Fields of Gold (Private Commission)

Fields of Gold, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 8"w, 2013 #36

(Private Commission)

I realized the lacking of updates on this blog for the past few weeks -- no, I have not been slacking off; rather opposite, I was very busy trying to catch up with deadlines of all sorts -- a set of paintings as gifts to friends for their birthdays, and some private commission pieces, as well as preparing for some local spring themes shows. I had quite a few exciting news from juried show circles as well as in the sales department, which I will share with you in the next few days' posts. It's rather late now and I just finished this commissioned piece of yellow tulip, which is for a very sweet guy who commissioned it for his wife -- as a gift for their wedding anniversaries! Isn't that something? She is dutch so tulip is a must -- and I tried my best to convey the sense of a sea of golden tulips with only one clearly painted in the center stage, the rest just hinted through various blurred shapes. I must say doing glazings of yellow is hard -- they lift so easily and you can't really paint them thickly on, for they will appear chalky and dead-looking! But I had fun combining the flower in one reference photo with leaves in another, and background from yet another different photo! and painting the leaves gradually from in focus to out of focus and blurred across the page is a lot of fun too...

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Island Beauty - White Plumeria - Framed - Available at $125

Island Beauty - White Plumeria 

Watercolor on Fabriano #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w Framed to 10" x 10", Front View

Sold!

Island Beauty - White Plumeria 

Watercolor on Fabriano #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w Framed to 10" x 10", Back View

Back in December I entered two paintings in the Randy Higbee Gallery's 6" Squared Show and I have just received this one back in the mail today -- I have to say that I am very very impressed with how beautiful they framed and presented the painting. It is framed with their signature Catalina Black Wood Frame with Gold Lips, which beautifully showcases the golden center of this white plumeria flower. I am offering it for sale with the fame at a lower price of $125 for anyone interested, so that it will find a permanent loving home...

Here's the image of the painting without frame:

Island Beauty - White Plumeria 

Watercolor on Fabriano #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2012 #12

Sold!

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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:

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

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $35)

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. 

You can purchase my 2013 wall and desk calendars here:

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

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

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $45)

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!

You can purchase my 2013 wall and desk calendars here:

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

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

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $65)

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... 

You can purchase my 2013 wall and desk calendars here:

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

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

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $45)

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!

You can purchase my 2013 wall and desk calendars 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: