Night's Glory

Summer Glory,

 Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 7"w, 2016 #18

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $65)

Coming back from farmer's market with some fresh pots of blooming orchids, whose translucent petals just glow under the light on my painting table. I took tons of reference photos and cropped some very close-up and dramatic views... Orchids definitely have​ a very seductive atmosphere around them, which resonates with the night's air... The deep, saturated red center makes me think of old Hollywood movie posts on which the heroine's lips are always to invitingly blushing red and moist... In a way every flower is both an invitation and a seduction. Looking at them, I cannot help but think evolution has peaked in this culmination of both functionality and aesthetics. Orchid is the glory of hot, steamy tropic nights...

Summer Glory

Summer Glory,

 Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 5"w, 2016 #17

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Raidance - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Radiance, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 9"h x 12"w, 2016 #14

Sold!

Sunkissed - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Sunkissed,

 Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 8"w, 2016 #12

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $95)

Love Birds - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Love Birds,

 Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 8"w, 2016 #11

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $65)

Ode to Spring - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Ode to Spring,

 Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 8"w, 2016 #10

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $65)

My most recent obsession is to have combine the portrait of a single flower -- not the glamorous rose or peony, but those often only seen in clusters, such as tulip or cosmos, and a large, abstract background, playing with amorphous shapes and textures contrasting the sharply defined focal point... I think there would be a few more to come in this series as I am working on several of them at the same time. These take a lot of staring and only gradually come into being after many layering and being putting away for a while, as the imagery come largely from my head, instead of from a defined reference photo. It is a new diversion for me, and I like how it prompt me to react to what's happening on the paper while wet colors are dropped in. I am listening to watercolor more now, instead of always trying to cajole it into what I have initially planned it to be. I guess it's all part of coming into peace with this challenging medium...

Eclectic II - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Eclectic II, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 8"w, 2016 #7

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This is my second take on yesterday's subject - a good thing that often comes from the daily-painting challenge. Often, you don't get to obsess over a project because of the time limit, but the "what-if"s that spring from it can germinate the next day, or the day after into a creature of its own. I wanted to play with the abstract background a bit more and make color and paint application (granulation, wet-in-wet shapes, etc.) the dominant factor instead of strong value patterns that dominates in yesterday's version. Instead of changing the last painting and trying to realize this goal, I just took another go of it. The result is today's painting -- less electric, more dreamy in its atmosphere. It is fun to look at the two pieces side-by-side and think how much a variation painting can take from its source material. Often painting from my own painting brings a great sense of freedom, as well as springboards my imagination. Staring at the shapes gradually emerging from the interaction of paint, water and paper surface often leads to such unexpected directions. All I need is to listen, instead of trying to beat the painting into the mold I had in my head before putting brush on paper...

Eclectic - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Eclectic, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2016 #6

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $50)

After painting something bright and colorful with warm reds and magentas, I wanted to explore the cool side of the palette and paint something dark and moody, like the neon lights in the night city street. Up till this point my florals are all pretty much natural-colored, and I want to see if I can pull off something with a very artificial-lighting-inspired color scheme and dream-like atmosphere. I am currently doing a second variation of of this painting, which is less value-contrast-dominated and a bit more colorful. It would be fun to compare the achieved effects...

April's Promise - 30/30 Challenge 2016

April's Promise, 

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2016 #5

Sold!

Field of Dreams - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Field of Dreams, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 12"h x 12"w, 2016 #4

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $195)

I really want to play with the limited palette on this one, and try to see if I could get the soft, dreamy, wet-in-wet like background by painting in thin layers wet-on-dry. I had so much fun... Using a limited primary palette of Vermilion, Aurelion Yellow and Ultramarine Blue, the color harmony was achieved without much conscious effort, which is the largest advantage of using a limited palette... I was a bit worried about color monotony resulted from all the red in the poppies, and really played up the warm vs. cool, saturated vs. muted variation of different reds. In the end I am very pleased with the result -- and I really missed painting flowers!

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!

April's Promise - Day Twenty-Five of the 30/30 Challenge

April's Promise, 
Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #27

Sold!

