In Full Sunshine (30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge: Day 21)

In Full Sunshine,

 Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2012 #23

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Continuing with my 6" x 6" plumeria series today... These projects are manageable after a full day of class, and the possibility of watching granulating pigments gradually settling into the groves of the paper just brings me such joy after a long day of focus-intense drawing. This aspect of watercolor is almost meditative... At stressful times it allows my mind to slowly quiet down. 

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Aloha (30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge: Day 16)

Aloha, Watercolor on Ampersand Aquabord, 6"h x 6"w, 2012 #18

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I had quite a bit of difficulties with this painting -- the reference photo has these juicy dark leaves surrounding the center flower, which is ideal to be treated with wet-into-wet applications to create the movement and out-of-focus effect; the center flower itself is radiant with saturated colors -- reds, oranges and radiant magentas, with beautiful Cobalt Blue shadows. I have painted the image multiple times in my brain before executing it on Aquabord, and came to the realization that getting smooth, saturated soft edge shapes of the flower is not easy, and its almost impossible to create specific soft-edged dark shapes of the background leaves -- to make them very recognizable shapes of leaves, yet not so hard-edged that they are competing for focus with the center flower. I ended up experimenting with dry-brush hatching on the background, which is painstakingly slow, but it did give me the rich, dark, and slightly blurred shapes. I am not sure this is the way I want to go for my next painting on Aquabord -- the adventure and discovery continues and the learning process is the most intriguing... But for now, I think I am ready for a change to paint on my beloved Arches paper again!

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Remembering June (30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge: Day 15)

Remembering June, Watercolor on Ampersand Aquabord, 6"h x 6"w, 2012 #17

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This piece is my experimentation with painting details and layering light glazes on Aquabord, the former of which proven to be quite manageable on this surface, while the latter turned out to be quite difficult on segments where dense pigment has already been laid down -- more difficult than even the smooth hot press papers, that is. I was thrilled to have pulled it off on the lower right corner where the underwater stem of the water lily is -- I've painted the dark and light shapes of this section separately, and they appeared lacking of unity to the point that I was really frustrated, and just took out my squirrel quill brush, mixed a milk-consistency of Permanent Sap Green and Quinacridone Gold, and glazed the entire section with this mix. Some of the dark pigments lifted a little and the boundary blurred, for sure, but it actually turned out to enhance the illusion of "under water". 

On a different note -- the beginning of a year is normally the busy season for entering juried exhibitions, and I am pulling some late nights trying to finish some larger pieces, as well as trying to get a couple of small paintings done for a group show in the Main Gallery. With class at the atelier resuming, the pressure of finishing one small painting a day seems to be gradually taking its tolls. There are days that it just seems an impossible task to finish, or nothing I put my brush on turns out right. However, like a beginning marathon runner, I know I am just hitting this wall of my own limit and I will need to push through. The great thing about this challenge is that I have discovered many awesome artists through it, and I have read about their struggle with it along the way. The comradeship and encouragements from my peers and you, my dear readers, has kept me going this far. Thank you all so much... 

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Texas Blues (30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge: Day 14)

Texas Blues, Watercolor on Ampersand Aquabord, 5"h x 5"w, 2012 #16

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Here's "Texas Blues", finally finished! Turns out... Painting on Aquabord is really a very time-consuming process, and this little piece has taken much longer than what I initially expected to finish! But, here it is, as promised... And I have a couple more pieces in the pipes for the next couple of days, so stay tuned!

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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

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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!

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Winter Light (Version 2) (30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge: Day 12)

Winter Light (Version 2), 

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico 140# Cold Press Paper, 9"h x 12"w, 2013 #14

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I have to admit that keeping the full pace of one painting a day after class has resumed in the atelier today has proven a challenge -- I've only got two hours in the morning and three hours in the evening to devote to painting (and the rest that goes on in REAL life -- cooking, laundry, commute, etc.) I have managed to pull out this painting, which I did a smaller version previously, and really loved the results, and thought I would love to try it on a slightly smoother paper and a larger size. The separation of granulating Cobalt Blue from Burnt Sienna is not as evident on this one compared to on the rougher paper I used for the last version, however, the light appeared softer, and more tender because of exactly the same reason.


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January Snow (30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge: Day 9)

January Snow, Watercolor on Arches 140# Rough Paper, 7"h x 10"w, 2013 #11

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I was working on "Texas Blues" for a couple of days on and off and thought I'd finish it today -- but then I saw this blog post from my beloved friend Crystal about the 12 inch snow they got yesterday. I could not help but remembered what it was like when a good winter snow silently drifted in the darkness of the night, and the next morning when I opened the door, the back yard bushes are buried almost to their tip, and the landscape is transformed into a completely alien space. The new snow are always clean and fresh looking, like this giant white cotton sheet covering everything fast asleep underneath it. Occasionally a sapling could be spotted in the expansive white field , so lonely like the rigging of a little sail's boat in the vast ocean... Then I painted this one, "January Snow", instead.

I surely missed snow since moving to California...

Texas Blues, Watercolor on Ampersand Aquabord, 5"h x 5"w, WIP 1

As of "Texas Blues"... I promise I will finish it. Another day... There are still 21 days left for the challenge...

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Last One Standing (30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge: Day 8)

Last One Standing,

  Watercolor on Richeson Stephen Quiller 140# Rough Paper, 5"h x 7"w, 2013 #10

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I took the reference photo for this painting on my road trip from San Francisco along the pacific coast up to Seattle. Passing the northern tip of Oregon, entering Washington state, suddenly there are lots and lots of drift wood washed up on the coast. I took my lunch break on one of the little beaches with such washed-ashore driftwood scattered everywhere, and there also happened to be this dead tree still standing, among the bleached driftwood, with its giant roots half exposed, seemingly going to tip at the first blow of strong winter storm. It was a grey day, chilly and cloudy. I stood there, looking at the giant tree, wondering when it was still a seedling, what it had seen upon this beach -- that would be... 300 years ago? 1000 years ago? When was that? It was still Tang Dynasty in China... And in North America, it was long before the first European explorers have landed. Only deer and native Indians were occasional visitors of this quiet beach, perhaps...

I stood there dreaming about what it was like being a tree, standing in the same place, for hundreds of years, then one day, tipping in a storm into the waves, drifting thousands of miles across strange lands.

Then I painted this image -- more from my imagination than literally from the photo. I couldn't say it has quite captured the spirit of the land or the tree, but at least, it is my homage to them.

I am also working on two 10" x 10" commission pieces -- a larger version of my paintings "Purple Hibiscus" and "Green Orchids". It has been a challenge to try to keep up with a painting a day, and work on these in the same time. But I am hanging on there...

Purple Hibiscus II,

  Watercolor on Richeson Stephen Quiller 140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 10"w, WIP 1

Green Orchids II

  Watercolor on Richeson Zoltan Szabo 300# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 10"w, WIP 1

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Whispering Wind (30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge: Day 7) - Sold

Whispering Wind, 
Watercolor on Lanaquarelle 140# Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 10"w, 2013 #9

Sold!

Continuing my experimentation with painting on soaking wet paper for as long as possible... After a couple of days' playing I am feeling more and more free, and went ahead with this without much preliminary drawings. I had fun dropping in reddish and golden brown colors for the shrubbery on wet paper first, then design the branches connecting them after the leaf shapes have dried. I also had plenty of fun doing the negative painting of the grass underneath the shrubs using what I have learned from Roland Lee's workshop. Painting without drawing is scary at times, but the unrestrained brushwork has a lot of vitality and vigor, therefore works well for amorphous shapes such as bushes and tall grass.

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Season Change (30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge: Day 6)

Season Change, Watercolor on Arches140# Rough Paper, 5"h x 7"w, 2013 #8

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In this deceptively simple-looking subject I rediscovered the joy of sculpting into wet watercolor paints with a damp brush and pull out the bursting white seed pod shape out of the background, and painting negatively around a light shape. Simple as it looks, it actually took me several trials to land in one that I am relatively happy with. The difficulty lies in leaving enough room in between each brush stroke so that when the wet paint travel and expand on paper, there are still enough white paper left to suggest the seed pods of the bulrush plants. Of course, you can always carve out the lights when the paper is drying, but to achieve the really beautiful diffused edge that suggest the fluffiness of the pods, it is best to leave the soft edge created by the initial movement of fluid paint on very wet paper -- which, of course, is hard to control as wet paint has a mind of their own...

This is one of the trial runs that's on Jack Richeson Stephen Quiller #140 rough paper -- I found the texture effects of granulating paints are not as evident on this paper compared to Arches, and removal of even non-staining paints are somewhat more difficult. (I will report back after more experiments...) However, I did like the interesting shapes on the bulrush seed head formed by uneven drying of paints -- getting this kind of "happy accidents" are one of the major draws of watercolor...

Season Change (Version 2), 

Watercolor on Richeson Stephen Quiller140# Rough Paper, 5"h x 7"w, 2013 #9

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