"Metal World (Day 3)"

First of all, I want to thank sooooo many friends wishing me happy birthday. Various kinds birthday cakes have overwhelmed my FB. Someday I will do a birthday cake painting. I should have more than enough reference photos. Thank you for making my life so sweet.

So far for how this painting goes, I think I have exhausted all I know about painting. Now I have entered my "pushing envelope" stage. Obviously, I will get more details on the white cup in the front and I will add more stuff in the foreground. The painting will naturally move into a more realistic look. That is not the direction I want to go. I want to keep the painting painterly, but offer more dramatic effects. Let's keep on going.

"Metal World (Day 2)"

When I was meditating in my retreat last week, I thought about my art. This a couple of years, I have been traveling, teaching, learning how to manage business, and trying to make ends meet. I did many small paintings and demoing significantly. The market is not bad, and my family and I are surviving in this tough world. However, what I really want to do is painting some serious paintings. I did some before, but they are sitting in the galleries and not moving. As a practical person, I concern about the market. Can I really afford to do this? On the other hand as a late starter and serious about progress, I should not be satisfied with a mediocre accomplishment. I need to aim higher. Even this kind of painting may not selling, but I  will learn significantly, and I will not regret what I did in this life. Just like this meditation retreat. I may meditate in my house for 1 or 2 hours. Why bother using 10 days very valuable time going through 10 hours of agony everyday? Now my experience has told me. the effort is very well deserved. I am entering a new dimension.

Yesterday, I started this serious painting project. This painting is 16" x 20". I will work on this one for several days. I want to push as many envelopes as possible, using utmost what I know, and explore whatever unknowns, and document my journey. If you have suggestions, please let me know. I appreciate greatly you help me to grow.

"Warm light cool shadow" --- Sold

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Coming out of Kaufman TX in heavy rain, I came back to the real (or the unreal, both are correct) world. I had a wonderful time of this 10 days Vipassana meditation course. It is way beyond my ability to describe what I have experienced in this retreat. In a nutshell, I will say it is not a religious ritual, even it is not a way to relax. To be more exact, it is an expedition and sightseeing. Like climbing a mountain, we worked really hard, but the scenery on the way was spectacular. 10 days is way too short for this trek. What I have seen was just the tip of an iceberg.  I realized there is another dimension of human life, and we do have the ability to live happily, peacefully and harmoniously. I will go back to do it again in the future for sure. Vipassana means "seeing things as they really are". Nowadays it is no longer a foreign word, It is getting so popular, so many people practice it, and it brings so much positive energy to the mankind.

I was so amazed how successful the meditation center is operating. There is not a trace of commercialism. The center was run by all volunteers and provides free lodging and food for hundreds of participants. No donation will be accepted if you have not participated at least one 10 days course. Coming out with so tremendous benefit from the course, everyone are more than willingly to support the center either financially or provide services. Everything worked so efficiently and no waist. I feel it is almost the Utopia I have been looking for.

Now I have restarted my regular life. Today is for my Austin mentor class. I did this small painting as a demo.

"Demo at Lindale 2014 3" --- Sold

This is my favorite demo painting so far, and all the students thought the same way, right? I usually push the envelop a little when I do my third demo for my workshops. I told all the artists that I have used two days to establish my rules, but on the third day I show how all the rules are made to be broken. I enjoyed very much painting the old clock and Moroccan tea pot. The brush washing container and some of my paint tubes gave me more color sense.

I have come back to Austin now, but can only be home for a couple of days. I have a very significant event I will participate soon. This trip is not for my art of painting, but more importantly it will be for my art of living. From May 15 to 26, I will be meditate in an isolated place experiencing my life (and pondering about my death as well). I have been trying to getting into this kind of meditation a few times but failed due to many reasons. Now this time, I get in. Am ready for this serious and painful spiritual exercise? Of course not. But I have made up my mind.

This world is mainly driven by human desires (mainly greed and ego). We learn all the tricks trying to survive. Sometimes we are forced to carrying on wrong deeds, but we have no choice. We are not able to communicate the most important issues, like religion and politics, except preaching to the choir.  Because we think our way is right, and other ways are wrong. To avoid arguments, we must rely on a compromised way we called democracy to balance, or (in many cases) simply beat the hick out of others if we consider we are stronger, richer or more privileged....  I will ponder all of these issues in the dark for ten days, and hope coming back as a better person. I have to say I don't recommend my spiritual path to everybody. It is a private journey. I don't remember where I heard this poem:

If you want to get the plain truth,
Be not concerned with right and wrong.
The conflict between right and wrong
Is the sickness of the mind.

"Demo at Lindale 2014 2" --- Sold

This is the second demo. I really like the small block with the letter "T". This is another piece of antique I got on the road.

I know nowadays I might have shown you too many demo paintings, and I probably teach way too many workshops. I hope you don't get bored by seeing my demo after demo. This is my life now. I have no complain about it. I am not free from the control of the almighty money, but I do enjoy my limited freedom. I am sneakily improve my art. You may have seen progresses of my art in my recent demos in comparison with my older ones. Life is not ideal, but I will grow steadily.

"Demo at Lindale 2014 1" --- Sold

Left Mt. Pleasant, I have arrived at Lindale, TX. On the way here I stopped by a few antique stores. I have picked up a few interesting props, like the small shaker in this painting.

My workshop here started yesterday. Thanks to Maureen Killaby for putting this workshop together, and thanks to all the artists for coming and painting with me. With my first demo, I painted Apricots the first time. It was fun.

"Demo at Mt. Pleasant 2014 4" --- Sold

The last demo at Mt. Pleasant was this high key one. This experiment has been with me for quite a few workshops. I have been thinking hard on how to progress more on the color scheme. dramatic effects come and go. I believe I will make it and my dream painting will come.

“Demo at Mt Pleasant 2014 3" --- Sold

The rose is really in bad shape for this demo. She is beautiful but too shy. I spent a very short time painting her before she collapsed completely.

"Demo at Mt. Pleasant 2014 2" --- Sold

I want to thank Linda Pepper and Mt. Pleasant Art Society for organizing this workshop. Thanks to all the artist for taking this class. This is the demo I did on the first day. I really like the silver pot and blue vase.

"Demo at Mt. Pleasant 2014 1" --- Sold

Driving 4.5 hours, I have arrived Mt. Pleasant, TX. I did this demonstration to all members of the Mt. Pleasant Art Society before my workshop starts.

“White in Color"

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Continuing my exploration, I did this one. It has very similar color scheme of my yesterday's painting, but I adjusted the value a little. I feel the most important part is that I pay attention of colors on edges. Very high chroma color can be used along the edges creating so much drama. I am so excited.

Well I must step on the breaks now.  I will teach two workshops in Texas starting tomorrow. I may apply my experimental results on my demos during these workshops. You will see.

"White in Dark"

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Having been back to Austin for a few day and swamped in all kind of chores. However, I did manage using my fragmented time to paint. On the foundation of high key painting I have established previously, I want to go further. For this project, I have absolutely no local color in the setup. I had a small white jar against the white background, and the jar is in shadow completely. All the colors are contributed by the light sources and environmental reflections. The goal of this painting is to show: 1. Using dark color to present light objects, and 2. Using intensive colors to present white objects. Is this called Impressionistic?

China Painting Trip Reminder

Friends, I want to remind you of our China painting trip this September. Please check our "China trip webpage" (or click the widget on the right) to get detailed information and sign up. Our trip to China last year was very successful. Some travelers even want to go again this year.  After the trip announcement in February, many friends emailed us asking information. I know many of you are thinking about participating this time, but need to see if it is possible for you to arrange to go. However, time flies by so fast. Traveling to China takes extra time to take care of logistics. We need to start to preparing for the trip including applying for  visas, booking the international travel, and preparing the tour.

We have been informed by our Chinese tour company that they need to know how many people are going so they can start to reserve hotel rooms and domestic travel in China. Since we will visit some very popular places, we need to reserve the rooms several months ahead. So far we still have openings for this trip. If you are interested in signing up please register as soon as possible. We would like to close the trip applications on May 31, 2014, so we can confirm how many people are going and provide the information to our Chinese tour company, so they can issue the necessary invitation documents for the visa applications.

If you have already decided to sign up, please click Registration.

I am looking forward to having a fantastic time in China with you.

Olympic National Park

After the Whidbey Island workshop, Song and I decided spending a few days in the Olympic National Park. This is a photo I took yesterday morning. The beauty in the park is unbelievable. The new spring green overlapped the dark evergreen. The shows come and go.  We were caught into this beautiful scene surprisingly.  Life is full of surprises. I was lucky to be at the right place and right time. Please enjoy.

"Demo at Whidbey Island 2014 4" --- Sold

My workshop at Whidbey Island was 4-day. Upon on the request, I did this portrait demo from live on the last day. I have not painted portraits for a while. I was a little nervous at the beginning, but the result turned out OK. Everybody has enjoyed this demo.

"Demo at Whidbey Island 2014 3"

The third demo is high key and show how I paint flowers. I had cherry blossom this time. It is a very complicated flower.

"Demo at Whidbey Island 2014 2" --- Sold

This is the second demo I did for the workshop. I feel I have mission to accomplish. You see the background color of this painting. It is a so called "dirty" or "muddy" color. Currently I don't have very clear understanding how to distinguish "muddy" and "muted" colors. I know there must be some identifiable factor to tell the difference. I believe a color looks muddy in one condition and looks muted (but clean) under another condition. They are actually the same color. The key is to figure out in WHAT condition this will happen. The background color for this painting works well. Can you tell me why?

"Demo at Whidbey Island 2014 1" --- Sold

Feels great coming back to Whidbey Island, WA. I want to thank Cary Jurriaans for organizing this workshop, and thank all the artist friends from all over for attending. In this workshop we have an artist coming from South Africa. I really appreciate the support from all of you to my art and teaching. Art has no borders and no language barriers. I am so grateful I stepped in to this wonderful field.

“Blue Bonnet 2014" --- Sold

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The blue bonnet season is coming to the end this year in Texas.  I did this painting with my residue momentum of my high key exploration. I will pause of my small painting exercise and go to Seattle for a week. So this painting may be my last glimpse of this beautiful flower for 2014. However, something ends implies something new will happen. I am looking forward the special beauty in the spring of the Washington State. Now I start to realize the significance of knowing that everything will reach its end eventually. We tend to hold on what we have and feel sad when we reach to the end or death. However, the truth is that this ending feeling is the biggest illusion. We all have an eternal life, here now and forever. Ending is always the beginning. I will see new flowers, they are different, but equally beautiful.

"Bright Texas Light"

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I am glad the tax time is over. I have been glued on Turbo Tax solidly for about a week and categorized every dollar I have spent. I really want to thank Tricia Butler for guiding me through the whole process. I can't believe I have dealt with more than five thousand transactions and money went in, out, and between among more than 18 financial accounts. I know all of you have to deal with the same thing and I have no place to brag how much I have achieved in the field of accounting. You know I rather spend more time painting, but without know the art of living, I don't think I can survive.

I have to step on the brakes for my high key experiment now. Very soon, I will travel again. I did this 9x12 today, partially as a demo to my Austin mentor group. After the class, I have added more stuff in the setup. So far I can't say I like high key better than my usual low key approach, but this experiment is not bad. However, it is definitely incomplete. My understanding about color is still very fuzzy. I will continue for sure when I get another chance in the future.

"Color of Easter" --- Sold

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Easter is the time I see so many pastel colors. It is suitable to my recent high key painting experiments very well. I used purple background this time. I thought I was making a purplish gray. According to my CSA, the background color only has a chroma value at 33 (100 means pure color), but somehow the background looks too colorful purple to me, and the photo show it even more colorful. I don't know why. I will work more to achieve a better understanding.

"Tulips in Spring" --- Sold

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My friend Jane brought me some tulips. The colors are so beautiful. I don't remember I painted tulips before. Now you have it.

For my recent high key paintings. I really pay attention to the background colors I use. They are colored grays. I am experimenting on how to enhance the colors in the center of focus by using different gray backgrounds.

"Apple and bottles" --- Sold

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The song I mentioned in my previous blog was "Demons" by Imagine Dragon. My son Jonathan introduced this song to me. In terms of music, Jonathan and I have no generation gap.

I continue exploring the high key approach.

"Blue Purple and Red" --- Sold

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Putting blue and red together is not a best color combination. Then why did I still do that? To be honest with you, I really don't know at this moment. I always think myself is a rational person, but recently I am not really consistent. Well, it is not true either. These two colors are showing strongly in my emotion lately. Recently, my mood is kind of sad and in rage. I can't explain. I disguise my true self when I face the world. It must be a coincidence, but I heard this lyric: I wanna hide the truth. I wanna shelter you. But with the beast inside, there's nowhere we can hide ....... Now I hear this song all over the places. We really need to think: What is happening, and why?

"Cool Feeling" --- Sold

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I have got more feeling about high key paintings. It looks like I have stepped into an exciting field. It gives me more opportunities of showing colors.

My friend, are you doing your taxes? I am doing mine. Oh boy, I thought I want to live a simple life, but somehow life is getting more and more complicated. Be careful, be mindful, and take it easy (even it is not easy).

"Morning Fresh" --- Sold

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I confess that I was obsessed in software developing. Thanks to some of you for introducing me to a few online tools and apps. My CSA tool has improved a little, but it still need much more development before it becomes user-friendly.

The reason I was into color scheme analysis is that I am dealing with more color designs more with my high key approach. I like the color scheme in my today painting, but I have hard time to explain to you. I have not grabbed the tangible rules of color aesthetics, but I do believe there exist such rules and I will get them eventually. When I was in LA talking with Jeremy Lipking, We discussed Denis Dutton and his thinking about aesthetics. It is possible to understand beauty in a more scientific manner.

"Color Scheme Analysis"

In order to improve my art. I can not rely only on my intuition and practice. Research and theorizing is also very important. To achieve a good color design, I do "Color Scheme Analysis (CSA)". The image above is an example. With a painting image, I pick up a few representing color samples, evaluate their HSV (hue, chroma, and value), and map them on the color wheel.  The distribution of those colors on the color map informs me if this painting has a good color design.  Other way around, if I see a painting appealing to me, I run CSA on it. Its color map will show a specific distribution. Understanding this distribution helps my color designs for my future paintings.

I started doing CSA a year ago on GIMP. The process is tedious and time consuming. But I don't know other software that does this and I have no time to develop this tool. These a couple of days, I have figured out a way to plot the color map with NUMBERS on my Mac, but I still need GIMP to obtain HSV values. Eventually I will have an app for everybody to use. If you know similar tools exist, please let me know.

"Lonely Onion" --- Sold

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It has been two days after I came back to Austin. I have sent out all the filter orders (Sorry for the delay). Last night I resume my daily study. Here you have it.

We were in a rush when we left home for California, and this onion was left on the kitchen counter. After we came back, I found it has sprouted beautifully. So I select it as my model for my first painting during this time period I stay home. I am continuing my high key study. As a warmup session, I didn't design seriously. I like the colors in the shadow and the texture of the leaves and the onion. The color scheme is ok.

“Demo at Los Angeles 3" --- Sold

After my previous post, I have received very large amount of comments and emails. I am very happy to said I have received UNANIMOUS support and encouragement. I wish I can write back to all of you individually to thank you, but that is beyond my ability. So here I want to express my deep appreciation to all of you for supporting me, my art, and my teaching . You give me confidence to keep going. I feel the best way to say thank you is to make my art better and my teaching more effective and accessible.

My today's painting is the third demo at LAAFA. Since my teaching load has increased significantly than last year, my time used for studying is very limited. So I started to combine my exploration into my demos. In my most recent 3 workshop (Nashville, Sacramento, and LA) I did three high key demos. there is a blue tea pot in all of them. I remember I mentioned once that I want to entitle these paintings as "This Is Not My Cup of Tea", because high key is not a comfortable way for me to paint. I hope my workshop artists do not mind I do experiment in my demos. There is a risk I may fail right in front of you. So far I feel lucky. My high key still lives are progressing.

Last night I met the young master artist Jeremy Lipking. I want to thank my art friend Christy Young for introducing Jeremy to me. I have been admire his work for a long time. I had a great time in Jeremy's studio. He is such talented artist.

"Demo at Los Angeles 2" --- Sold

This is my second demo at LAAFA.

Recently, I visited a friend of mine. From the conversation with him, I have sensed something new. My friend is a very successful artist. He told me something interesting: The night before I visited him, he had a party in his house. He told everybody that he will have a visitor tomorrow. This guy was a Ph.D. in physics, but now he has quitted his job and became an artist. The party reacted unanimously: This guy is nuts. He must have a brain problem. Moreover, He is not only stupid, but also selfish and irresponsible to his family. They can not rationalize the behavior of this stupid guy. Finally, they concluded that this behavior is the symptom of the mid-age crisis.

I really appreciate the honesty of my friend. It is true that I work harder and make less, but I have never regretted I made my decision. It is not surprise some people not agree with me, but why people UNANIMOUSLY disagree with me. Maybe I am a real self-centered fool. I heard Ph.D. stands for Permanent Head Damage. So please let me know what your think. Please comment and email to me. Thanks.