Purple Dream - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Purple Dream, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 8"w, 2016 #2

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $85)

In the neighborhood I live in there are many lovely old Victorian homes with wisteria leaning onto their front gates, and during the walk one morning I spotted this beautiful butterfly spanning its wings in the morning fog on one of the large flower clusters. The temperature was low in the moist morning air of San Francisco, and large droplets of water were dripping from the wisteria leaves, so I wondered whether the wings of this butterfly was wet and it could not take off. When I sneak closer I realized it was... mating, with its lover hiding in the shadow of the leaflets underneath the first butterfly. I snapped a photo and decide to capture this rare moment with my paintbrush... And every time I look at the painting, I can almost smell the clear, cold, moist air of that morning, and the slight aroma of wisteria... 

Gossiping Ladies - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Gossiping Ladies, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 9"w, 2016 #1

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $95)

I can hardly believe that I have not posted on the blog since the last 30/30 challenge! I have actually been painting (mostly in oil) and having some exciting news to share, including getting included in the Splash and Stroke of Genius books of North Light Publishing, and winning the budding artist category in the Art Muse Contest, as well as being selected as judge's pick this month on Daily Paintworks! I am super excited about every one of these opportunities...

I have plans to paint more smaller oil paintings outside the atelier this year as practice, and try more diverse subjects as well as painting some larger compositions in my watercolor paintings. So for this September's challenge I would try to just do that. Here's the first piece -- an animal subject I have tried to tackle for a while but always felt inadequate at the moment. But the longer I waited, the more I felt that waiting along and think "one day when my skill has reached the level to tackle this subject" is never going to get me there. One can only learn how to tackle an unfamiliar and daunting subject by working on them again and again! So here we go -- these two colorful parakeets (love birds as they are commonly referred to in their native tropical Indonesia) whose body languages and facial expressions just crackle me up every time I look at them.