Soar II

Soar II,  Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2014 #10

Sold!

I have mailed out "Soar II" to its new home in England earlier this week. I thought it was finished at the end of last year, but as I looked at it everyday during the Christmas break, I just felt it is still missing something, so I held off mailing it out to the client (who has been very kind and not rushing me at all) and hope I will know what final "punch line" to add. I often do this to paintings and normally it takes a while for me to actually say to myself "this is done, I have nothing more to say in this piece", but in this case because of the special circumstance I feel I need to finish it ASAP. However, after gauging with myself for a couple of days I really thought I don't want it to take any less effort or attention just because I am repainting the piece, and I don't want it to be a mere repeat of the one that got accidentally damaged. Instead, I want it to be better than the first one -- at least in my own judgement.

As I was doing this my family member got admitted to the hospital due to cardiac issues, so everything got put aside, as you probably already know from my previous blog posts. However, when he got a stent put in his artery and I was in the hospital, I took this painting together with other two small pieces tat I once thought was finished, but not sure, with me, as I would have long time to look at and think about them. I did just that, and worked on all of them in the past two weeks again. I was really happy with how this one turned out...

Soar II,  Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2014 #10

This is a previous version before final modification. I have decided to darken the leaf against the light stamen of the flower on the upper left to add more contrast, and I am sharing this WIP image which is very close to the finished painting here as an example of the type of modification I have done during the long pondering period. On the topic of when a painting is done, there is really no road map. Most of times we could only trust and rely on our best judgement, which is continuously being refined as we make numerous mistakes and shout out "I wish I had stopped a couple of strokes earlier!"...

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:

Emerging after My Long Period of Absence... Some Fall Colors in Winter, Some New Finished Paintings, and My Last Holiday Fair of the Season

Fall Colors, Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah,

 Watercolor on Arches #140 Rough, 12"h x 9"w, WIP 1

Finally painting again! From October to December the Atelier work turned out more demanding as the projects get harder, and I will finally start chalk and charcoal next semester! It has seriously eaten into my watercolor painting time, and the busy holiday fair season did not help either -- between getting prints and small gift products ready for the shows and doing my charcoal drawings from life, I did not have much breathing room in the past few months... Hence the lack of new paintings here and no update on my blog (shame on me...) -- but, no more excuses, I am painting again! Yay!

Quicken Aspens, Park City, Utah,

 Watercolor on Arches #140 Rough, 8"h x 12"w, WIP 1

Here's a couple of landscapes I have started in Carl Purcell's workshop the past summer (really? It has been so long?...) and like everything started during a workshop, they did not get finished. I've started five of them and the closest one is about 70% done, but none of these. Maybe it is just me -- I always feel quite rushed in the drawing part whenever I am attending a workshop, and was not quite happy with the hard-edged shapes of the foliage on all these tree paintings. To me, a foliage clump in a painting needs to have very interesting and well-designed but natural-looking shapes and a blend of hard, soft and broken edges to really make it look like "foliage" instead of just "choppy brush strokes", and mine in any of these paintings certainly did not meet the standard. 

Quiet Meadows, Sonoma Pasture, 

 Watercolor on Arches #140 Rough, 12"h x 8"w, WIP 1

Not to worry -- off to the faucet! Arches paper can really take some abuse and that's why we love it! When the paper is soaking wet and the half-finished painting is not completely erased but with a lovely ghost image left on the paper, I took out the reference materials from the workshop and started to lay in colors wet in wet. Then I let them dry -- and I've liked these altered images much more. Next step is adding more definitions on dry paper, which involves some serious thought process on designs. Busy paintings filled with various shapes and colors (such as these depicting woods, forest, undergrowth, etc.) really needs succinct silhouette of the center of focus and some quiet areas to let viewer's eyes rest. For example, all the foliage clumps in "Quiet Meadows, Sonoma Pasture" are too symmetric and similar in size, which  is a residue problem from the not-carefully-thought-out initial drawings during the workshop, and therefore needs to be redesigned. I will do some sketch to figure that out... 

Summer Glow II, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, 2013 #81

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Here's a couple of paintings I've finished but never had a chance to share with you on my blog. The first one is a second version of "Summer Glow"... All because I was stupid enough to want to repair a small smear damage on the first one, and you know what happens next -- the repairs have completely damaged the first version and the only thing I could do is to repaint it... I should have learned my lessons of not messing with a finished watercolor by now... Sometimes I really wonder what I was thinking...

