Where the Eagle Flies - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Where the Eagle Flies - Portrait of the Colorado Plateau I,

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

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Recently I am having these almost obsessive fixation on the high Colorado Plateau, and seeing the somber, severe landscape whenever I close my eyes. The almost barren, treeless bajadas, the grey-blue granite cliffs and baked red-buff sandstone monoliths, the lone red-shouldered hawk soaring below the low-hanging clouds... I had to paint it. I would probably come back to this series a few times in the next couple of days. I know I have not exhausted it in this little study...

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... 

Morning Fog, Tamalpais - Day Eighteen of the 30/30 Challenge

Morning Fog, Tamalpais,

 Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #20

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $40)

Day Eighteen of the challenge -- Trying to catch up today but was not quiet happy with the other painting I am working on, so maybe I will get a fresh eye tomorrow morning... For this one I again worked from a previous Plein Air piece, changing the format from horizontal to square, allowing more space for the receding mountain ranges. As the evergreen-covered hills gradually get closer, I added more Quinacridone Burnt Orange to warm up the color, and put down the last two tall fir trees in the foreground with thick paint on a quite worn-out old brush to give some more interesting edges. The whole painting was done in one wetting of the paper, but I was not too happy with my first two attempts of it, so this is the third one. Sometimes you can wash off freshly applied watercolor paints and start over on the same piece of the paper, but I find often the surface sizing would largely come off this way, and granulating pigments don't quite settle the same way, so for a small piece like this I would just start anew on a fresh clean sheet. Luckily the shapes worked out quite well the third time... Now it is really time for bed! :-)

A Still Life Study, A Small Landscape, I Am Hanging on There...

It Takes Two to Tango,  
Watercolor on Saunders Waterford #140 Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 10"w, WIP 2

With a dear family member falling ill of cardiac issues and later myself getting sick with flu when in hospital taking care of him (thank you all who have sent me kind words and prayers!), I guess I have fallen off the bandwagon of "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge this time. I have decided not to beat myself up for it, and just try again next time in September when Leslie is hosting this challenge again. In the mean time, I found out that floral/still life painting actually suited the fragmented schedule I have in between hospital visits and bed rests better than landscapes, so to get back into the groove and also actually learn how to paint glass, I have resumed this study from master artist Jan Kunz's tutorial. Unlike most of my floral work, the two roses here are mostly done wet on dry, so that I could practice softening edges with a damp brush, while in the mean time try to make good shapes with each brush stroke. It's amazing how time consuming all the small shapes of the flower petals and especially on the ball jar are -- I have an increasing appreciation of the amazing work you do, Carrie!

Frosty Morning,  Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 10"w, WIP 1

When I actually have some chunks of time at hand, I worked on several more small landscapes. Most of them still have not taken shape yet, so I've only included one here. It started as a "Sky" painting in the challenge, and from that palette of Cobalt Blue, Turquoise and purple grey mixed with transparent primary colors, I decide to portray early snow in the mountain highlands, with lake water in the foreground, and some small shrubs still exhibiting fall colors reflecting in it. The focus here is to try to evoke the feeling of chilly late autumn morning air in the highlands. We'll see how it goes! :-) 

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:

Moon Rise over Rockies -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge, Round 3, Day 3

Moon Rise over Rockies,
 Watercolor on Richeson Stephen Quiller #140 Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 10"w, 2014 #3

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $45) 

So, there is not much doubt what theme group this one belongs to... Yepp, it is "Mountain". The majestic Rockies to be exact. It started as an idea of wanting to paint an image with my favorite palette -- purple and sienna complimentary duo. I thought these colors are just perfect to capture that magical moment of approaching dusk after glorious sunset, when a pale round moon slowly rises into the sky. I tried to be very deliberate about mark-making in this one, making every brush stroke count and use it to carve out shapes that are interesting and suggestive. I am influenced to a great degree by master watercolor artist, Stephen Quiller, in the way of making subtle, indicative, ambiguous and beautifully designed shapes -- ones that remind viewer of tree, rock, bush, undergrowth... But never delineate any of these "things" to one hundred percent exact. I am a firm believer that a good realistic painting needs to be aesthetically pleasing in both the way that representative shapes contain in it, and the abstract marks that sculpt out such shapes. Without one or the other a painting would either be a mere copy of the object or a haphazardly piled heap of calligraphy, each one individually flamboyant but lacking a solid foundation to build upon. 

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:

Rockies Sunset -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 24

Rockies Sunset, Watercolor on Arches #140 Rough Paper, 4"h x 6"w, 2013 #74

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This little guy took way longer than I initially expected -- mostly to get the textural marks look right and not so contrived took quite a bit of practice on scrape sheets. I wanted to capture that last magical light of the day as it set the highest snowy peak on fire, and throwing the lower part of the mountain into deep, deep blue-green shadow. I love the dramatic quality of the light at such moment -- the warmth of the peak as it glows with yellow-orange hue, the cool sky behind it which is gradually sinking into quiet, somber night color, the strange sense of wonder, awe and anything is possible in the air... As I paint this one and "Moon Rise" (still in progress, hopefully will be done tomorrow), my heart was singing with the intoxicating high-mountain summer air I remembered when watching this magic happen -- a trip at the tail of summer to Colorado, a spontaneous camping trip into the Rockies, two days and two nights spent among the evergreens and aspens, watching glorious sunset and stars rising out of crystal black sky... It was then and there I start to understand why I love this country so much, and why despite of all the security and comfort it would provide, I could never persuade myself to hold onto a corporate job. Beyond everything in life I cherish this the most -- this sense of freedom and chance to be one with my surroundings, the most splendid creations called THE WILDERNESS. 

Born in an overcrowded nation I cherish this space to breathe and to be alone so much. Coming from a city of 30 million people, I know very clearly what luxury it is to be accompanied by no one else but the mountains. Somethings can never be forgotten once realized. Everyday, I count my blessings.

And you, my dear artists friends and collectors, you are helping me getting close to my dreams one step a day. Thank you. 

THANK YOU. 

(P.S.: Since this is a small piece I have actually painted to the edge of the paper, and if purchased it can be float-mounted, showcasing the deckled edge.)

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:

Stormy Weather -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 21 (Sorry, WIP Again...)

Stormy Weather,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 11"h x 15"w, WIP 2

I've been painting a lot of landscapes lately, and some of them are getting bigger than the usual size I work on. This one is not finished and now I have to try really hard not to wreck it! I've nervously stood in front of this painting putting on one stroke after another using a really big brush (the size of the paper is 11" x 15", which is not really big, but big for me) when it was changing from soaking wet to almost dry, and I think I've gained another level of understanding of wet water cycle on watercolor paper after this one! I am really excited about all the soft but definite edges I was able to achieve on it...

I feel very lazy comparing to all my friends out there who are really finishing a painting a day -- from tomorrow I will try to finish the piece I am working on again, and get the last two pieces finished! I promise... I think although this has been a great exercise of discipline, it does start to take a toll on me to paint non-stop from morning to late night for more than three weeks. Sometimes I swear that I literally feel my wrist is getting stiff! But, I do not want to be a whiner -- I just really admire those of you who, despite of all the other tasks and obligations in life, still manage to start and finish a painting in a day's time! Hang on friends, we are almost there!... ;-P

Stormy Weather,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 11"h x 15"w, WIP 3

This is what it has progressed to after more work last night and this morning. With three unfinished work going on in the same time, it was actually fairly easy to get a refreshed view switching back and forth between them. I think with a few details on the middle ground trees and some further refinement of the conifers on the left, it could be finished within a couple of hours. I will take extra caution not to get carried away adding those last details...

Stormy Weather,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 11"h x 15"w, 2013 #71

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I think this piece is now finished -- I was very happy with the negative painting of some of the light fir trees on the left side, as well as the calligraphy to suggest tree branches in the middle ground light colored tree shapes. I did quite a few negative paintings on this one, using the dark mountain shapes behind to set the edge of the middle ground tree that is being lid. The main point of exercise for this one is trying to depict dramatic lighting, and using brushwork to suggest mountain, tree and grass. I have certainly learned quite a bit designing those shapes...

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:

A Few More Pieces for the Climate Crisis Show, and Winter Solitude Finished!

