calls asking her if this was true. I drove back to the hotel and send a warning message to all my subscribers right away. After I rush back to Austin, we called yahoo to report that Song's email got stolen. You know what, Yahoo did not consider Song was the real owner of her email address, because she couldn't remember the correct answer of one of the security questions. So Yahoo won't help us to reset Song's password, and the bad guys are keeping sending harmful messages to innocent people. I really cross my finger and hope that nobody is losing money because this. Yahoo service people even hung up phone on us. We really don't know what else we can do. In any event, if you happen to be on Song's mailing list and receive email from: yuehongsong188@yahoo.com, PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY. If you are registered student of Calvin Liang's workshops, you can contact me to ask questions and we will send you new contact methods. If you have experiences dealing with email problems, please help us. We appreciate it very much.