Dusk over Marsh - Day Twenty-Eight of the 30/30 Challenge

Dusk over Marsh, 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #30

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $50)

Day Twenty-Eight of the challenge -- a little plein air piece at sunset, done mostly with my 1" slanted bristle brush. I am falling in love with this big, stiff brush that is not at all capable of doing any details, but carries so much pigment and water and does soft wet-in-wet blending and rough edges both so well! When the sun is setting and the light changing fast, it is really handy! I actually did several different studies before the sun completely sinks under the horizon, but I love this one the most -- it did capture the glorious sky that I saw, which made all the draw grass near shore literally glows with dragon's blood red! Again, this is done in a quiet back corner of the shoreline park of mountain view. I can never get tired of painting the beautiful wetlands in the bay area...

Remnants - Day Twenty-Seven of the 30/30 Challenge

Remnants, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #29

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $35)

Day Twenty-Seven of the challenge -- another little plein air study I did at the ghost town of Drawbridge, near the marshlands by Mountain View. The sky is extraordinarily clear and very intense warm blue in the zenith, with just the slightest bits of pale clouds down toward horizon. The shoreline is cleared of people at the early hour. Because of the heat and drought in the past few months (years?! :-), the grass along the shore is a lovely golden brown color, providing contrast with the cool turquoise water -- I just have to paint it! The dilapidated shack near a broken wooden-plank bridge naturally became my center of focus for this painting, as it has so much character, like an old face full of wrinkles and history. I can't help but wondering who built it, who has stayed in it over the years, coming out between the time after the stars are gone, and before the early dawn light is in, staring into the big empty sky and wondering what is at the other end of the horizon. In the quiet hours of dawn, I feel connected to all that has happened here before, the people who have come, and the days flown by. I put my brush to paper...

Low Tide, Linda Mar Beach - Day Twenty-Six of the 30/30 Challenge

Low Tide, Linda Mar Beach,

 Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #28

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $50)

Day Twenty-Six of the challenge -- another little plein air study I completed at the Linda Mar beach of Pacifica. The sun was setting behind a thin veil of clouds, and there is an intense purple-magenta glow through moistened air. The tide is out, ten thousand little channels on the wet sand beach glisten with warm golden reflections. Because the fog is closing in, this busy beach is surprisingly empty, when the near-shore rock formations were back lid into a parade of strange and a little intimidating gigantic mystical beast sculptures. One slender figure in red drifts in with the wind, almost silently, and lingers near the distant rock form. I just had to add her into my painting. Love it when a painting almost paints itself for me -- one of those rare occasions...

Day Dream - Day Nineteen of the 30/30 Challenge

Day Dream, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #21

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $50)

Day Nineteen of the challenge -- I started three little plein air pieces of this marsh in the same time, dividing my big piece of paper and drew views from different directions. It was morning and the soft lavender clouds blushed against the edge of distant shore, shifting in and out of the tree tops. I want to capture the sense of cool, moist air and sun light peaking out of clouds, catching on the top of the lush growth of marsh grass. Unfortunately out of the three paintings only this one turned out to be worthy of posting... Oh well, the reality of painting outdoors! I added thick Cadmium Yellows with a rigger for some definite linear marks to contrast with the soft edges shapes of the marsh grass, as well as some wet-on-dry shapes defining the edge of the big tree on the right side. Thinking of repainting this one into a larger piece, but I need to work on the composition and color schemes a bit more...

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! :-)

Edge of the Sea - Day Fifteen of the 30/30 Challenge

Edge of the Sea, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #17

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $55)

Day fifteen of the challenge -- can't believe I actually made it half-way this time!!! This is another Plein Air piece from the white cliffs of Limartour Beach at Point Reyes National Seashore. From the usually foggy horizon one can still tell the emerging silhouette of the Bodega Head in the distance, floating in a sea of clouds merging into the shoreline. Ice plants grows on the top of some of the white cliffs, together with other shore grass and scrub bushes give a sense of lush growth even at the end of a long, dry summer. One local naturalist once told me that even in the driest year this shore gets plenty of water by means of condensation. Near the bottom of the cliff, piles of darker rocks are scattered around, covered by sea weeds and barnacles, chitons and like. The water beyond them a dark blue-grey. 

