Beachcombers -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 17

Beachcombers at Linda Mar, Pacifica, 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Rough Paper , 6"h x 8"w, 2013 #68

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $35) 

I had a fabulous day enjoying the brilliant summer light, cool ocean air and roaring breaking surf at Linda Mar beach of Pacifica -- I went out painting plein air again!!! (I cannot believe that I don't do this often enough, as it was such a great experience every time I do it. Maybe I should just set a schedule for myself, like "go out and paint plein air every Friday morning at 6:30", so that I can stick to it, like I have stuck to this challenge..."

There isn't any shade on Linda Mar beach and it is difficult to do wet in wet under direct sun, so I used a very wet squirrel quill brush and lots of water to dilute the paint, and did most of the painting wet-on-dry. I also chose a rough surface for the paper so that I can do dry-brush more easily, which is something that is not hard to do outdoors -- the underlying wash almost dries instantaneously, so you can put the dry-brushed details on top of it immediately. ;-) Again, not many people on the beach on a weekday (this is the time that I thank the universe for letting me be an artist so that I can get out on such a beautiful day and enjoy the outdoors, instead of being confined in a cubical; but then, the cubical comes with a more steady paycheck which I do miss! :-P), but a handful of sandpipers are combing the wet sand for their afternoon snack -- just the center of interest I need for this little study. I happily added these lovely little creatures, and watched them busy poking and digging around where the wave just left, immersing myself in their world for a precious moment. I am a grateful women, when I know I am at peace with what's around me.

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:

Fall over Marsh -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 16

Fall over Marsh, 

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico #140 Cold Press Paper , 8"h x 12"w, 2013 #67

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $65) 

This is the second piece I have completed from the exercises started at Sterling Edwards' workshop. The initial imagery comes from many evening walks I have done around the marsh lands in the bay area, when the sky gradually turns into a beautiful magenta purple color, and the reflections of bushes and woods in the still waters of the marsh simply glow with a golden hue. Those last minutes before dark, the "in between" moments, the magical moments of the day, when I ambled through the quiet trails around these wetlands, they are all carved into my memories. Those were quiet times to reflect on the day, or watching a flock of birds gliding through low sky and marvel at their agility. Those were moments I felt at one with my surroundings, totally lost but knowing exactly who I am, and why I come to this world. 

I feel truly blessed every time I attempt to record such moments, such experiences with my brush. The action of painting itself recalls the joys of time experienced, shapes seen, sounds heard -- the completion of the picture seems only of secondary importance in comparison. The impressions seemed vague and hard to capture on paper, yet with every brush stroke I was reassured that they are actually part of me, and I will have them in me forever. It's a truly amazing experience... Let a scene simmer in your heart with time, before to bring it in front of the world again.

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:

End of Storm -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 15

End of Storm, Watercolor on Sennelier #140 Rough Paper , 4"h x 9"w, 2013 #66

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $35) 

A few years ago I had the pleasure of taking a workshop from Sterling Edwards, a wonderful landscape painter in watercolor, from whom I have learned to paint with big square brushes wet in wet, manipulating soft shapes using a stiff bristle brush. At that time my proficiency of working with watercolor is still very limited, so the projects I have attempted during the workshop failed miserably. But I kept the class materials and took them out from time to time to ponder upon. Then today, I felt that I could give them another try -- after all, I have definitely progressed as an artist during the past two years while I was painting almost everyday. I started six projects in the same time, reflecting what I have learned in class, painting mostly from memories and imagination, recalling familiar images of wetlands, woodlands and sea shores that I have wandered through when making a particular shape. The whole process is really refreshing. I've also deliberately stayed away from the good old Arches, and picked soft surfaced papers and even hot press papers that dried relatively fast, and have completely different handling qualities when wet. The unfamiliarity created more stimulation, and as a result, I have completely enjoyed the process. And this little piece is the first one that came out of such exercise...

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:

Summer Heat, Central Valley -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 14

Summer Heat, Central Valley,  

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper , 6"h x 9"w, 2013 #65

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $55) 

This piece started quite a while ago as a study of negative painting in a workshop with the wonderful landscape artist and teacher Roland Lee. I saw this scene first when driving down to central valley on one of the little winding roads from Pinnacles National Park (at that time still only a national monument). The heat has totally scorched the land. There is only yellows, orches and browns in my field of vision. Now and then, a single, very skinny cattle or horse would been seen lying under valley oak trees, trying to get as much shade as possible from the what little shadow a lone tree could offer. It must be over 100 degrees even in shadow. Every inch in my line of vision is burnt by heat. Even the wind was choking hot, and when it titillated with the dried up grass it almost sounded like the vegetation were moaning out of pain and thirst. An old wind pump was slowly operating on the roadside, draining what little water it could squeeze out of ground into the huge rusty metal tanks standing beside it. I couldn't help but imaging how hot it would be if I put my hand on the shiny surface of those tanks... I can almost feel the thirst on my lips again when finishing this piece last night, although I was sitting in my cool, damp, comfortable San Francisco home...

I guess this is what I love most about painting -- it allow you to recall and relive the experiences that has once moved you, or forever scarred you. The pleasure and pain that has once changed us are, through the movement of a brush, fixed on a piece of canvas or paper for eternity...

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:

Fisherman's Evening -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 13

Fisherman's Evening,

 Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press paper, 6"h x 9"w, 2013 #64

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $35) 

After a busy day at Filoli, I was happy to be able to still finish this little painting tonight. I used a very limited palette because I was inspired by some Sumi ink paintings and Haiku-like photographs I saw today. When I was painting it I thought about fog gradually rising on empty river surface, a lonely fishing boat anchored near shore, with its fishing-cormorants resting on the long pole at the end of it. The fisherman with a glass or two of hard liquor, resting after a day's hard work... It's a more and more rare scene even in rural China nowadays, the country being so rapidly developed. I know the romance in rural lifestyle is probably exaggerated while the hardship deliberately overlooked with people outside writing or painting about it, but still, born and raised in a mega city, I cannot help but being slightly nostalgia when thinking about such life of the past, which I have never experienced genuinely... :-P Life is full of controversies I guess. 

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:

Spring Meadow, Tamalpais -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 12

Spring Meadow, Tamalpais,  

Watercolor on Winsor Newton 140# Cold Press Paper , 6"h x 10"w, 2013 #63

Sold!

My theme for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge" this week is "landscape with water" -- I guess fog is a form of water hence this painting still fits the theme. ;-) I've learned a lot about using aerial perspective and soft-to-hard edge transition to create a sense of depth from doing this painting, as well as how to create varied shapes within repetition -- it is really hard to make every next stroke representing a fir branch to be of a different size, shape, direction and color from the last one! I don't think I've done an excellent job here -- more practice definitely needed. I've also experimented only using color transition and texture to represent the meadow. Unfortunately it looks more interesting in person than on the photo...

For those of you who are in the bay area -- tomorrow (Saturday, September 14th) and the day after tomorrow (Sunday, September 15th) will be the "Meet the Artists Day" event for the exhibition at Filoli Garden - "Nature’s Many Splendors: Farms, Gardens and Woodlands"! You are all invited to this special art-festival-like weekend, to meet the artists in the show, watch them doing art demos, chat with them and learn what has inspires them to create their art pieces. Framed pieces, prints, note cards and other items will be for sale both during the show and at the "Meet the Artist Day" event. And I will be doing demo there! The show runs from August 27th through October 27th, at the art gallery area in Filoli Garden, which is located at 86 Canada Rd in the lovely town of Woodside, California.

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:

Edgewood -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 11, and What I Have Learned from It about Underpainting

Edgewood,
 Watercolor on Saunders Waterford #140 Cold Press paper, 10"h x 10"w, 2013 #62

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $65) 

One of the consequence of painting landscape everyday for quite a few days is -- I start to crave to paint on slightly bigger pieces of paper and really allow the wet paint flow. This is something very hard to achieve on tiny formats such as 5" x 7" or 6" x 6" -- there is just not enough space for very wet washes to run, and the quantity of water has to be very strictly controlled so that you do not lose all precious white space after the first wash. And a few pieces that I liked after observing what such runny washes have done were further developed with glazes, including this one.

When applying the first layer of underpainting, sometimes I just apply a very simple all-over color tone to unify the future painting, giving it certain mood -- for example, a light yellow first layer can almost warm up the coldest, harshest paintings on top of it and gives a subtle sunny feeling to it. But most of the time, I would try to create soft-edged shapes with this first, very wet application of paint. Sometimes these shapes are related directly with the shapes, tones, directions, sizes, lines textures and colors which will follow, other times I just start with a rough idea, which means the first underpainting layer would only by partially, or approximately related to these aspects of the painting to come. And then, on other occasions, I've started with a blank mind not knowing what I'm going to paint on this piece of paper, and just apply very light colors an tones on soaking wet paper, and observe their movements -- which may give me some idea. I have even superimposed the value and color structure of another painting or other reference materials (instead of the one I am currently painting) in ghostly light versions as an underpainting, which means it would not at all correspond to the shapes, colors and values of the current painting that is to be developed on the same piece of paper -- and surprisingly, often enough, I have found that add a lot of surface interest instead of being a total disaster.

This has made me think why I have always liked to start with such a soft-edged, light underpainting layer, if it is not always to hint what's going to come. I believe underpaintings comes with its own advantages: It gives variations in the "white" section of the painting, and allow optical superimposition of color and tone. Since optical color is the synthesis made by our eye when seeing the underpainted color thought the overpainting, it is unlike any single layer and has its own mysterious "shine" or "glowing" quality when done right. An underpainting, especially when not totally correlated with the overpainting, often promotes an abstract quality of the image developed, and soft under hard edges usually makes a rich counterpoint and makes the pictorial experience more interesting and stimulating for the viewer. As long as one keeps the underpainting layer soft and light (usually lighter than midtone in value), allowing for final considerations and readjustment of edges and drawing during the overpainting process, it usually would not be too intrusive as to interfere with the viewer's experience with the overpainted image, just like the ambient sound of forest or ocean often do not interfere with our experience of music in such environment, although their rhythm or beat may not coincide with that of the music's.

For this particular painting, I have applied a very light, gradated magenta wash from top down, adding various greens, blues and purples toward the bottom, because I roughly had the idea that I wanted to paint a sunset  in the woods on a cold, snowy winter day. But I did not exactly draw out the trees, the rocks or the topography on the snow-covered field. Instead I have concentrated to vary the color temperature and value while applying this wet wash. As a result, I really liked the added interest this first layer has created on the otherwise all-white snowy field. And because of the dark woods and rock shapes developed in the overpainting, the light purple and blue areas at the bottom still read as "white" and "snow". One thing I wanted to improve on this is to add more color variations in the areas that I know will be very light (such as the sky) when doing the underpainting. I was a little timid about doing this when painting "Edgewood", and as a result, there is not a lot of color variations in the sky, and makes it a little bland compared with other areas of the image. Luckily, there are enough business in the woodland area directly below it, so that quiet patch of sky can actually give the viewer's eye some rest and relief. It was not planned, but I'm glad it worked out this way... What do you think, my friend?

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:

Misty Dawn -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 10, and Thoughts on How Artists Create Art

Misty Dawn, Ruby Beach,
 Watercolor on Richeson Zoltan Szabo #140 Cold Press paper, 5"h x 7"w, 2013 #61

Sold!

Since I was going through the reference photos I took on the trip to Ruby Beach, Washington when doing "Sea Stacks, Ruby Beach" a couple of days ago, I couldn't help but picking out a few more favorites to work from, hence this little one today (and a few more to come). Lucky for me, it still fits in my theme for the current week: landscape with water (ok, ok, yesterday's piece was landscape but without water, I got it :-P... I just got carried away designing those trees and finished it in the end...)

It has been a long time since I took the trip, but I stood on that beach from dawn (which was nice and sunny) till past dusk (which gradually got very cloudy and finally started to rain -- as I complained in the post about "Sea Stacks, Ruby Beach", looked, listened, smelled, pondered, drew and painted, even took a nap! The place with its unique windy, salty atmosphere was well burnt into my memory. Had I not spent such precious time lingering in a place like this, but only snapped a photo and left, I probably wouldn't have felt being suddenly transported back again when my eye accidentally scanned across the reference photo I took there at dawn. I remembered how the warm mist gradually rose from water as the sun slowly climbed up, as if the spirit of the land was waking up along with the warmth provided by this source of life. I remembered the amazing rosy golden glow around everything behind the veil of fog, and the purple-orange shadows of the back-lid sea stacks standing against the rising sun...  I just had to get it down on paper.

After finishing this piece I started pondering about the creative process -- what an artist, every artist goes through after being hitting by that overwhelming sense "I have to paint that!!!"... First comes looking: a sensation; seeing a piece of nature and saying, "There is a beautiful tree", or "I love the light reflected on water's surface". We as artists start to be aware of the "present". Eyesight reception stirs up a chaos inside us. Something has to be done. Then it all quiets down to a more pure, condensed perception: the artist acknowledges him/herself the existence of the scene, and a deep, more real "seeing" is retained within our memory with every extra stare, providing a storehouse of visual data for us to mull over and over, ponder and digest, which finally may be integrated into a "concept" -- a perceived experience with intention. At this stage we as artists have gained an awareness of what stood in front of us in the totality of personal experience. It has become axiomatic, and can be held as a scheme in our mind's eye as an integration of similar units whenever we want to recall it. It matures, and waited to be executed, carried out as a visual statement about the experience -- experience not as what happened to us but what happened in us. And as we finally do that, the finished work becomes separated from us, the artists by time and space. It enters a life of its own, to stand or fall, no longer within our control. There is often a sense of deep vulnerability felt by the artist when such a product makes its public appearance, as for so long we have lived with it, held it deeply in ours minds and hearts, being tortured by its will of coming out of us, worrying that even after giving it our best effort, the result still could not stand up to the beauty we see in our minds' eye... 

It is such a painful, labored exhilaration, an addiction, a powerful experience that we repeat again and again, everyday. The most powerful and most vulnerable position: the position of the creator. 

... And that, is exactly why I am doing it again today.

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:

Wild Growth II -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 9, and Some Thoughts on Beginnings

Wild Growth II,
 Watercolor on Winsor Newton #140 Cold Press paper, 4"h x 11"w, 2013 #60

Sold!

Today is a good day at the studio in terms of actual work that's been done: I have laid out different maker's different surface-finish of paper, tried all of them out by starting a new landscape wet-in-wet on them. So... There were a lot of messy starts -- not one of them finished since a quarter-sheet soaking wet requires some time to dry naturally, hence I was running between projects. For wet starts like this I also stand up and paint, which means at the end of the day, my legs are about to give out. But it was exhilarating, since I can see a few possible good paintings start to emerge, and I have also discovered some good techniques for certain makes of paper that I did not know how to paint on before.

But I did not forget about the challenge! I developed one of the sheets (ok, only part of it) into this little study of texture of field and shapes of dark conifers. It was painted more abstractly than normal, since my focus was to test out how different texture-creating procedures would work on this particular type of paper when it is gradually drying. Of course, only textured, undefined large span of field requires some smaller, more defined areas with hard edges to contrast with it so that the whole picture could work, hence the conifers, which were painted first as abstract combinations of shapes made by deliberately varied brush strokes. The whole painting process is very brain-intensive, and I felt totally exhausted coming out of it, but also filled with sense of pride and joy, because I have challenged myself and learned something again. 

It is Glasworthy who said, "The beginning and endings of all human undertakings are untidy: the building of a house, the writing of a novel, the demolition of a bridge and eminently, the finish of a voyage." So true.

These new starts I made today would become finished paintings in the next few days. I am so excited and could not wait until tomorrow to work on them again!...

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:

Rockaway Beach, Pacifica -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 8 (A Plein Air One, Finally!...)

Rockaway Beach, Pacifica,
 Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press paper, 4"h x 6"w, 2013 #59

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $15) 

I had an ultra-busy day today: the new show at the Main Gallery is being hung today, so is my 3-person show with Los Altos Art Club (LAAC) at Simply Be Salon in Palo Alto. The show in the Main Gallery runs from September 11th through October 13th, with artists' reception held between 4 and 6 pm this coming Saturday, September 14th. The show in Simply Be Salon will be on view through the month of October. So if you are in the south bay area during the month of September and October, there would be plenty of place to see my work!

After a whole day's physical labor, I rewarded myself by driving along the coastal route 1 instead of the boring normal commute highway 101 back up home. Just as a spur-of-the-moment decision, I turned onto this hidden little treasure patch of sandy beach when passing Pacifica -- not many people know it, except the locals, so in the late afternoon of a Monday, it is very quiet. Only the sound of waves and heat of the setting sun keeping me company... I quickly found a patch of shade under a coastal cypress tree and started this little plein-air sketch of what's in my field of vision.

It was a relatively quick effort. Even in shade the heat reflecting from the sand was getting my washes drying very fast, so I chose this tiny size and did not labor on any particular technique, instead just got the view in front of me down on paper with straight-forward layered washes. In hinder sight, the composition probably can be improved quite a bit. Yet it was just a fun excursion for me, and when looking at it, I can almost feel the scorching heat on my skin again, hearing the roaring waves again, and smell the salty scent of the sea air again. To me, plein air painting like this are precious snapshots of time for myself first, studies for future larger studio work only serves as a second, side benefit. 

Of course, sometimes I go out and plan a whole day's plein air painting and they are solely to study a place, a season, a particular lighting condition. Those are different -- a lot more useful perhaps and I take them as very serious exercises, but I have to say this is so much more fun!...

I felt I have really missed doing this -- painting purely for the fun of it and indulge myself (at least for a moment) forgetting that this is my full occupation, my career, my livelihood now, and just view it as pure fun. It is much easier to do this when I still had my engineer day job. Now... I often find that I have taken painting too seriously, too much like a regular job, to the point any time I found myself really enjoying it, I would feel slightly guilty about that, as if I am not working hard enough. But I don't want to view painting just as another job... I DO NOT EVER WANT TO FORGET THAT IT IS LOVE AND PASSION THAT HAS ATTRACTED ME TO BECOME A PAINTER.

... And fun, like today, I've come back with a not-so-impressive painting but also great memory and fun. I think it is time well spent... 

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: