Evening Reflections

Evening Reflections, Watercolor on Arches #140 Rough Paper, 7"h x 10"w, 2016 #16

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Dusk over Marsh - Day Twenty-Eight of the 30/30 Challenge

Dusk over Marsh, 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #30

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Day Twenty-Eight of the challenge -- a little plein air piece at sunset, done mostly with my 1" slanted bristle brush. I am falling in love with this big, stiff brush that is not at all capable of doing any details, but carries so much pigment and water and does soft wet-in-wet blending and rough edges both so well! When the sun is setting and the light changing fast, it is really handy! I actually did several different studies before the sun completely sinks under the horizon, but I love this one the most -- it did capture the glorious sky that I saw, which made all the draw grass near shore literally glows with dragon's blood red! Again, this is done in a quiet back corner of the shoreline park of mountain view. I can never get tired of painting the beautiful wetlands in the bay area...

Glen River Autumn - Day Twenty-Two of the 30/30 Challenge

Glen River Autumn, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #24

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Day Twenty-Two of the challenge -- working with an earthy palette again. This one is a memory painting of the Russian River valley up north, which I have painted "En Plein Air" many times. I especially love the fall there -- clear air, cloudy sky, muted ocher-colored shrubs, always reminding me of the highlands of Scotland... 

Ancestor's Place - Day Twenty-One of the 30/30 Challenge

Ancestor's Place, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #23

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Day Twenty-One of the challenge -- a painting of the red rock country of Sedona, Arizona. I have been wanting to paint these amazing rock formations forever since I paid my first visit to the desert country of the grand canyon state in 2008... I used a primary palette of Winsor Red, Burnt Sienna (a muted orange serving as my yellow) and Winsor Blue for this one, painting the sky and the clouds mostly wet-in-wet while patiently layering the red rock shapes from light to dark, softening edges where the cloud is in front of the monolith, adding dry-brush texture toward the base. The small foreground tree shapes were painted mostly using the 1" slanted bristle brush to get the rough silhouette of the foliage, and the linear marks of the branches were added where I think a line may compliment the dark mass. I was happy with this first effort, but would like to paint it again to explore different format and play with horizontal as well as vertical composition, to see how they can give different mood to the painting. This is what I really like about the 30/30 project -- it prevents me to linger too long on a small piece of the paper and opens the doors of experimentation. Each project by itself does not become overly precious. But as a body of work, I can always see my progress through them very clearly at the end of each challenge...

Marsh Sunset -- A Little Plein Air Painting at Elkhorn Slough

Marsh Sunset, Watercolor on Fabriano #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 10"w, 2014 #13

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The weather was great and I went out to do some plein air on Friday, and completely "Marsh Sunset" near Elkhorn Slough. Unfortunately, it was very cold once the sun started to set, and the coastal fog came in swiftly. As a result, I was not feeling well over the weekend  and did not get much of painting done... Still, I was happy to finally get back there and paint in nature! It's been too long since I have done that...

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:

Tranquility, and Thoughts on "Virtual Painting"

Tranquility,  Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 9"h x 12"w, 2014 #12

Bid in My DPW Auction ( Starting Bid $70)

Busy with drawing projects at the atelier for the past two weeks, but I managed to sneak in a few painting hours here and there, and finished "Tranquility". It has started in the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge that I took this January, but had to drop due to health issues of a dear family member. It was part of the "water" themed set of paintings. Now that things are back to normal in my household, I am slowly going back to these unfinished projects and trying to tackle them one by one...

I want to convey the sense of utter stillness and quietude in the early morning hours of an overcast day in this painting, and kept on feeling that the shapes of the cloud and distant trees near the foothills needs to be tweaked more, so I have wet and rewet these areas, dried them, wet them again... It's been a lengthy process. When painting landscapes I often find it's not enough to directly copy the shapes present in your reference materials; instead, conscious, deliberate design choices has to be made to makes tree/mountain/rock/cloud shapes interesting. On the other hand, it is so important to imitate the randomness presented in the natural shapes in your design, and take great care to not make them look too "designed", mechanical or symmetric! It's a delicate dance of balance...

Tranquility,  Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 9"h x 12"w, WIP 1

When posting the work in progress shot of this painting in January I was really very happy with how the various purple/blue/green colors has blended freely on the left side group of trees, as well as the shape of the silhouette of them. However, after finishing the distant hills and woods I realize the value of this group of trees do not quite work -- they are way too light and therefore does not balance the image. After agonizing over it for a few days, I have finally gathered enough courage to lay another layer of wash to darken them, taking care to change the color every time I reload the brush to maintain the interest generated by the color variation in the initial version. I did it wet on dry using a small squirrel quill brush, whose soft hair would not disturb the underlying wash. I am really happy with the decision, as well as the result -- with the darker, more intense blues and purples, the shape of this group of trees in the final image gives enough weight to balance with the middle-ground shapes on the right side, and blocks the viewer's eye from wandering off the right side of the picture, therefore emphasizes the moored boat. 

Often in landscape paintings like this, I find myself spending much more time staring at the painting than actually "painting" on it toward the end stage. It is not uncommon that every one minute of painting time is accompanied by ten or more minutes of looking and thinking. Sometimes after a long period of repeated starting, pondering and evaluation, I would finally decide to not add anything more and just call it done. However, I don't consider this as time wasted -- time spent evaluating the work to be done with a painting so often saves me much heartaches from taking that "one stroke too much". As painters even when we do not have brush in hand, we may still be mentally "painting" a picture on that virtual sheet of paper. And that, I believe, is a vital exercise for my growth as a painter, and time well spent.