Disappearing Beauty - Langjokull, Central Highland, Iceland, 
Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, 013 #49

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $30) 

One of the other litter pieces in the "Disappearing Beauty" series -- this one depicts another endangered glacier in the central highland of Iceland. During my visit to Iceland I drove across the roadless central highlands -- it was almost a moon landscape with sparse ground vegetation (only lichen and tundra grass, not a tree visible) and its various shades of ochers, siennas and browns due to the iron and sulfur compounds abundant in the volcanic rocks and soil. Most of the mountain encountered on this journey are half-covered with glacier, and when temperature rise during the day, fog start to hover at the base of them, intermingle with wind-carried dust (due to the lack of vegetation), veiling the foothills in such a surreal way. Not another soul to be found in my entire journey -- no people, no animal, no sound of critters. The only thing one hears is the roaring of ever-blowing wind. I feel I was almost transported to an entirely different eon of time. The whole experience was so surreal...

Later I learned that the glacier I saw during this road trip, Langjokull, was one of the small ones in Iceland and was much threatened by the gradual warming of the surrounding sea of Iceland, and its area acreage has shrunk quite considerably in recent year already, because of the fast summer melting in higher average day temperatures, and mild winter without much snow replenish it. It would break my heart to see such unique landscape losing its essential components due to the lack of action on our side -- it takes millennium to make a glacier, but they could be gone in decades in the current trend, and never to be experienced again by future generations...

Disappearing Beauty - Palisade Glacier Lake, Sierra Crest, Summer,
Watercolor on Sennelier #140 Rough Paper, 4"h x 9"w, 2013 #48

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $35) 

The third one in the "Palisade Glacier Lake" set -- this one depicts the scene of lush summer. All three are matted together in a triptych format with 16" x 20" frames right now, in the "Climate Crisis" show of the Main Gallery of Redwood City. This exhibition is now open and runs through Sunday, June 30th. The Main Gallery, located at 1018 Main Street in Redwood City, is open every Wednesday through Sunday from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. If you are in the area, remember to stop by and see all the interesting art pieces in the show!

Winter Solitude, Watercolor on Arches #140 Rough paper, 7"h x 10"w, 2013 #50

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $40) 

Finally, I completed "Winter Solitude" by adding foreground calligraphy of little shrub and withered grass, and like the mood -- I may try to paint a larger version of it, on a different type of paper... Recently I am really itching to paint larger and use my 2" and 3" sky flow brushes... I enjoyed exploring the different stage of drying and the textural effects one can achieve by continuing adding dense pigment on a gradually drying surface, which you can see on the foreground tree bark and shrub -- some part of its main stem has a fuzzy look which is accidentally achieve when a rigger brush loaded with stiff mixture of brown and blue is pressed hard on surfaces with different level of wetness, and in the wetter areas the pigment would diffuse just enough to create the fuzzy look. I thought it added surface interest and decided to keep it, and maybe explore this effect later more deliberately in future paintings... One of the "happy accidents" so famous for the media of watercolor, isn't it? ;-)

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:

More Paintings for "Climate Crisis: An Artistic Vision" Show

Disappearing Beauty - Vatnajokull Glacier Lake, Iceland, 
Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, 2013 #45

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $30) 

Continuing my "Disappearing Beauty" series for the Climate Crisis Show in the Main Gallery -- it opens this Wednesday! The artists' reception is this Saturday, June 1st from 6 to 8 pm. If you are in the Redwood City area, stop by 1018 Main Street (right beside Alana's Cafe) and say Hi!

This one is based on my travel a couple of years ago to Iceland -- a country with 25% of land covered by glaciers of various sizes, all in the process of disappearing if the global climate keeps its warming trend. Vatnajokull is in the southeast side of Iceland and its tongue is directly melting into a large lake, with icebergs broken off the glacier tongue floating on the lake surface, it's quite a surreal scene of intense purples and turquoises -- colors that are even considered too bright-hued when used on canvas actually appearing in nature. With the glacier melting faster than ever, in less than a couple of decades lakes like this may totally cease to exist...

Disappearing Beauty - Palisade Glacier Lake, Sierra Crest, Fall,
Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 4"h x 9"w, 2013 #46

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $35) 

I've enjoyed doing the long-format little piece of palisade glacier lake so much that I decide to make it a triptych. The last one is a winter view and this one is approximately fall, with the high peaks surrounding the lake starting to be covered by snow, but the lower foothills still have some brown colors of brushes and prairie grass. The lake is not yet frozen, reflecting the clear autumn sky color of the high country... With a warmer planet and much less winter snow fall, such high country glacier lakes may totally disappear due to the lack of replenish water source from melting snow in the next couple of decades, just like the lakes that used to cover the vast region of death valley a hundred thousand years ago...

I've used a very limited palette of three colors to do this piece and thoroughly enjoyed it -- with such limitations imposed, I actually feel that I can spend more time concentrating on solving the relative color temperature and value problem without being distracted by the decisions of whether it is the right hue that I am mixing for a particular object in the landscape. Also, it is much easier to abstract landscape into various shapes instead of considering it as a compilation of different objects when the colors are not an accurate imitation of nature.

Disappearing Beauty - Sunset over Rockies, June, 
Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, 2013 #47

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $30) 

The next one, "Disappearing Beauty -- Sunset over Rockies, June" is based on my trip up in Colorado a couple of years ago. It was June but snow is still everywhere once you get into the mountains. And as the sun sets against western sky, all the snow covered peaks in the high Rockies just turned into this flaming red, which gradually faded into a deep purplish blue near the base of the peaks. It was a glorious show every evening, and never exactly the same. With an average six degrees' average temperature increase as predicted in the next few decades, there would hardly be any snow left on these peaks in the month of June, when the vegetation on the plateau is lush, and such glorious show in nature's beauty would be missed by the future generations...

More to come -- stay tuned!

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:

Gallery Show ("Climate Crisis: An Artistic Vision"), and a New Painting ("After the Summer Rain")

After the Summer Rain, 
Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 5"w, 2013 #42

Sold!

The busy season of Silicon Valley Open Studio is finally over! Thanks too all the art enthusiasts and collectors in this area, it was quite an unexpected success for me the very first time I participated! With every painting sold stories exchanged between the artist and the collector, and I have learned a ton about what attract people to buy a painting...

My next big project is the gallery show with the theme of Climate Crisis in the Main Gallery of Redwood City. It is quite a mighty subject to tackle and my take on it is a series of small landscapes of both mountain and oceanic glaciers under the title "Disappearing Beauty". The one below is a little 5" x 7" painting of the snowy peaks of high Sierra (Sierra Crest near Mono Lake) belong to the series. With gradually warming weather most of these pristine snow packs would disappear in the next few decades in summer...

Disappearing Beauty - Snow Packs of Sierra Crest, 
Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, 2013 #43

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $30) 

The next one in the "Disappearing Beauty" series is a little long-format landscape of the icy glacier lake of Sierra Crest, near North Palisade... High mountain glaciers are the most threatened by the warming climate, as there are not enough snow in recent winters to replenish what melts away each summer. The pristine lakes of high sierras may become dry lake beds if the current trend continues...

Disappearing Beauty - Palisade Glacier Lake, Sierra Crest, Winter,
Watercolor on Sennelier #140 Rough Paper, 4"h x 9"w, 2013 #44

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $35) 

I really enjoyed doing these little landscapes but also itch to start a slightly bigger one... More to come, stay tuned!...

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:

Highland Dreams (30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge: Day 13)

Highland Dreams, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 9"w, 2013 #15

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $35)

Second day at school after the holiday break, I have to admit I am absolutely exhausted by the end of an 8-hour day of standing. Getting back to the painting table takes some discipline, but I'm glad that I did it -- pulling a large fluid wash across page has proven to be an effective way of distressing. This is a simple imaginary scene of a quiet mountain lake at sunset. I started it with a simple value sketch, and added all the colors according to the mood I wanted to achieve, responding to what's happening on paper, experimenting with wet-on-dry mark making to suggest vegetation and ground texture, putting emphasis on making interesting shapes since I have no visual reference. It was very different from how I paint normally, and it was a lot of fun...

On a different note -- I am featured today! My friend, Taryn Day, who is an amazing painter as well as a virtual curator who runs the great artist interview blog, "The Art Room", which exposes its reader to many extraordinary painters -- past and present -- with a changing monthly theme, has run a feature of me today in the theme of "painters who blog". Taryn has asked each painter she interviews this month to pick one or two works they like most among all works they have created during the year 2012, and explain why. Taryn also makes a pick herself and explains her reason. It has been fun reading the daily updates of other great painter/bloggers for me and absolutely an honor to be listed among the array of painters who have inspired me and for whom I have great admiration. Thank you Taryn for giving me this opportunity to meet more art friends online!

You can purchase my 2013 wall and desk calendars here:

Work in Progress: Morning Fog, Tamalpais

More landscape paintings... I have to admit that they are extremely addictive once you get into the "zone"... This one is about the fog over Mount Tamalpais again. I am experimenting with painting with thicker and thicker pigments from background forward on saturated wet paper -- as the paper dries gradually during the painting process, the pigment would diffuse less and less and therefore give more definite forms to objects in the foreground. I've intentionally left some white passages unpainted to hint the veil of the fog around the hills, and trying to keep the far-away mountains cooler in color to be consistent with aerial perspective. It is challenging to paint the conifer in consistent but non-repetitive shapes to maintain interest in the foreground area, and I was trying hard to just use one or two strokes of a flat bristle brush on its edge to hint a tree... The foggy mornings in the redwood forest of California are truly beautiful and other-worldly. I just wish I have enough skills to do them justice on paper...

Morning Fog, Tamalpais,  

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

Two Small Landscapes: Season Change (Finished), & Tamalpais Meadow (WIP)

I've felt a bit experimental lately and ventured out to paint more wet-in-wet landscapes, some successful, others disastrous. To manage the drying time and achieve the soft, wet, flowing look that I love about watercolor landscapes, I've shrunk my paper size significantly for some trial-runs before to attack the larger sheets -- quarter sheet for me is large at my current skill level of managing wild wet washes, I'm not greedy in my expectations :-P. And I do fall in love with some of these small jewels from time to time -- sometimes a trial run has the kind of freedom and freshness that a well-planned, well-executed larger piece lacks. There is a delicate balance between spontaneity and careful planning that I am still struggling to grasp...

This is a card-sized "experiment" I did trying to figure out how to create those fluffy white clouds   I've so often seen when travelling in the high country of Colorado and Utah. I did it in two wet cycles in this piece -- first wetting the who image with clear water, and drop in Ultramarine and Cobalt Blues to indicate the sky behind the white clouds; while this is totally dry, I rewetted the white area and dropped in a very light mixture of grey made by Cobalt Blue and Burnt Sienna. The most important and difficult thing here is to try to not let this grey flow to the edge of the white space , so that you still have some white left between the blue of the sky and the grey of the cloud that's facing away from the sun. I played with calligraphic strokes while creating the spruce tress, paying attention to increase the value and saturation of color gradually from the background trees to the ones which are in the foreground. I liked the slight melancholy and sober mood of the resulted piece, and may do a slight larger piece of a different format of it in the future.

Season Change (High Country Snapshot I),  

Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper , 5"h x 3"w, 2012 #25

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This is another piece I've started in the same fashion, trying to find out how to find fog-covered coastal hills. It's a view I so often see and marvel at while hiking in the Mount Tamalpais State Park in winter and spring mornings -- while the entire view ahead is veiled by beautiful silver fog, there would sometimes be a patch of meadow cleared of fog because it is not covered by oak and redwood trees (the respiratory action of these trees actually create huge amount of vapor in the air, and therefore make the fog denser). I'm struggling to recreate the quiet, moist, fresh air in my memory on paper in this one, and so far I've only done one wet cycle on the paper, painting from background forward as the paper gradually dries, leaving more and more obvious brush marks on the paper, ending with the dry-brush mark of muted brown underneath the tree shape near the center of the picture. At this stage I am more concerned with color temperature relationship and the abstract aesthetics of  brush marks -- the variation of shape, size, edge quality among these marks. Glazing over dry paper and tidy up these marks can be done without much difficulty later, as they are all quite soft and diffused. I love this stage of watercolor painting -- it's both exciting and nerve-wrecking, demanding 120% of the painter's attention. I'm feeling like walking on a tight rope while doing these wet-in-wet piece, which is a good change of pace from the more carefully planned floral paintings. Time to go back to the studio. Ciao!...

Spring Meadow, Tamalpais,  

Watercolor on Winsor Newton 140# Cold Press Paper , 6"h x 10"w, WIP 1