Day Twenty- Five of the challenge -- another one I have labored on for ages. When I first started this painting I had absolutely no idea that Fabriano Cold Press paper is very very different from Arches Cold Press paper -- in absolutely every aspect. Arches is hard-surfaced, holds pigments applied onto its surface relatively well, because the pigments do sink into its paper fibers quite a bit -- and because of this the colors do seem to get a little bit duller as the applied washes dry and sink in, also it is difficult to lift colors from this paper, especially if you are using some of the staining ones such as Thalo or Alizarin Crimson. Fabriano Artistico paper, on the other hand, only keeps pigment on its very soft surface, which makes lifting easy -- even lifting back to the paper white is possible without actually damaging the paper surface, but wet-in-wet glazing difficult as the underlying colors have a tendency to lift off if you wet the paper again! Also, soft-surfaced paper dry at a speed much faster than hard-surfaced paper, as the latter has a lot of surface sizing and prevent drying by absorption to a certain degree. I have since learned my lesson -- the painful way, as I labored my way through this little piece, throwing my brush onto the ground numerous times as the applied wash simply refuse to do what I want it to. Luckily, I was taking some classes with the amazing watercolor artist, Jeannie Vooden when I started this painting. And I have learned the patient blending of very thin, watery washes wet-on-dry in her class. I modified this method by trial and error to use on the Fabriano paper, learning complete different painting techniques and procedures that would suit the temperament of this delicate paper... I have learned so much through the process!

Looking back at this finished piece, I am amazed at how much my method of paint application has changed through the struggle of this little painting. It has literally taught me so much about watercolor, and about myself as a painter. I am grateful for all the struggles it put me through, and feel very proud that I have stuck with it till the end.

Fire Dance - Day Twenty- Four of the 30/30 Challenge

Fire Dance, Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #26

Currently on Hold ($175)

Day Twenty- Four of the challenge -- this is a painting that I have labored on and off for the past few years, and each time after putting it away for a while and taking it back out, I find something to add or change here and there. But the most recent examinations have revealed less and less changed that I feel necessary. So today, after doing a few last little tweaks, I've decided that it is time to call it done and let it go to the wide world! As a cherished child this is the first painting that I feel hard to let go... And there is a collector that I have promised first dibs when I finish it, after which I will let it go to the open auction. A personal favorite of mine...

Sudden Snow - Day Seven of the 30/30 Challenge

Sudden Snow, 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #9

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $50)

Day seven of the challenge -- I am still hanging on there!!! (Truely amazing for me, although I admit only barely... :-P) It seems like the hotter the weather gets, the more I feel drawn to painting images of the chilly winter scene... In this one I really wanted to capture the feeling of sudden change of seasons -- a night's snow fall before the brilliant fire of fall colors have a chance to run their course and gradually diminish. I experimented with very granulating colors such as Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Violet and Manganese Violet on the snow washes, then scrubbed with a damp, relatively stiff synthetic brush and blotted with tissue to lift out the light shapes on the snow field. By using a relatively soft brush and varying its degree of dampness as well as the pressure applied, I was able to achieve softer and harder transitions at the edge of these lifted shapes. I really liked this technique and decide to try it more in my future paintings. The light facets on the snow-covered rocks were squeezed out with a palette knife before the applied dark colors have totally dried.

Water's Edge, Watercolor on Aches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, 2014 #19

Buy It Now from My DPW Gallery ($95)

On a separate note, a painting I created for last year's 30/30 challenge in September (which I was not able to complete but nevertheless is still a great exercise) was chosen as the judge's pick by Carol Marine on Daily Paintworks. I feel very honored to be selected by an artist who I admire among so many great competitors. Thanks Carol! 

Tropical Greetings - It's That Time of the Year Again!

Tropical Greetings, 

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #3

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $50)

OK, call me crazy but I am doing it again! Leslie Saeta's "September 30 Painting in 30 Days" Challenge -- here is the first one! I will be travelling abroad part of September due to family matters, so we will see how this goes, and I may not be able to post everyday... But, it never hurts to push yourself and try! I really hoped to define a theme this year and create a more consistent body of work, but decided to back off it until next time I do the challenge -- so that I am not overly ambitious and ending up wanting to kill myself on the 20th day of the 30 day theme and really feel tapped out to paint the same series throughout... (If you are familiar with my painting habits, you know that I like to jump between multiple paintings of different subjects and styles... :-P A born ADD indeed!) So, here we are at the starting line. Happy painting everyone!

Pink Ladies in Progress, and Thoughts on How to Use Reference Materials

Pink Ladies, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 8"w, WIP 2

I am trying to ignore the fact that I have not posted here (or on my facebook page, or on my Daily Paintworks gallery... =_=b.....) I used to beat myself up for these artistic "dormancy" periods, and feel like I am being lazy and irresponsible to not turn up one painting after another, or worse still -- not even working on any paintings for an extended period of time. When I am in school doing oil paintings, I feel at least there is a reason (or excuse to forgive myself?...) that I am not producing more watercolor paintings, since I am learning something new and not turning out finished products that can be shown to the world (without shame...) is allowed; but doing the breaks between semesters, I often go through these extensive periods feeling so guilty that I am not working more on my watercolor painting, or painting bigger, more substantial works that I've promised myself so many times I would do...

