"Afternoon at Windy Point"

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Calvin Liang's first workshop ended yesterday. It was very successful. The weather was great, the sites was beautiful, and everybody were happy. Today is our only break. The second workshop will start tomorrow morning. I have been very busy this two weeks. I went out early in the morning, set up road signs to make sure workshop artists can find the painting location. After everybody showed up and Calvin started to demo, I turned around and went to work. In the evenings, Calvin and I went different places to eat and chat. We had a lot of fun. Oh! I did got chance to paint. This one I did last Thursday. I have learned a lot from the master.

Recently I have spent a lot time trying to fix my computer problems. I got the newest MacBook Air computer. It is NICE. Now I am in the transition between PC and Mac. There is big learning curve I will go through. I have tried so many ways to generate my painting newsletter. I sincerely apologize that I have shown so many problems on my newsletters lately. I hope I am getting better now. If you see problems and issues, please let me know. It will help everybody. Thanks.

"Calvin is showing his painting secret"

This is a demo painting did by master artist Calvin Liang.
This and next week, the internationally well known artist Calvin Liang is teaching two 5-days workshops in Austin. He is sharing his magic approaches to plein air painting. I am amazed by his rich organic colors and energetic brush work. We all appreciate this great opportunity to learn from the master. If you admire Calvin's art like I do, I have a good news for you. Due to the last minute cancelation, we still have a couple of openings for his second workshop starting on this Sunday Oct. 31. If you are interested in getting his painting secret, please shoot me an email: qhart002@yahoo.com. I will try my best to get you in.

"Jessica" 9"x12" oil on board

A very good artist friend of mine was hosting a live drawing/painting session at his home last night. I went there after work and did this portrait sketch. You know I love painting human, but just have not done enough. We had a great model Jessica. I really enjoyed painting her.


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"We Urn It" --- Sold, First Place Winner, Quick Draw

The last day of the paint out, we had a quick draw competition. I painted this urn. It was my lucky day again. I won the first place of the quick draw competition. I am very happy and humbled. You know what, I think this Urn has a magic power. Three prize winning artists did this urn: John Cook, Dennis Farris, and me. "We urn it!" John said to me after the event. John and Dennis are superb artists. Please google their names if you are not familiar with their works. You will be amazed with what they can do. I am very lucky to be among these greatly accomplished artists.


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"Trial Garden Glory" --- Sold, Second Place Winner

All together, I painted 4 paintings in the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. This was the one I submitted to the competition. I painted this painting in the "Trial Garden" where I found many uncommon plants. I didn't know the name of these flowers, but they are surely beautiful. I tried keeping the painting a sketchy looking without a detailed rendering. I was very honored and excited of winning the second place of the Camp Fire USA Paint Out Competition.


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"Japanese Garden" --- Traded with an artist friend

I am on the road again. I am at Fort Worth, TX, participating the Camp Fire USA Paint Out. These several days, We are in the beautiful Fort Worth Botanical Garden. This is my first painting. Plein Air is always a challenge to me, but it was fun.


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Calvin Liang workshop openings

You might have known, Song and I organize two plain air painting workshops at Austin, TX for the nationally well known artist Calvin Liang. The first one will be Oct. 25 - 29, and the second one Oct. 31 - Nov. 4. Now we have several openings. If you are interested in attending, please

Email us .

Click here for detailed workshop information




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"Demo at Lake Martin, AL 3" --- Sold

This is another demo I did at my Alabama workshop. I have figured out how to generate HTML newsletters on my iPad. If you subscribe my painting email, you now should see my painting image directly without opening the attachment like you did with my previous email. My computer problem has turned into a good thing. It forces me to learn new things. I like my iPad even more now.


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"Demo at Lake Martin, AL 2" --- Sold

I did my first 5-day workshop at the Beautiful Lake Martin near Alexander City in Central Alabama. I want to thank the Sarah Carlisle Towery Art Colony for organizing this wonderful event. Specially, I want thank Debbie Dowdle for her tremendous effort for putting this workshop together. I really enjoyed meeting all new artist friends there, and hope my teaching has some positive effect on your art. Alabama is a special place for me. I spent seven years as a rocket scientist in Huntsville. Song and I were married there too. You may find a trace of southern accent in my broken English. I felt so excited going back. This is my second demo at the workshop. At this moment, I am still in my computer crisis, but at least, you can see my writing and image together.



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Posting from my iPad

I have just came back from Alabama last night. My computer has major hardware problems. I have spend almost whole day figuring out how to post without using a computer. iPad is my only tool right now. I have figured out how to import images from digital camera and edit them. I opened a Photobucket account to store images on line, and uploaded an image to my blog directly from Safary. But I could not post text somehow. Now I am trying this new app BlogPress. I think I have got most parts working now. Computers are powerful tools, but they are most unreliable tools. I refuse to be controlled by computers. So many things are in my way trying to stop me from painting. I do not give in.