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:

Amber Glow -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge, Round 3, Day 12

Amber Glow,  Watercolor on Arches #140 Rough Paper, 7"h x 10"w, 2014 #9

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Sometimes misfortune happens in pairs as well -- I managed to finish this little painting last night but did not get a chance to photograph or post it until now, since I had to take a dear family member to the emergency room for his cardiac episode. Please pray for me that everything would be OK... We often do not think about how fortunate we are to have health until we are on the fridge of losing it...

It's very unlikely at this point I will be able to finish 30 paintings in January, but I will keep on painting at least a couple of hours a day. It actually keeps my mind in peace in times of worries... 

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:

Sky in Progress -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge, Round 3, Day 8, 9, 10, 11

Tranquility,  Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 9"h x 12"w, WIP 1

With a progressing cold I fell significantly behind on my "Sky" paintings the past few days. I have been painting but since painting sky requires some serious wetting of the paper, I tend to work on several of them at the same time, so that I can continue working on one when others are in various stages of drying. So, here they are, some very close to finish, just waiting for me to put on the details; others just starting, with one or two wet-in-wet layers of clouds and nothing else yet... 

Amber Glow,  Watercolor on Arches #140 Rough Paper, 7"h x 10"w, WIP 1

Shades of Dusk,  Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 10"w, WIP 1

Night Sail,  
Watercolor on Lanaquarelle #140 Cold Press Paper, 3"h x 7"w, 2014 #8

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:

Purple Hibiscus - Sold, and Something I Learned in My First Art Fair

After putting this one aside for a couple of days and work on minor adjustments here and there today, I decided that nothing I do would add to it further, and instead I am just "fiddling", which is a dangerous thing to do and may cause a painting to lose its freshness. So, I signed it, and pulled it from the gatorboard -- another one finished!

Purple Hibiscus, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2012 #44

Sold!

I was hoping to get it done before the weekend, but was not able to because I had to do a lot of matting and wrapping for my first art fair event -- the "Meet the Artists Day" event held at the beautiful Filoli Garden. It turned out -- the event was totally worth all the effort! I had a blast meeting all the wonderful artists exhibiting in the same event, learned tons of tips and tricks regarding photographing, printing, making note cards and organizing my exhibition booth/table area. Everybody was very friendly and helpful, and I sold several small pieces of painting, including "Across the Bay"...

Across the Bay, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper , 5"h x 7"w, 2012 #38

Sold!

I made the interesting observation that most of things sold at such art fair events are items that are simple and "painterly" -- most of my paintings that got sold are very simple small landscape pieces. The more complicated flower paintings got lots of compliments, but not purchases. Is it the price? I did notice most of the items sold are below $40 - $50, and it seems anything beyond $100 tag is a hard sell. Or is it the style? Are people looking more at paintings that look more like "paintings" instead of photographs in an event where painters are exhibiting side by side with photographers like this? I am really intrigued. I have two other art fairs coming up in October this year, so I will keep on making my observations. What is your experience? Please share with me!...

Little Plein Air Pieces

After days of buried indoors finishing projects I started to miss the fresh, clear air outdoors, the sea breeze and the bright California sunshine. So, yesterday morning I decide to throw a small sketchbook and a couple of brushes into my backpack and go hiking! That was really a lot of fun. I found myself walking along the beach of Point Reyes National Seashore and looking toward Drakes Head after a couple of sweaty hours. The day is overcast and billowing clouds flying overhead, zipping through intense blue sky (it's very windy, as always, in Point Reyes). Sitting down to catch my breath, I decided to capture what's in front of my eyes on paper. Painting in strong wind is very tricky -- color dries instantaneously and your paper may fly away (yes, the whole sketch book flies) at any moment. It's a physical exercise if not anything else, but I really like the final result. Plein air sketches always have such a freshness that's hard to obtain indoors in front of photos. If not for anything else, one just gains such awareness of the subtlety of colors!!! The colors in nature seldom translate well onto films (or CCD cells for digital cameras)...

Across the Bay, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper , 5"h x 7"w, 2012 #38

Sold!

After a long stroll along coastal sage bushes, I drove back home along the inland highway 101. There are Vineyards and olive orchards all along the way and as the dusk falls, the sky become this surreal transition from deep, saturate blue in the zenith, to a dark, coppery orange along the horizon. The olive trees, back lit by the setting sun, become these haunting purple-black silhouettes. Their outreaching branches look almost like a thousand arms of ancient, earth-bound creatures in fairy tales. I pulled to the road side of the country land and painted this small piece on the car dash-board as the lovely light quickly fainting outside the windshield... 

Dusk over Oliver Orchards, 
Watercolor on Arches 140# Rough Paper , 4"h x 9"w, 2012 #39

Sold!

As I drove across the bridge into golden city lights, I realized how much I miss hiking and painting outdoors. It's the inertia of habits that prevents me from doing it more often, and I really should! Painting is as much about personal discovery and growth as it is about transfixing what you experience into a finished image on paper, and nothing, I say nothing, makes one more aware of their surroundings and inspire that being close to the source -- nature in its raw state -- and paint in immersion of it! I made a promise to myself that I will do it at least once a week from now on, no matter how busy and overwhelmed I feel before leaving home -- I know I will always coming back totally exhausted by feeling much fresher!...