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

This one is actually finished and sold to a collector in England. I just did not have a good photo of it -- accidentally dropped my camera and broke it so now I only have my ipad as a camera, which is seriously not adequate to take images of finished paintings... (WIP photos, maybe, but not finished works, especially not when a piece is flying out and I may never get the chance to see it ever again...) So I will be posting the finished image when I get my new camera, I promise ;-)

Finally, since I did quite a few holiday shows this winter, and the holiday fair season is drawing to a close, I thought I'd give a shout-out here for my last fair of the season... It is a very cool venue: I will be selling my Watercolors, Giclee Prints, Holiday Cards, Calendars and MORE in the SF Bazaar Zoo Lights Event at San Francisco Zoo Entry Village Circle, located at Sloat Blvd. & the Great Highway this weekend (both Saturday and Sunday), December 21st & 22nd, between 3:00pm and 8:00pm. So if you find yourself in the city over the weekend, or want to take your kids to see the animals in the San Francisco Zoo under the evening lights, drop by and get some beautiful, hand-made, animal-related art gifts for your holidays!

Especially for this fair I have designed and made some holiday cards (yes, they are year-round good but I made this set of eight especially for the winter season). These little ones are printed on 3.5" x 5" sized Strathmore watercolor cards, and a set contains 8 different winter snow scenes, with name of the painting and my info printed at the back of the card. I have named it "Winter Wonderland" and will upload it for sale to my etsy shop soon, at a price of $20/set. I also have the same set of a larger size -- 5" x 7" for $25. Drop me an email if you are interested in having one!

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:

Jungle Fire (Finished!)

Jungle Fire,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 10"w, 2013 #40

Sold!

Just a very quick update on this piece which I have dragged along for almost a year, and finally finished during this weekend. No, I have actually not procrastinated on it -- some pieces come easier than the others, but this is not one of them. I would layer another wash on it every now and then, and look at it after a couple of days, feeling it still needed something -- slight adjustment of color temperatures, a little detail to modify the jagged edges left by masking fluid, etc. And finally, when I am looking at it today, I realized IT IS DONE. 

When I first started painting I never thought finish a piece is this much work and involves this much pondering -- I would select a good reference photo and when the painting looks quite like the photo I know it is done. But the more I paint, the more I realize it is the artist's aesthetics instead of the snap of a camera should dictate when and how a particular painting is finished. It can be as sketch or realistically detailed as you, the artist, is happy for it to be. The line between a finished painting and one not quite yet suddenly becomes much more blurred.

Sometimes I only realized a painting has passed its finishing point after I have put a couple more strokes and realized I just overworked it. ("An artist knows an awful lot -- but he only knows it afterwards", says the all-wise Paul Klee.) Sometimes I think it is done and frame the painting, only to take it out later for further adjustments. There is not an iron-cast standard, but more of a feeling that different layers and strokes are finally coming together into a beautiful, coherent whole, a melody instead of a collection of music notes.

Hopefully, as I continue working, one day the blurred line would become clear again...

How do you, my artist friends, decide that a painting you have labored over is done?

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:

Fire Bird Completed!

Fire Bird, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, 2013 #35

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $50)

After taking the good advice I got on facebook regarding this one, I gathered my courage and put in a near black mixture of French Ultramarine and Hematite to darken the background value, and put in the shadow shapes on the leaf behind the flower in approximately the same value. Now the yellow of the flower is really popping out! Thank you all who gave the much needed feedback, my artists friends!....

Jungle Fire, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 10"w, WIP 7

After a couple more glazes I have now taken the masking fluid off this one -- as usual the resulted white shapes appear to be quite harsh. Now for the finishing touches the challenge is to tone down and refine the edge of these masked shapes using thin glazes which does not disturb the thick, saturated pigments which are already on the paper... I started with the petal on the right most side, using squirrel quill brush to gently lay in a warm yellow glaze on the right side of the petal, then changing to a No. 2 Kolinsky Sable brush to put in all the thin red lines suggesting the reflective pattern on this very shiny petal with a very stiff mixture of pigments. The previous washes for most part stayed unmoved -- which is great. Now I just need to repeat it for the left side petals... Fingers crossed!

