Sentinel - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Sentinel,

 Watercolor on Richeson Szabo #140 Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 11"w, 2016 #9

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $100)

100% of the sale of this painting would be donated to the cause of trisomy in ​honor of the lost child of my amazing artist friend and fellow painter, Brienne Brown. She is so brave and kind and strong in sharing her struggle and contribute to the cause!

I have wanted to do this for a while but some personal circumstances have delayed it. I wanted to paint a painting with the symbol of life, revival, resilience embedded in it, in honor of the life that is lost too young yet would never be forgotten by her loved ones. It is not a lot but I want to contribute my little bit. Every little bit helps in the fight against this formidable rare disease, which has not gotten the attention it deserves in the medical and pharmaceutical society, probably because it is rare and not a lot of profit there is to be made. Imagine the impact a cure would have on the families with a loved ones diagnosed... I can't help but hope that day would come sooner...

It Takes Two to Tango - Day Twenty-Nine of the 30/30 Challenge

It Takes Two to Tango, 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 11"h x 7"w, 2015 #31

Master Study, Not for Sale

Day Twenty-Nine of the challenge -- never thought I would make the whole challenge again! Yay! It is almost the end!!! This painting is a study of master watercolor artist Jan Kunz, whose work I have admired since I took up watercolor a few years ago. The clean, colorful washes that radiates with light just grabs my heart the first time I saw one of her books. Since I haven't painted many still life setups, I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to experiment with different texture -- glass, silver, wood, etc., before to attempt assembly a grand still life and paint it. So this is my practice for capturing the texture of clear, thick glass. It combines something that I am familiar with and feel comfortable painting -- rose, with something I am feeling a little bit timid about -- glass. I had a lot of fun doing it, and painted it over a few days of this month, whenever the day's painting did not take up too much time and leaves a few hours to spend on other projects. I have discovered that painting glass is not unlike assembling a big piece of puzzle -- I have lost numerous times over the different patterns of reflection and refraction painting the ball jar, and it is just one simple little jar! Clearly I needed more practice on this subject, but it was so much fun. The next step is to assemble a still life of my own similar to this setup and see if I could carried out what I have learned doing this master study into my own painting. Can't wait to do that!

Some New Directions -- Divergence from Florals!

Low Tide - Plein Air at Muir Beach, 

Watercolor on Richeson Zoltan Szabo #140 Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 11"w, WIP 1

I've taken a sabbatical from my floral watercolors lately to explore other directions, and I thought maybe I should be sharing some of them with you here. I was a bit hesitant since I have no idea how they would turn out -- it's both scary and exhilarating to explore new territories! Oh well, you, my blog friends have been very kind and supportive to me throughout, so maybe my worries are unfounded! Here they are:

The first one is another little plein air watercolor I did recently at Muir Beach. It's painted on Richeson Zoltan Szabo #140 Cold Press paper and the size is 7"h x 11"w. The sky was over cast that day, therefore all the colors are more saturated without being bleached by the all powerful sun, and I really wanted to accentuate this in my painting. I liked the result in the field and thought it was finished. However, after going back home and giving it a second look, I noticed that the center of interest - the dark rock - is almost smacked dead in the center of the painting -- a compositional NO-NO. I also think the dark shapes of the wet sand can be improved a little more as well... So, back to the drawing board it goes! I will post the modified version in a couple of days...

In Between, Watercolor on Lanaquarelle #140 Cold Press Paper, 15"h x 11"w, WIP 1

The second project is a found still life. Now, if you have followed my blog for a while, you probably have noticed that my florals are often very high in chroma, and seeing flowers in sunlight often make me feel inspired to work, but light is the first painter that reveals beauty in a lot of commonplace objects, even neglected corners. I found this dried leaflet and branch perched in between pebbles on the roadside while taking a walk in the neighbourhood a couple of years back -- and when the sunlight was cast upon it, the pattern of light and shadow is absolutely beautiful. When I pulled the photo out of a dusted drawer during spring cleaning (yes, even I occasionally do this!...) it inspired me to try a subject that is unfamiliar to me. The reference image is low in color saturation so it will be interesting to try different approaches -- increase the chroma or emphasize the value difference in low saturation -- and see which one I like best! (I am even thinking of starting a new series of still life paintings with the theme "Everyday Beauty". If you have reference photos of objects that often do not catch the eye of most people, but you find very beautiful and inspiring, please share with me by posting it here or email me at arena.shawn@gmail.com!)

The Gossiping Ladies, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 9"w, WIP 1

The last one of my newest projects is really a step out of my comfort zone and something I've rarely tackled before: animals. This image of two parrots perched on mossy branch in bright tropical sunlight has caught my eyes a while ago and I've finally decided to tackle it after gathering my courage for a while. I love the bright plumage colors of these birds, and their expression really reminded me of some of my relatives gossiping about family matters while resting in the traditional front yard after a day's work -- a scene so common back in the days when the large, extended family still lived together in the countryside, but more and more rare these days with the younger generation moving away into towns and cities and forming their own nuclear family... My main focus of this painting is trying to depict the texture of the fur and feather without painting them one by one, as well as capture the individual personality of these cute little critters! I am a bit nervous about how they would turn out. Please feel free to give some critiques and suggestions!

In the mean time, if you have an image of a beautiful landscape, or a flower you like, or anything you might want to see painted, please email them to me at arena.shawn@gmail.com. I will paint them and post them here. From every 10 paintings I make from them, there would be a random drawing, and the lucky winner get to take a original back home for free! Interested? Then send me your photo!

You can now buy high quality Giclee prints of many of my sold paintings, both on paper and canvas, as well as some note cards with my paintings here:

Work in Progress: Greetings of May, and more Sanchez 50-50

Ok, ok, I admit -- after painting a grouping of 6" x 6" sizes I did feel a little constrained in terms of composition, and took a break from them by working on this piece I started in May. I worked multiple layers of very wet washes of mingled colors in the attempt to created the airy, light-filled space behind the flower, which reminded me of the feeling of early summer when I took this reference photo. I love the effects I have obtained so far -- the soft-focused ring effects and the delicious granulation of pigments, but the painting surface overall is looking a little too busy right now, so I think I will darken some area and lose some of the "light rings" to provide resting area for the eye, and emphasize the light-colored flower a bit more. The Lanaquarelle Cold Press paper I am working on is very lovely -- easy enough to lift but still allows glazing provided a light touch is used. I will be very careful not to saturate the surface of the paper before the designed value range is reached...

Greetings of May, Watercolor on Lanaquarelle 140# Cold Press Paper, 11"h x 7"w, WIP 2

But, I did not slack off on the 50-50 project! I worked on this group of green(! yes, it is the actual color of the flower...) orchids. Contrary to the Blue Delphiniums, the subject of this painting -- the group of several orchid flowers -- is itself complicated enough, so instead of trying to add more soft-focused foliage in the background and make it way too busy, I opted for a soft, smoothly gradated background, mostly dark to contrast with the light flowers, hoping it would provide a "quiet area" for the viewer's eyes to breathe. Unfortunately, this is not an easy task, give I don't want to use masking and the background shapes around the flowers are complicated with interlocking edges. I also had to glaze multiple times to obtain the smooth gradation, leaving some lighter yellow-green areas to hint more flowers in the background space. I still have lots of work to to on the flowers in the foreground -- it's going to be a long night again... :-P

Green Orchids, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, WIP 1

... And, I am really really excited that I finally finished the preliminary work required to open my Etsy Shop! All that shipping policy, story of the shop, greeting message -- everything takes careful drafting and a whole lot of typing! But it's finally there, and I've uploaded the first item, optimized the title and tags for it to be easily reached via the all mighty search engines! (A lot of reading of FAQs and Forum Postings on Etsy, and thanks to the great introduction by the wonderful Crystal Cook -- you really rock!) I know it takes time to build a potential clientele, so I will be patient. But this is a new chapter for me and I am really excited...

Work in Progress: Petal Light #2, Beauty Queen, & Starting of a New Rose Painting (What?! Another One?!...)

Following the advice given by Kara, I'm putting aside "Petal Light #1" and worked some more on "Petal Light #2", starting to add complementary color -- blues and purples on the stamen. 

Petal Light #2, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 10"w, WIP 2

I also added some more localized washes on the background of "Beauty Queen", starting to break up the leaf shapes a bit more. It's still very soft and unfocused at this stage, and the colors are light. I will add one more wash to define the shadow shapes on the leaves, then starting to develop the flower.

Beauty Queen, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 5"w, WIP 3

And... Mad as it is, I just started another rose painting! I was so inspired by the glass paintings of Carrie Waller, that I decide to do a still life with cut crystal glass in it... The small facets on the crystal create numerous small shapes, which is quite daunting to me, but I think it will be fun to try to get that sense of light and transparency of it! The background is quite soft and out of focus, ideal for practicing what I have learned in the amazing Jeannie Vodden's class. I can't wait to work some more on it...

Greetings of May, Watercolor on Lanaquarelle 140# Cold Press Paper, 11"h x 7"w, WIP 1