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Demo at Lake Martin, AL 1 --- Sold

"Taking Out"

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It is the last day of the month today. This month, I didn’t finish my quota for my on-line galleries. Officially, I am not a daily painter any more. I told myself last night: Qiang, you must paint something right now. So I did. Was it good? I don’t know, but I learned something: Never ever use a clay board for oil painting. I am short in supplies now. Out of desperation, I found some panels I bought who know when. I did this 6”x6” with it. Oh! My goodness, this board was unbelievably absorptive. I literally poured a puddle of linseed oil on the surface, and it disappeared in seconds. Every brush I putted on turned into a dry mark, no matter how juicy my paint was. All my darks lost the darkness very quickly. I lost completely the smoothness of oil painting. Usually my paintings are dry to touch in several days. For this one, it is dry to touch in minutes. I used retouch varnish trying to bring the fresh look back, but it last only a couple of minutes. Oh boy. It was a real struggle….. My life is still in a mess right now, but I remind myself again: Just do it and Never give up.

I am going to Alabama tomorrow. I will let you know how the workshop goes later.

"Demo at Jacksonville 3" --- Sold

I did three demos at this workshop and this was the last one. I was trying to show what I have learned from Richard Schmid. I left the background rather transparent and paid a lot of attention to the edges. I was rushed a little due to my time constrains. I think this one has a lot of potential.

I am back to Austin now, and had a gear shifting to my engineering work. I may not paint much for a while because I am behind in so many things. Unfortunately, painting will be the first to be sacrificed. My lack of skills of managing business is killing my art at this moment, but I will straighten up everything. My life is a little chaotic, but it will be back to normal soon.

"Demo at Jacksonville 2" --- Sold

This is my second demo at the workshop. I have never done a watermelon before, and sunflower is relatively new to me as well. But they all just shapes and colors to me. The painting has turned out all right. It looks that the watermelon and the sunflower go together nicely.

"Demo at Jacksonville 1" --- Sold

I have just completed my three-day workshop at Jacksonville, FL. I really appreciate Eileen Corse for putting this workshop together. The workshop was held at the fabulous Corse gallery. I was so excited to meet many new artist friends and delighted to see some of my old friends too. This is my first demo painting. I had so much fun doing it.

"Quiet Moment" --- Sold

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I am not creative today. This one is my typical composition. In my life, having time and energy to paint is really a luxury. Recently, I felt more and more forces trying to push me away from my art. I paint much less now, and the progress is not in sync with my expectation. I am not in crisis, but I have reached a low point in this relatively new career of mine. I remind myself: Just do it and never give up.

"Green Energy" --- Sold

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These several days I didn’t paint. I was carried away doing a DIY green energy project. Like most people, I am really for going green, but I have not taken any real action. I still turn on my AC to beat the hot Texas summer, and water my lawn with a sprinkler system. But one incident has forced me to go green.

You probably know I have a small property in the Texas hill country (I posted a painting of a propane tank this spring). I bought it early this year, but I hardly go there. I did have the electricity and water turned on, but I have not used any. I thought it should not cost me much, however, I was deadly wrong. Besides more than $100 turning-on fee, the fee for just keeping the power and water available was $78 per month. After throwing money away for five months, I finally picked up the phone calling the water company to stop the “service”. The lady on the other end nicely talked to me: If I stopped the water now, I couldn’t turn it on again within six months, otherwise I will be charged availability fees for all the months in between…. OK. THANKS. After being mad for a short while, I determined: I WILL DO IT MYSELF. So I started my green energy projects.

My first project was a solar power system. I went on eBay bought 36 solar cells ($60) and made my first solar panel. I bought two golf cart batteries at Costco. I got the charge controller and power inverter on-line. After two weeks fun work, I got the system working yesterday. Last night we had a party. Under the solar powered lights, I played a CD of Beethoven with a solar powered boom box. It was so great.
Sorry about the sidetracking from art, but it was really fun. Next I will do rain water harvesting, and a solar water heater.

"Peaches, Leaves" --- Sold

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I want to thank all the friends for providing information and tips for my marina assessment question. I will try again.
I am not quite sure what I am doing with my today’s painting. You know I have done a few leaf paintings not long ago. Obviously, I haven’t done enough. There are many issues, but I will keep trying. I will make it some day.