But, guilt aside, I do start to realize (after fighting with myself so many times) that these dormant periods are essential to my growth as an artist. I almost always come out of them learning something new, and paint a little differently. So, this time I am trying to not feel too guilty about it when it happened, and embrace the time I feel needed to study other artists' wonderful works (both on the amazing web and in museums), watch tutorial videos, read instructional books, and most important of all, think about my own approach to each potential projects that comes my way, trying very hard to analyze what is missing in my paintings at this stage of my artistic development.

Gradually it becomes more and more clear: I am too much of a slave of beautiful reference photos -- for the colors used, for the shapes presented, for the myriad amount of information presented in the photograph. The more time I spent setting up a still life/floral, or walk around trying to find that "perfect view" to take my reference photos, and the more photos I take "just in case" none of the ones I took previously turn out to be just "right", the more I seem to be unwilling to let go of it during my painting process. But can one really learn to run without finally casting away the walking stick that he/she has held on so tight for dear life?... Especially as an artist working in the realistic tradition, how much should one be bound by the information (shapes, colors, values, edges, etc.) provided in the reference material and how much artistic liberty can (or should) one take?

Obviously every artist (even the most photo-realistic painters) takes some liberty editing their reference material to create their art -- without this editing painting simply becomes a mechanical "pixel-by-pixel" copying of the reference photo, and cease to become a window into the artist's soul, therefore cannot hold its own. However, not all alterations from a reference material automatically improves the art piece -- nature often provides us with much more interesting shapes and subtle value shifts, for example, than most of us could come up with if we are given a blank piece of paper and no reference to work from. The hardest thing is how to make all the editing actually add onto, instead of detract from, the final resulted artwork. It's a true test of the aesthetic taste as well as technical skill of the artist, and it's scary as hell.

But maybe, it is time for me to start...

Green Bells of Ireland -- Continue with the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge...

Green Bells of Ireland, 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2014 #17

Sold!

With my third butterfly painting for Leslie Saeta's "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge for this September still in the works, I thought I'd share with you one of my previous paintings that I have completed for this challenge. I did it while still in China, therefore haven't got a chance to share it here with you yet, although I have uploaded the image onto my Daily Paintworks Gallery Page. I have started this painting actually in 2012, and at that time my main goal is to explore different variation of greens -- mixed from yellow, blue and brown, or modified from different tube greens. I was a little intimidated by this color, as it is not easy to make it look natural with readily-available tube colors, yet it is so essential to flower (and all nature-related) paintings. I have worked on it on and off many times, and certainly have learned a great deal while working on it! The most interesting fact I have discovered is that you can add a lot of different hue -- blues, yellows, and even reds and brows -- to your painting in different locations at small portions and still have the entire image read as "green", as long as the colors adjacent to green on the color wheel dominate the pictorial space, and colors complimentary to green only occupy small areas -- and these sparsely placed jewels actually decrease the monotony of the whole painting, really making the color "sing".

Paintings in an almost-monochromatic scheme like this one is not easy, as it is relatively hard to place emphasis on the center of interest item without the help of a hint of the complimentary color of the large color field it is placed in. I have to rely on mostly cautiously placed details as well as the contrast of soft and hard edges to reach my goal, and direct the viewers' eyes toward the flower bells in the foreground. I have exaggerated the softness of the background from the reference photo to make the center flowers stand out, and add more atmosphere and movement to the entire image.

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:

My Big Pink Rose Painting -- and the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge

Beauty Queen II, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 19"h x 14"w, 2014 #14

Bid in My DPW Auction ( Starting Bid $550)

I have been absent again from this blog for three months! I cannot believe it... It seems like everytime I say in my blogpost that I will post more often, something just happens to make it difficult to keep that promise... I am back now, from a difficult trip back China, my home country, for the funeral of a dear elder family member. Times like this make me think about my own mortality, and I am having some concerns regarding my own health following a recent body checkup, but most important of all, it makes me rethink what I want to do with everyday of my life.