The moist air at shore kept my watercolor paper from drying, so I was able to do a fairly wet-in-wet lay-in of the major value shapes in my first wash, which I was almost never able to do in even the smaller plein air pieces. After that I played with different brushes making marks with fairly fluid washes, trying to form interesting shapes that reads as "grass" and "foliage" without actually painting the individual blades. I painted the darker rocks first as one mass, later adding smaller, even darker planes on their shadowed side. Some spattering with stiff bristle brushes finished the work. It's an overcast day without strong light and shadows, but I liked the subtle colors revealed by this less harsh light. Colors often seem more saturated and nuanced on overcast days to me. Since such days are plenty in the Bay area from June to October, I decide to paint outdoors more often on them to practice observing the difference in light qualities between these and sunny days. Plein Air painting is really great learning experiences to me -- one is always marvelling at the infinite variety nature presents and humbled by our limited ability in capturing them with brush and paint. Never a dull moment...

Heart's Desire - Day Eleven of the 30/30 Challenge

Heart's Desire, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #13

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $45)

Day eleven of the challenge -- I made it to the double digits! Again, a very busy day and I did not get to start painting until much later in the day. So I worked on this piece based on a previously finished plein air version of it at Ruby Beach, Olympia National Park, Washington. I used analogous color scheme of blues and purples as well as greyed-down versions of them by adding a bit Cadmium Orange and Quinacridone Burnt Orange to the mixture, hoping to create a more somber mood. For the tree and shrub shapes, I tried to design the linear elements to contrast and compliment the diffused cloud mass and the distant headland with soft edges. For the near-shore rocks I combined staining and granulating pigments so that when I use a palette knife to scrape off the damp colors to create the light planes of the rock, only the staining colors were left in the scraped park, creating more interesting color variations. I love the mood of evening gradually sinking in and hope to convey it in this painting... Dusky hours are my favorite ones in a day. How about you, my friend?...

Sun-Drenched - Day Ten of the 30/30 Challenge

Sun-Drenched, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #12

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $50)

Day ten of the challenge -- Can't believe I made it this far! This is a little plein air I did at the white cliff of Limartour Beach of Point Reyes National Seashore. The sun is shining brightly on the cliff face and I wanted to capture the brilliance and sheer sense of light of the bright summer day. I did a little more work with the brush in the studio today to practice using brushwork to delineate structure of the rock and add texture to the beach. It is painted mostly wet-on-dry and very different from my usual working method. A bit scary and a lot of fun!

Raging Surf - Day Nine of the 30/30 Challenge

Raging Surf, 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #11

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $50)

Day nine of the challenge -- I completed this plein air painting from memory back at my studio. When I am out in nature, facing awe-inspiring landscape, I am usually very excited by what I see, hear, smell... etc., and can hardly control myself from laying my brush frenetically on paper to try to capture the energy I feel from the scene in front of me, especially if it is something as dynamic and powerful as surf crashing onto shoreline rocks. Even though I try to do a small value sketch before drawing out the composition on my watercolor paper, and think about the color combinations I am going to use, most of the times I still rely on my intuition and paint rather "literally" of what's in front of me. In the quietness of the studio, there is often more room to ponder, analyze, design. Away from the source of inspiration -- nature, the distance can be good for the artist to assert his or her own voice instead of being "overwhelmed" by what's actually out there. This is often hard to do when the scene is right in front of you. But in the end, the painting needs to stand as an entity of itself alone and the shape, value, color, edges have to make sense as a whole. It will not be judged as how accurately it is as a copy of the actual scene.

As for this one, I glazed over the water with different near-horizontal shapes to counter-balance the diagonal movement of the surf, and shaped the rocks a bit better, casting darker shadows underneath them to anchor them better onto the sand beach. I added sprayed color to indicate foam, and create a bit more surface texture to add interest. I think it is nearly finished at this point, but may continue to pull it out and look at it from time to time, to evaluate whether bits and pieces need to be put in, taken out or altered here and there. This process is the most time-consuming for any painting, any may hardly get notices at the first glance of the before and after images. However, most of the times the inconspicuous changes could make great differences in terms of tying the whole painting together, making it look more homogeneous. Sometimes I will feel that I prefer one of two very similar images infinitely more than the other, but cannot quite tell the "why" explicitly, I would guess the artist has done the ponder, and the back-and-forth dance with the painting.

The Beachcombers - Day Eight of the 30/30 Challenge

The Beachcombers, 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #10

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $35)

Day eight of the challenge -- A busy day today and I did not get to paint until very late in the day. This is no time for fiddling! I took out my 1" synthetic hair flat and quickly laid a light wash of sky and sand color on very wet paper to establish the composition. The distant headland and modelling on the beach came next, as the paper just started to dry. When I added the darker color of the surf, leaving out a stripe of white paper to indicate the foam, I noticed that the paper is getting quite dry, and I was able to get some dry-brush effects by using thicker paints picked up by the barely damp brush. I added the near-shore rocks as well as the darkest color of the headland last, scraping with palette knife again to indicate some lighter planes on the rock, and get a bit variations of surface texture. To balance the composition and reduce the "emptiness" of the large sand foreground, I added some silhouette of a few sandpipers, as I painted this painting based on a previous plein-air piece at Linda Mar Beach of Pacifica, and you really can see these lovely little critters everywhere near the tide line on that beach! Now time for bed...

While You are Gone - Day Six of the 30/30 Challenge

While You are Gone (Plein Air at Rodeo Beach), 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #8

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $55)

Day six of the challenge started as a plein air piece at the Rodeo Beach of Marin last month. It was an overcast day and the wind was blowing incessantly. The water at Rodeo Lagoon takes the same somber turquoise-grey tone as the sky. I really want to capture the feeling of the wind ravaging through shoreline vegetation, and its power shaping the land, the water and the growth. I was not exactly happy when it started to drizzle before I was able to finish, but sometimes having a little distance in the studio to complete a piece like this is not bad -- I was able to spot some major composition mistakes such as there is not enough value difference between the foreground bluff and the one behind it to saperate them, and the value of the bluff itself was too light, making it indistinguishable from foreground sand beach. So, here it is, a plein air piece finished in the studio. I hope I have not lost all its freshness... What do you think, my friends?

Some New Directions -- Divergence from Florals!

Low Tide - Plein Air at Muir Beach, 

Watercolor on Richeson Zoltan Szabo #140 Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 11"w, WIP 1

I've taken a sabbatical from my floral watercolors lately to explore other directions, and I thought maybe I should be sharing some of them with you here. I was a bit hesitant since I have no idea how they would turn out -- it's both scary and exhilarating to explore new territories! Oh well, you, my blog friends have been very kind and supportive to me throughout, so maybe my worries are unfounded! Here they are:

The first one is another little plein air watercolor I did recently at Muir Beach. It's painted on Richeson Zoltan Szabo #140 Cold Press paper and the size is 7"h x 11"w. The sky was over cast that day, therefore all the colors are more saturated without being bleached by the all powerful sun, and I really wanted to accentuate this in my painting. I liked the result in the field and thought it was finished. However, after going back home and giving it a second look, I noticed that the center of interest - the dark rock - is almost smacked dead in the center of the painting -- a compositional NO-NO. I also think the dark shapes of the wet sand can be improved a little more as well... So, back to the drawing board it goes! I will post the modified version in a couple of days...