You can purchase my 2013 wall and desk calendars here:

Petal Light IV (Finished!)

Petal Light IV, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 14"h x 10"w, 2013 #34

Buy It Now from My DPW Gallery ($400)

Finished this one just in time for the submission to Illinois Watercolor Society's National Juried Exhibition this year -- we will see how that turns out! Compared to the 10" x 8" version, this one has more sober and muted colors which are closer to nature. I also experimented with painting larger area wet in wet in one go, and combining several leaf shapes as a group to be painted together. I'm happy with the result, now it's time to put it aside for a little bit and see in a couple of days whether any final adjustment is needed...  

Fire Bird, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, WIP 2

This one is coming very close to its finish. I will need to put some darker blues on the stamen to make it really pop, and maybe add another pass on the background to make it darker -- I am not sure at the point yet, but I don't want to go all the way to black to lose the color interaction between the yellow orange flower and the blue of the background -- this set of complementary works well, but I do feel the value of the background is a bit too light and therefore distract the viewer's eye from the center flower. What do you think? Please let me know -- I think I do need a pair of more objective eyes than mine at this point...

You can purchase my 2013 wall and desk calendars here:

More Birds on Fire...

Jungle Fire, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 10"w, WIP 6

I can't believe I have put this one off for so long! Sometimes you know a painting is just lacking that final touch but you like what has been put down on paper so far and worry you will screw it up, so you just keep on putting off those final strokes indefinitely... No more! I am resuming this one and laying down the juicy saturated reds and oranges on this bird. Hopefully it will be completed within the week... 

Fire Bird, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, WIP 1

I've also started this little one in the hopes that it will be completed with a day or two's work so that I can post it for auction on Daily Paintworks. I have realized that I like to have several paintings utilizing the same color palette going on in the same time -- hence all the greens in my last blog post and all the firey reds and oranges in this one! Yes, I've started both of these birds when I was painting the center flower of "Petal Light #4"... By doing this I can switch back and forth while waiting for the paintings to dry, and do not have to clean my palette too often and lose some lovely mixtures that has formed on it! ;-) See, I'm a conservationist at heart... lol...

You can purchase my 2013 wall and desk calendars here:

(Maybe Totally Unrealistic) New Year's Resolutions...

OK, ok, every year you make them full of hope and determination, and every year you run out of steam about the middle of February -- you know what I am talking about: NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS, we love them, we hate them, we stress over them, they always significantly affect our self-confidence... And here we go again. Instead of doing an over-the-top planning normal of my style, I've decided to start modestly and aim at something that (maybe) is manageable:

-- I would like to finish a big (at least 11" x 14") painting every month, and at least a small painting every week to post on Daily Paintworks for sale;

-- I would like to submit my work to 12 National Juried Exhibitions;

-- I would like to exhibit my work with Silicon Valley Open Studio and three one-day or two-day art fairs;

-- I would like to redesign and update my website, and send out newsletters once a month;

-- I would like to continue my effort on Ampersand Aquabord, and try out at least one new medium -- pastel, acrylic, oil or colored pencil for a continued period of time besides painting in watercolor;

-- I would like to learn from three artists whose style of painting I love by doing master study copies of three of their paintings to continue hone my techniques;

-- Last but not least, I would like to take at least one landscape painting workshop and a portrait painting workshop in watercolor, and try out both these genres -- painting at least a portrait painting and two landscape paintings every month. For landscape, I would also like to go out and paint "En Plein Air" at least once a month.

... Ok, I can see the list is already getting long -- I will stop here by saying that I have joined the crowd and decided to kick off my new year by signing up for something that may seem completely impossible for me -- answering Leslie Saeta's challenge of create 30 paintings in 30 days! I have realized that with my speed and school resuming, it may be difficult to do a painting from start to finish on each day the coming month. So, I've decided to use this as an opportunity for me to finish up some of the older projects started last year, and do some studies in looser style than I am feeling comfortable to. We'll see how this turns out...

For now, I will end this post with the last painting I finished in 2012 but never got around to share with you here, and wish every one Happy New Year again!

Soar,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2012 #54

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You can purchase my 2013 wall and desk calendars here:

A Look Back at Year 2012...

As the clock ticking close to midnight, I am turning my eyes to the year passed and all that has happened in my art journey along the way. As I mentioned in my last blog post, it has been an amazing ride, thanks to all of you, my dear friends and collectors! When I set off at the beginning of the year, I did set some modest goals for myself: creating some artwork every week, posting them online for sale, documenting the process in this blog, and trying to enter some juried shows. In the end, I have accomplished so much more, -- something that would not be possible without your kind encouragements and support along the way!

In this year, I have managed to finish a total of 54 paintings -- including studies and plein air work. This may be a modest number for many, but to me it is a real accomplishment, as I am a very slow painter and the work I have managed to actually finish in all the years before do not even add up to this number. I would definitely like to do at least as much in the coming year, but I will leave goal-setting to my post tomorrow. ;-) Now is the time to enjoy the bubbly drinks and pat myself on the back! 

I've managed to overcome my fear of losing control of what happened on paper and tackled some unfamiliar surfaces, the most difficult of which being Ampersand Aquabord, and with the kind encouragements of Kara and Crystal, got some success in the end. I would love to keep at this effort in the coming year -- and maybe try some portraits on it too!

This year I have also tried a few different sales venues -- both online and offline, some more successful than others. I've set up my Daily Paintworks Gallery, where I auction off my smaller original works; I've stocked my Etsy Shop, where I sell both originals and Giclee prints, as well as products such as calendars and note cards; I've uploaded my work to the print-on-demand site, Fine Art America, so that anyone can purchase Giclee prints of my paintings to the size and surface they desire, as well as my works as note cards. I've kept up on this blog (although updating regularly did remain a challenge when school work got busy) and maintained regular update of my facebook page, through both of which I have met many wonderful friends! I've attempted my hands at three local art fairs and managed to break even at all of them, and received several leads which resulted in sales afterwards from these events. I've also become a member of the wonderful Main Gallery in Redwood City -- the amazing talent and creativity of the artists I've met there made me very proud to be one of them!

I've tried my hands on a couple of local, regional and national juried shows this year, and was fortunate enough to be juried in 20 of them, getting a couple of awards and selling some of my larger works through these shows. I am extremely honored to enlist among the wonderful artists -- many of whom are my teachers through their books and instructional dvds -- in these shows, and consider the juries decisions a gentle nudge of encouragement for an artist at her starting point like me. For all the ones that I did not get in, I can only say I will definitely try harder the coming year!

What I did not manage to do, in the year past, is to keep a sketchbook and draw freehand everyday, to go outdoors more often and do more plein air studies, and to keep finishing two small paintings a week. With four days a week in the Golden Gate Atelier learning classical drawing methods, it has proven quite a challenge to keep at these goals. But I will not give them up in the new year, -- I've just signed up for an impossible crazy task today, which I will reveal in tomorrow's post. So stay tuned...

Ok, before I bore you with more self-bragging, I just want to share with you my seven favorite paintings that I have created this year. Some of them are award winners and already happily settled in their new homes, others I love not because of the final results, but also the challenges I have taken and difficulties overcome during their creation...

High Summer Dreams II, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 14"w, Sold

This one has won me a gold medal in Stockton Art League's National Juried Show at Haggin Musuem -- the first red-carpet moment in my art career! 

April's Passing,  Watercolor on Ampersand Aquaboard, 6"h x 6"w

Available through Randy Higbee Gallery ($300 with Frame)

My first successful attempt on Aquabord after much suffering. I feel that after this one, I started to have some understanding of how this difficult surface works, and I was also able to let go of a bit of control to accept what's happening on paper (or, in this case, on board ;-)

Petal Light #2,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 10"w

Available through Daily Paintworks Online Gallery ($125 with Mat)

I feel that I have truly captured the warmth and vivacity in this bird without fiddling too much. Love the wet-in-wet process from start to finish...

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

I tried out the multi-colored glazing method of the amazing Jeannie Vodden and combined it with my own wet-in-wet approach in the background. I was very worried the flower and the background would look like completely separate entities, but somehow the painting feels coherent as a whole when finished. Yay! Sometimes risk-taking does pay off...

Edge of Summer, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, Sold

I tried to paint from a black-and-white photo and just imagine the colors of this one, and lovedswhat became of it. An attempt to correct my tendency to paint colors too literally from reference materials and see them only as a starting point. 

Petal Light #1,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 8"w

Available through Daily Paintworks Online Gallery ($150 with Mat)

Starting from an under-exposed, uninspiring reference photo of large area of dead dark shadow shapes on the leaves, I let the wet-in-wet process lead me and created interesting dark shapes. I felt a real sense of freedom after pulling this one off!

Winter Light, Watercolor on Arches 140# Rough Paper, 5"h x 7"w, Sold

The first landscape painting I am proud of -- I feel this one did capture more with less. 

Thanks again my friends -- as I have mentioned, I could not have done this without your support! Happy New Year Everyone!!!

You can purchase my 2013 wall and desk calendars here:

Work in Progress: Tropical Flowers Continued

Just a quick update of some of the tropical flower paintings I am still working on -- it's been a long time! October is flying by with almost an art fair every weekend, together with school it has surely bitten into my painting time! It's time to get them finished and posted!

Jungle Fire,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 10"w, WIP 5

"Jungle Fire" is almost done and only a few glazes on the petals to make the red-orange really sing and glow! "Heliconia Dance", on the other hand, still has a long way to go, and I am enjoying playing with wet-into-wet in the background and all the subtle muted colors created by letting a limited palette of Cobalt Blue, Aureolin Yellow and Permanent Rose blending on wet paper...

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

Work in Progress: More Tropical Flowers

Time flies -- my post here has been sporadic lately, although I have not been slacking off! For one, the study at the Golden Gate Atelier has resumed on October 1st after the summer break, and boy was I rusty! I am struggling Monday through Thursday trying to regain the skills of seeing shapes, comparing values, measuring angle and length by drawing from live models and copying master drawings, which leaves only the weekends to paint. Even those are hard to come by, however, since I have a couple of art fair events coming up every weekend of October (I will talk about my experiences in tomorrow's post, since I've learned quite a bit in my first art fair, and during the discussions with other artists who are veterans in these affairs)! Between printing, framing, setting up and taking down tents and panels, and long driving sessions, there are only a couple of hours here and there left to create new work. I am itching to paint and managed to paint in early mornings and late nights for an hour here, an hour there. Progress has been slow, but I thought I should at least share them here:

Soar,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper , 6"h x 6"w, WIP 2

I've got farthest with this little 6" x 6" little painting of bird of paradise. It is not a very complicated image, and the reference photo is very colorful. I decided to try out the multi-colored layering techniques I've been learning in the fabulous Jeannie Vodden's class, and practicing painting with lots of water, thin layers of pigments, and wet-on-dry. Well, I would not say I was completely successful -- in some of the shapes of darker foliage areas I got carried away and again started blending thick, juicy pigments wet-in-wet. But I am not unhappy with the results. I would like to practice saving areas of delicate, light-valued passages using this method in my next exercises... I feel I do painting too heavy-handed sometimes and did not quite utilize the full potential of the delicate nature of watercolor glazes. Something to ponder about in future projects!

Jungle Fire,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper , 8"h x 10"w, WIP 4

In this cropped bird of paradise painting, I have practiced the same glazing method as in the one above and managed to achieve soft blended edges in the background foliage areas. Now it's time to get that intense, rich orange color of the flower on there!

Heliconia Dance,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper , 7"h x 5"w, WIP 2

This heliconia painting is still at its beginning stage. I am learning from the two bird of paradise projects, and taking my time to build up values using blended thin layers of pure colors. I love paintings at this stage -- you can play with the abstract shapes of light and dark, take liberty with the colors, and enjoy the flow of wet pigments on paper without worrying too much to make it look like the photo. Since I am enjoying this process so much, I am suspicious I've indulged a bit too long at this stage... :-P

Petal Light III (Finished!)

I stayed up late for three consecutive nights and finally managed to finish this one for the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society's Annual Member Show! I am quite happy with the wet-in-wet passage of the big tree stump behind the flower -- but it was absolutely scary when that whole area is wet, and thick pigments of French Ultramarine and Quinacridone Burnt Sienna oozing in amorphous shaped puddles, and I was frenetically trying to lift out some brighter passages within the whole mess of darkness... I did struggle back and forth about whether I should even leave the stump where it is before starting to paint this image -- or whether I should simply remove it and put in more foliage behind the flower. I finally decided the image has enough areas of foliage and the stump could potentially break the monotony of blues and greens, add a little muted warmth to the imagery, and decide to leave it in the picture. To contrast with the detailed flower, I decide to paint the whole area wet-in-wet, using only brushwork to hint the wood grains and rough textures on the bark. I'm really glad that I did it this way -- and on this difficult paper, because it did force me to totally loosen up and break away from my reference photo, and only concentrate on WHAT IS HAPPENING ON MY PAPER to make interesting shapes using light, medium and dark value patterns and warm-cool color contrasts. It is so liberating and I really need to do this many, many, many more times!!!  

Petal Light III, 

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico 140# Cold Press Paper,10"h x 14"w, 2012 #50

Buy It Now from My DPW Gallery ($200)

I choose a dark copper-bronze colored frame to echo the warm rusty hue of the tree stump, and deposited the painting at the Rose Shenson Gallery of Triton Art Museum in Santa Clara. The show runs from October 4th to November 3rd, and the opening reception is next Saturday, October 7th from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm. I will be at the reception. If you are in the area, stop by and say hi! 

Petal Light III, Framed (Frame Size 16"h x 20"w)

Work in Progress: Snow White (and the Huntsman?...) (Conflict of Styles?...)

Have you ever experienced this -- you are looking at a beautiful reference photo, and you have a clear vision of how the painting will turn out. You sit down, start to work on it with a specific technique that you know will work with the imagery and bring out that special "zing" of it. You work more -- and then suddenly you realize a different technique, a different way to deal with the imagery, a completely different vision is taking over and you are torn between the old and the new? What do you do in this situation, my friend? Do you let your initial idea persist and work out the later inspiration in a second attempt of the same reference, or do you let the painting take a life of its own and dictate how it wants to present itself?...

I started this painting of a white rose back lid against a field of dark foliage as an experiment of blending colorful grey on the shadow areas of the petal -- using Permanent Rose, Aureolin Yellow and Cobalt Blue to mix greys with subtle color temperature shifts. I was quite happy about the results of the first few petals on the upper left side, but when I proceed on to the lower right side, I suddenly realize that I am practicing the painting technique I learned in the Amazing Jeannie Vooden's class and directly blending the three primaries on paper and layering them on as glazes instead of finishing each shadow area in one go. Suddenly realizing this could be one of the images of "colorful whites" that I love so much about Jeannie's work, I am eager to try out the technique. Yet as I was taking a break (while waiting the paint to dry, haha, I'm sure I am not the only one who is guilty of doing this) and surfing through the web, I came across one of the amazing images of Ann Pember, one of my favorite flower painters of all times, I was reminded of the beautiful way she paints white flowers -- wetting each shadow shapes separately and use wet-in-wet brush to hint the folds and turns of the petals, finishing each area in one go using high-saturation colors and let them blend on paper. I realized that I've wanted to try this method on for a long time -- and this imagery presents a find opportunity for doing that! Now I am really torn about how to proceed forward... 

Snow White, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 10"w, WIP 1

As a result, I put the white rose aside and resumed working on this bird of paradise painting (another one!). It has been a real challenge to work on this Fabriano #140 Cold Press paper -- I like to put on color a bit more thickly than people who does a lot of glazing to build up the color intensity, and as a result, whenever I try to rewet an area to do some detailed work wet-in wet, the underlying layers just lift like crazy. But, the color brilliance that can be obtained on Fabriano paper is just hard to match using Arches. So I am pressing on... (Speaking of enjoying the process versus results, well, while painting on the Fabriano paper I am clearly aiming at the latter instead of fully enjoying the former. Am I bad?...)

Petal Light III, 

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico 140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 14"w, WIP 4

Speaking of results -- the jurying results were in for the Fremont Art Association's 47th Annual Open Juried Exhibition, and my work, "Peppermint Rose" has won the silver medal of honor in Watermedia! I am so excited... The awards ceremony is this coming Sunday at 1pm. If you are in the bay area and not busy, come by and say hi!...

Peppermint Rose, 

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico 140# Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 8"w, 2012 #36

Buy It Now from My DPW Gallery ($125)

Here's how this painting looks in its frame -- I chose a simple black frame a little wider than 1" and 2" white mat all around, nothing too fancy to direct viewer's eyes away from the painting...

Peppermint Rose, Framed (Frame Size 12"h x 12"w)