I've always been slightly intimidated by the thought of painting larger, and thought "I could do it when I have more time" or "I could do it after I gain a little more experience with watercolor". But I realized this is not going to happen as long as I keep on putting it off -- so after careful consideration, I've set the goal for myself to paint at least one painting larger than quarter sheet per month in the next 12 month, and try to do at least three paintings larger than half sheet among those. I'll revisit this goal in a year, and see how I have stood up to this self-challenge.

So this is my first attempt -- a rose the size of almost a half-sheet. I have done it in a smaller scale - 7"h x 5"w, a size that I am much more comfortable with. I felt less intimidated by this subject since I've already worked out some of the problems in composition and execution in the small painting, but as I was proceeding with the larger version, I started to appreciate it unique challenges coming with the scale. For starters I found my arms don't stretch to the far side of the painting when I sit, and I often have to paint the top side upside down to solve this problem... And it is not even really large for those of you (you know who I am talking about! ;-) that routinely work on full-size and above sheets of paper... (What do you guys do when you work on a larger size? Please share your tips with me!)

So this is my humble beginning of yet another chapter of my watercolor journey -- it's been almost three years since I started sharing it with you, my friends, and I've loved every minute of it. Flipping back to the first few entries of this blog, I can see how far I have come and I know it is impossible with the encouragement from all of you. Thank you, my friends, at down times it is your kind, gentle nudge that has kept me going on this winding road.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention that I have again signed up for Leslie Saeta's "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge for this September! The challenge has started when I was still in China, where I have no access to blogger or facebook due to government restrictions on internet there, so I have a few of those piled up, uploaded onto my Daily Paintworks Gallery Page but not here. I will gradually share them here with you in the next few days. It's unlikely I am going to make the 30 paintings quota this time due to my travels, but I will paint everyday nonetheless. Happy painting my friends!

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:

Fire Dance (Very Close to Finish...)

Fire Dance, Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, WIP 7

I am currently working on two small paintings of tulips -- perhaps being inspired by the beautiful tulip garden cultivated by our Dutch neighbor that I can see every time I look out of the window facing my painting table. An artist is definitely aesthetically influenced by his/her immediate environment -- albeit some more than others -- but that perhaps is a good justification for our desire to surround ourselves with beautiful objects such as other artists' work?...

That aside, this particular tulip, "Fire Dance", paintings have taken me a long time to complete, dragging from last spring to this one. Numerous times I have seen it as finished, even framed it and showed it in galleries, and eventually after looking at it for a while, I would feel something is still missing, and eventually remove it from the mat and rework it some more. From the last WIP of it shown on this blog, I have followed some very good advice from fellow artists and softened the edge between the leftmost flower in the background and the background itself, linking the two together, as well as separating the center flower from the rest by darkening and neutralizing the flowers out of focus in the background. I've lost some beautiful passages of effects along the way, but I feel the whole painting does stand stronger this way, and it is very close to finish... I just need to think about how to define the front petal in the center flower better -- without losing the light on it. I need to spend more time staring at it and think than to actually move my brush at this stage...

How to finish a painting is a very personal problem that each painter solves in their own way, and may vary from one piece of work to the next. However, being able to actually "finish" a piece without rushing it through deadline or beating it to death by overworking gives a tremendous sense of satisfaction, as well as confidence to build on the knowledge gained in this difficult process and apply it to the next painting. Wish me good luck to pull it through, my friends...

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:

Heliconia Dance

Heliconia Dance,  Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 5"w, 2014 #11

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $105) 

After finishing "Soar II", I realized that I am really missing painting flowers -- or, from a design point of view, missing working on brilliant colors, and more detailed shapes. Since I have a couple of floral that have been lingering in the studio for quite some time, I decided to get my focus out and finish them!

So, here is the first one I have managed to finish over the weekend, despite of my lingering cold and stuffed sinus (in a way painting actually helps to distract me from the physical discomfort -- it is almost meditative when I am doing the finishing 20%!). The reference photo of this painting is from Chris Gardner who runs a lovely blog of her own photographs of a variety of flowers, and has kindly allowed me to use her pictures as reference photos. I really loved the curvlinear movement that dominates the photo, and decide to use wet-in-wet dynamic lines to further emphasize that. I have also tried to play up complimentary red-green color scheme, using bright, saturated red to emphasize the Heliconia flower, and muted yellow-green and blue-green foliage in the background as "supporting actors". To avoid monotony in the "green, green, green" background, I have dropped in Ultramarine and Winsor Red wet in wet in small amount here and there to add some "zing" factor to it. I am quite happy with the final result, except for the fact that it has taken way too long to complete it! Now it's time to move on to the next painting...

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: