Category Archives: Paintings

Daffodils 

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I know it’s the wrong season. I started these paintings in early spring, when Trader Joe’s still carried those cheap bunches of daffodils. It is a nostalgic flower for me; my father used to raise them around Spring Festivals. It is also a challenging flower to paint – yellow is not an easy color to keep clean. In addition, I wanted to try doing a quick preliminary study beforehand, a practice many accomplished artists advocate. 

Here they are:

Daffodils and Fruits, oil sketch on paper, 9 x 12 in. 2023
Daffodils and Fruits, oil on canvas board, 12 x 16 in, 2023
Daffodils and Eggs, watercolor sketch on paper, 10 x 10 in, 2023
Daffodils and Eggs, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in, 2023

And here’s what I got from this experience:

  • As your can see, I did a one hour oil sketch before Daffodils and Fruits, and I liked the sketch better than the final painting itself. The looseness brings out a movement and a sense of humor that diminished in the meticulously rendered final painting. I am seriously  considering setting a timer for my future paintings.
  • The study for Daffodils and Eggs was done in watercolor and it was overworked for the purpose.
  • The blue overtone was an improvisation. The original setting was dull and it worked better with the watercolor than oil medium. I wanted to add some drama and energy to the rather mundane setup. I feel I made the right choice.
  • For me, doing a study beforehand took a bit of freshness out of the final painting process. It could be I was just doing it for the sake of doing it rather than as a process of exploring.
  • It occurred to me that still life as a genre that could be the most expressive for a realistic artist. You don’t get to do that much “directing” in portraiture or landscape. Though at this state, my main focus is still honing my technique, I need to be more thoughtful in choosing and orchestrating the subjects.
  • I did put a signature on Daffodils and Eggs. Can you find it?

Summer and Peppers

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For the first time in four years I was able to travel to Beijing and hence the absence of new posts. At the first glance the city seems largely unchanged, except for the long lines outside every gallery and museum. I don’t know if people are just hungry for art or it is the “lipstick effect” of the flagging economy, but the never ending queues didn’t go well with the scorching weather on record. Soon I noticed an apparent missing of international tourists, and a lack of liveliness in general everywhere we went. People are getting by, but not looking forward too much. It could be the weather, or the “laying back” that everyone was talking about. Regardless, I ended up not doing too much.

The couple of exhibitions I did managed to attend shared some commonalities in a strange way. The Graduation Show from The Central Academy of Fine Art – China’s most prestigious art academy was an expose of vibrant young minds. Walking among a hodgepodge of contemporary media, we were constantly attacked by explosions of lights, sounds, and immersive installations. While traditional techniques were not completely forgotten, they took a back seat to ideas and functions behind art.

Meanwhile, the National Gallery of China celebrated its 60th anniversary with a display of its permanent collection. For the domestic part, the media were conservative and the contents were propagandistic. The international part featured many crafts from the “One Belt One Road Initiative” member countries. It could very well be the most diverse exhibition I have ever seen. In terms of media and the ideas represented, this was the opposite of the students’ show above mentioned. However, art was equally sidelined in both cases, which brought to mind an online comment on Chinese rock music I once read, “I heard the rock, but where’s the music?”

The shows also caused a little panic inside when I looked back on my extremely lack of “idea” art, for example:

Three Peppers, oil on canvas board, 9 x 12 in., 2023
Peppers, oil on canvas board, 11 x 14 in, 2023

I’ve always cherished the simple joys of composition and color harmony, but these exhibitions had me questioning—do I need to dig deeper? Must I have something grander to say? Do I truly have something to say? In an era that one can put ideas into MidJourney and let it generate a picture, does this make the traditional artistic skills obsolete, or on the contrary, make them more important in defining what is art?

In China, schools commence each year on September 1st. It seems fitting to conclude may summer idling and wondering on this day. Time to get back to the basics, back to work (and leave the thinking part to GPT)! 🙂

More Flowers

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Shadow Play, oil on canvas board, 11 x 14, 2023
Pink Roses, oil on canvas board, 11 x 14, 2023
Daffodils, oil on canvas, 12 x 12, 2023
Company, oil on canvas board, 11 x 14, 2023

I don’t have much to say about these except that one of these is based on a MidJourney generated image :)))). Can you tell?

Cézanne – Reading Notes (2)

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Among the books I read on Cézanne, two of them focuses on his watercolor. They are Cézanne in the Studio: Still Life in Watercolors by Carol Armstrong, and Cézanne’s Watercolors: Between Drawing and Painting by Matthew Simms.

The two watercolor books are a rich collection of the artist’s sketches, finished and unfinished works in the medium. Watercolor and gouache were often used by old masters as studies for a bigger oil piece, and it seems to the be case for Cézanne early on. However, later in his life, when his reputation began to be established, he increasingly make watercolors as independent works of art.

Cézanne’s watercolor is as unconventional as his oil paintings. The charcoal drawings, the white of the paper, and even the artist’s changing thought all become part of the composition. We see the draft, the negotiating and the final status on one page. This provides a unique window into the artist’s painting and the thinking process.

Still life with Green Melon, watercolor on paper, c.1906
Still Life with Apples, a Bottle and a Milk Pot, watercolor on paper, c. 1904

Unlike J. M. W. Turner (1775 – 1851) and other watercolorists, Cézanne adopts a touch by touch and color by color method. He layers translucent patches with gestural brushwork, resulting in a vibrant and casual overall appearance, with fragmentary and kaleidoscopic details. However, the actual process was deliberate and labor-intensive.

Still Life with Blue Pot, watercolor and graphite on paper, 48.1 x 632 cm, c 1900-1906

Contemporary figurative artist Ted Nuttall also employs transparent patches of colors to create energetic and vibrant paintings. While both artists are deliberate in their approach, Nuttall’s use of dots helps complete the painting, whereas Cézanne’s colors, used as lines, remain exploratory.

Africa, Ted Nuttall, watercolor on paper.

On a side note, for those interested, Cézanne uses a limited palette, as revealed by this nerdy study: “An Investigation of Paul Cézanne’s Watercolors With Emphasis on Emerald Green.”

Show News

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Here are the group shows I participated recently:

“Works on Paper” exhibition, currently on view at the Pacific Art League:

Memory, watercolor on paper, 23 x 29 in.

Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society 55th Annual Member’s Exhibition:

Once Upon A Time, watercolor on paper, 10.5 x 14 in.

“Portrait” Art Competition at Art Room Gallery:

Father, oil on canvas board, 14 x 18 in., February, 2023
Me, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in, January 2023

A few notes:

  • The watercolors were originally painted a couple of years ago, but I did some major revisions this year before the shows. I have yet to figure out how to date works like these.
  • The experiment of revising past works gave me a lot of ideas. Some of the old paintings may find a new life, and some of the creating processes may never end!
  • The portraits are the first time I entered my oil paintings to a show. They both received “Honorable Mention.”
  • I feel lucky that the “Portrait” is an online show, because none of the pieces I entered is completely dry. Northern California was darn wet this past winter!

Some Breakfast …

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As promised, eggs and jars and some more:

A few notes:

  • All these are oil on canvas board, 11 x 14 in. I want to keep the studies small so that I could do more.
  • Eggs are difficult, either in terms of shape, value or solidity. There’s a fabricated story in China about how Da Vinci was forced by his master to sketch hundreds of eggs. Well, I do see the need of it.
  • My problem with over saturation manifested itself best with the bread. I probably wouldn’t eat that last one :))).

Some Flowers

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Late 2022 I started a few personal projects that were build upon whatever I learned at Watts. The plan was to start with some small paintings of florals, eggs, jars etc., and gradually grow into bigger more complicated arrangements.

I am happy to report that for the most part, I have been on schedule. Here are the florals I have done so far, and I hope they are proper celebration for the New Year and the Spring Festival:

Peonies, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 in. 2022
Sumo Oranges and Flowers, oil on canvas, 11 x 14 in, 2022
Flower Pot, oil on canvas board, 9 x 12 in. 11 2022
Lilies, oil on canvas board, 11x 14 in, 12 2022

Stay tuned for the eggs and jars! 🙂

Portrait of Abby and More

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In early 2021, I audited an online workshop by artist Joseph Todorovitch (see a brief description here). At the time I felt the content was too advanced for me. It may still be. It came to my knowledge recently that the artist had a more fundamental series in 2020 called “Painting the Portrait with Ease.” It is a nearly 9 hours video series featuring step by step painting of the portrait of Abby. You can buy or rent (for 48 hours) from Vimeo.

It is more fundamental because the portrait involves no complex background and clothing, and the palette is limited (not as monochromatic as it seems though). The “ease” part comes from the artist’s clear explanation of his choices and thought process. If you are looking for shortcuts circumventing learning and practices, there’s none. In fact the artist’s approach is quite meticulous and laborious. He shows no hesitation in scraping off the “finished” part of a painting and going at it again. While there are plenty basic information on portrait painting for a student, the process he used is the same for completing advanced works. This is a series that deserves revisit from time to time.

Here’s the painting I did while following along the series:

Abby, 16 x 20 in, oil on panel, November 2022

Another young artist I took lessons from recently is Alex J. Venezia. The lessons are a 12 hours video recording from East Oaks Studio, featuring also the portrait of a young woman. Mr. Venezia used a layered approach, and the videos were recorded over weeks. If you want to follow through, you need to be patient and let the paint dry in between. The artist is also extremely particular about the subtle changes of value and color in his paint. I feel like I need a better habit of organizing my palette and more practice in mixing colors to make the best out of these lessons. The painting I did during this series is a not a step by step following along and is abandoned halfway. I do plan to revisit the lessons in future:

Portrait of a Young Woman, 11 x 14 in, oil on panel, December 2022

A few more words on East Oaks Studio: While you do need a subscription to access the above mentioned videos and many other recorded and live lessons, East Oaks has plenty free content posted on their YouTube channel. They feature quite some established working artists. It’s a rich resource that takes time to digest.

Turquoise in Earth’s World

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If you are interested in portrait art, you’ve probably heard of “earthsworld” – a photographer that took Candid photographs of Americans at county fairs. Over the years, I have multiple artists recommended this photographer to me. Take a look at the website or the Instagram account and you’ll know why this is such a rich resource for portrait painter, character designer and people watcher. To me, it opens up a side of America that beyond my natural habitat.

I picked a few photos from the collection as references to practice portrait painting, and only to notice that the ones I chose all features a touch of bluish green. Hence the title of my small series – “Turquoise in Earth’s World:”

A few notes:

  • Again, the above paintings all used references from various earthsworld’s county fair collections. They are all painted with oil on canvas board.
  • The collection is very helpful in practicing non-typical studio model expressions and props.
  • The nature of the subject matters do push me to loosen up a bit (not as much as I wished) and be creative with the composition and background design.
  • It’s such a wonderful treasure. Do check it out!

Our turn, finally …

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Years ago in a watercolor class, we practiced rendering glasses by choosing from a couple of setups. I got ambitious and turned the practice into a full painting:

Still Life, watercolor on paper, 14 x 20 in, c2015

The roses were supposed to be a different setting, and I didn’t choose it because I thought apples would be easier. However, in composing the whole piece, I thought the glimpse of the flowers would be interesting. As you can see, I indeed didn’t know how to handle those petals and leaves back then, but I think they added liveliness to the scene. I remember some fellow artist commented, “The roses are saying,’We are here! Our turn! Our turn!'”

Recently when looking through some old reference photos, I was surprised to see that I actually took a few shots of the roses at the time. Hence, their turn:

Red Roses, oil on canvas board, 11 x 14 in, August, 2022

Hehe, the petals and the leaves are still challenging, but I feel they are happy to be in the spotlight!