"Cypress Creek Marina"

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I live near the beautiful Lake Travis at west of Austin. There are so many wonderful spots for painting. However, I have to say that I feel really frustrated here. There are so many marinas, but all of them are private. They are gated and require codes to get in. I have contacted their managements and asked if I can organize group paint-out or do plein air workshops there. I got the answer “no” all the time. I understand their concerns. This marina (Cypress Creek Marina) is only 5 min. drive from my house. It is an ideal place for painting plein air. I have a friend who has a boat docked there. So I got in once with him. Today I went there by myself. I parked my car outside the gate, and walked in from the side of the gate. I did this sketch. At mean time, I was pondering. How can I bring a workshop into this place? If you have a good suggestion, please help me out. Thanks.

"Let's Drink"

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More high key paintings. Correct me if I am wrong: High key has more opportunities for color, while low key has more opportunities for value.

"Glass and Apple" --- Sold

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Most of my paintings are low key, because I believe that dark background can effectively enhance the lights on the focal point. Having done the same thing so many times, I want eagerly to see some changes. High key paintings I don’t do quite often, but I want to explore the potential. My today’s painting is relatively high key. I may do several more like this, and let you what I have learned.

"Waiting" --- Sold

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Every time when I take an out of town trip, I always end up quite a few days I can’t paint. My work piles up in my office and lab. I need to catch up to be in sync with what is going on in the company. I have to work more hours to balance out my off days for my trip. When I finally come back to my studio. My mind is in the stage of a complete blank. If there would be no commitment of daily painting, I would have quitted painting a long time ago. I have to force myself to pick up a brush. Just paint something as a warm-up. I always say that you must have an idea before you paint. Well, it is not always true. I am waiting for my art sense to kick in.

"Toronto Canada"

I am on my way home from my Toronto trip, and currently I am at the Charlotte Airport waiting for my flight back to Austin. Since I have to wait here for 4 hours, why don’t I get on-line and talk to you? I found a cozy spot at the Starbucks, and turned on my laptop. Canada is a beautiful country. The weather was so great these a couple of days. I felt the coolness of early autumn. Two days ago we went a water amusement park. My brother took Jonathan and Ray (J’s cousin) to go on the rides. I am too chicken to join them. However, my camera was busy and captured quite a few nice shots. I am so interested in children’s expressions. I want to share this one with you.

"Niagara Falls Canadian Side"

Hello from Canada. I am in Toronto visiting my brother. On the way from Buffalo to Toronto, we stopped by Niagara Falls. What a spectacular art the Mother Nature can do! I am humbled and speechless in front this great masterpiece.
I am sorry I can’t ship the paintings and filters at this moment. I will send them right away after I return.

"Beau's Guest House"

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I live in west Austin near a beautiful lake called Lake Travis. On the side of Lake Travis, there is a beautiful place called the Oasis. The Oasis currently is only a restaurant, but it expanding tremendously. There will be a hotel, a gallery, and more stores added in soon. I went there did this plein air last week. The house in the painting belongs to the owner of the Oasis: Beau Theriot. After painting I ran into Beau. He is very nice guy and I will go there and paint again.

"Double Red" --- Sold

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Recently, I did quite a few experiments: leaves, figurative, and plein air. Well my today’s painting is coming back for my typical still life daily painting. It is like cooking. After tried several new recipes, I’d like to take easy, and come back to my old flavor.

"Barr Mansion" --- Sold

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It was so great doing plein air again. I went to paint with PAA yesterday at east Austin.
There is a Victorian house called the Barr Mansion. It was a very hot day. I set up my easel under a big pecan tree and did this sketch. There was a big tree branch behind me. I felt it should not cause any problems. But I was wrong. During one and a half hours I painted there, the branch moved. It gradually approached me. At first its leaves touched my head, and not too long, the leaves started to sweep my canvas. I have to stop. I stood there admire how this tree could grow so significantly fast within a couple of hours.

"Injured Beauty" --- Sold

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I had a couple of sick days earlier this week. This painting was done at that time. I did not deliberately want to show my discomfort, but my painting was so honest showing my mood. I am all right now. Having enough sleep is the key. I didn’t paint for several days and slept a lot. So please take care yourself.

2011 Workshop Announcement

Click here to see my 2011 workshop schedule

You may have noticed that I have updated my 2011 workshop schedule. At this moment, I have 10 workshops scheduled for 2011. I will teach in California, Florida, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Vermont, and Texas. If you are interested in my painting approaches, please contact my workshop organizers for information and signing up. I am looking forward to meeting you or seeing you again in the near future.

"Old Knowledge" --- Sold

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I really appreciate that so many friends letting me know that the object I painted previously was an old coalscuttle. I am learning everyday, Man! Thank you. My today’s painting is kind of related to learning. With the development of technology, books may soon become archaic too. I can’t imagine someday in the future that an artist paints (or creates an image with other means) a book and asks what kind of gismo he/she has just portrayed. I will be eager to tell that object is called a book, with which we used to store and pass on information in the good old days.