In Between, Watercolor on Lanaquarelle #140 Cold Press Paper, 15"h x 11"w, WIP 1

The second project is a found still life. Now, if you have followed my blog for a while, you probably have noticed that my florals are often very high in chroma, and seeing flowers in sunlight often make me feel inspired to work, but light is the first painter that reveals beauty in a lot of commonplace objects, even neglected corners. I found this dried leaflet and branch perched in between pebbles on the roadside while taking a walk in the neighbourhood a couple of years back -- and when the sunlight was cast upon it, the pattern of light and shadow is absolutely beautiful. When I pulled the photo out of a dusted drawer during spring cleaning (yes, even I occasionally do this!...) it inspired me to try a subject that is unfamiliar to me. The reference image is low in color saturation so it will be interesting to try different approaches -- increase the chroma or emphasize the value difference in low saturation -- and see which one I like best! (I am even thinking of starting a new series of still life paintings with the theme "Everyday Beauty". If you have reference photos of objects that often do not catch the eye of most people, but you find very beautiful and inspiring, please share with me by posting it here or email me at arena.shawn@gmail.com!)

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

The last one of my newest projects is really a step out of my comfort zone and something I've rarely tackled before: animals. This image of two parrots perched on mossy branch in bright tropical sunlight has caught my eyes a while ago and I've finally decided to tackle it after gathering my courage for a while. I love the bright plumage colors of these birds, and their expression really reminded me of some of my relatives gossiping about family matters while resting in the traditional front yard after a day's work -- a scene so common back in the days when the large, extended family still lived together in the countryside, but more and more rare these days with the younger generation moving away into towns and cities and forming their own nuclear family... My main focus of this painting is trying to depict the texture of the fur and feather without painting them one by one, as well as capture the individual personality of these cute little critters! I am a bit nervous about how they would turn out. Please feel free to give some critiques and suggestions!

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:

Marsh Sunset -- A Little Plein Air Painting at Elkhorn Slough

Marsh Sunset, Watercolor on Fabriano #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 10"w, 2014 #13

Bid in My DPW Auction ( Starting Bid $70)

The weather was great and I went out to do some plein air on Friday, and completely "Marsh Sunset" near Elkhorn Slough. Unfortunately, it was very cold once the sun started to set, and the coastal fog came in swiftly. As a result, I was not feeling well over the weekend  and did not get much of painting done... Still, I was happy to finally get back there and paint in nature! It's been too long since I have done that...

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:

Under the Autumn Sky -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 20 (Almost Done...)

Under the Autumn Sky, 

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico #140 Cold Press Paper , 9"h x 12"w, WIP 1

This one started plein air -- around the Alviso Slough. When I am working on the foreground marsh grass area, rain started drifting in. Since I am working on Fabriano paper which allows colors to be lifted easily, I decide to avoid the rain so that the darker tones I have already put in the foreground would not all lift with the drizzle. I may have to go back tomorrow to finish this one, or, I could refer to some of the nice reference images and notes I took from Sterling Edwards' workshop (he is a master for creating interesting foregrounds and design tree shapes) and finish it off in the comfort of my studio. I have not yet decided what to do about it -- again, sleeping on it may not be such a bad idea in situations like this... 

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:

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:

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:

A Look Back at Year 2012...

As the clock ticking close to midnight, I am turning my eyes to the year passed and all that has happened in my art journey along the way. As I mentioned in my last blog post, it has been an amazing ride, thanks to all of you, my dear friends and collectors! When I set off at the beginning of the year, I did set some modest goals for myself: creating some artwork every week, posting them online for sale, documenting the process in this blog, and trying to enter some juried shows. In the end, I have accomplished so much more, -- something that would not be possible without your kind encouragements and support along the way!

In this year, I have managed to finish a total of 54 paintings -- including studies and plein air work. This may be a modest number for many, but to me it is a real accomplishment, as I am a very slow painter and the work I have managed to actually finish in all the years before do not even add up to this number. I would definitely like to do at least as much in the coming year, but I will leave goal-setting to my post tomorrow. ;-) Now is the time to enjoy the bubbly drinks and pat myself on the back! 

I've managed to overcome my fear of losing control of what happened on paper and tackled some unfamiliar surfaces, the most difficult of which being Ampersand Aquabord, and with the kind encouragements of Kara and Crystal, got some success in the end. I would love to keep at this effort in the coming year -- and maybe try some portraits on it too!

This year I have also tried a few different sales venues -- both online and offline, some more successful than others. I've set up my Daily Paintworks Gallery, where I auction off my smaller original works; I've stocked my Etsy Shop, where I sell both originals and Giclee prints, as well as products such as calendars and note cards; I've uploaded my work to the print-on-demand site, Fine Art America, so that anyone can purchase Giclee prints of my paintings to the size and surface they desire, as well as my works as note cards. I've kept up on this blog (although updating regularly did remain a challenge when school work got busy) and maintained regular update of my facebook page, through both of which I have met many wonderful friends! I've attempted my hands at three local art fairs and managed to break even at all of them, and received several leads which resulted in sales afterwards from these events. I've also become a member of the wonderful Main Gallery in Redwood City -- the amazing talent and creativity of the artists I've met there made me very proud to be one of them!

I've tried my hands on a couple of local, regional and national juried shows this year, and was fortunate enough to be juried in 20 of them, getting a couple of awards and selling some of my larger works through these shows. I am extremely honored to enlist among the wonderful artists -- many of whom are my teachers through their books and instructional dvds -- in these shows, and consider the juries decisions a gentle nudge of encouragement for an artist at her starting point like me. For all the ones that I did not get in, I can only say I will definitely try harder the coming year!

What I did not manage to do, in the year past, is to keep a sketchbook and draw freehand everyday, to go outdoors more often and do more plein air studies, and to keep finishing two small paintings a week. With four days a week in the Golden Gate Atelier learning classical drawing methods, it has proven quite a challenge to keep at these goals. But I will not give them up in the new year, -- I've just signed up for an impossible crazy task today, which I will reveal in tomorrow's post. So stay tuned...

Ok, before I bore you with more self-bragging, I just want to share with you my seven favorite paintings that I have created this year. Some of them are award winners and already happily settled in their new homes, others I love not because of the final results, but also the challenges I have taken and difficulties overcome during their creation...

High Summer Dreams II, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 14"w, Sold

This one has won me a gold medal in Stockton Art League's National Juried Show at Haggin Musuem -- the first red-carpet moment in my art career! 

April's Passing,  Watercolor on Ampersand Aquaboard, 6"h x 6"w

Available through Randy Higbee Gallery ($300 with Frame)

My first successful attempt on Aquabord after much suffering. I feel that after this one, I started to have some understanding of how this difficult surface works, and I was also able to let go of a bit of control to accept what's happening on paper (or, in this case, on board ;-)

Petal Light #2,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 10"w

Available through Daily Paintworks Online Gallery ($125 with Mat)

I feel that I have truly captured the warmth and vivacity in this bird without fiddling too much. Love the wet-in-wet process from start to finish...

Beauty Queen, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 5"w, Sold

I tried out the multi-colored glazing method of the amazing Jeannie Vodden and combined it with my own wet-in-wet approach in the background. I was very worried the flower and the background would look like completely separate entities, but somehow the painting feels coherent as a whole when finished. Yay! Sometimes risk-taking does pay off...

Edge of Summer, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, Sold

I tried to paint from a black-and-white photo and just imagine the colors of this one, and lovedswhat became of it. An attempt to correct my tendency to paint colors too literally from reference materials and see them only as a starting point. 

Petal Light #1,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 8"w

Available through Daily Paintworks Online Gallery ($150 with Mat)

Starting from an under-exposed, uninspiring reference photo of large area of dead dark shadow shapes on the leaves, I let the wet-in-wet process lead me and created interesting dark shapes. I felt a real sense of freedom after pulling this one off!

Winter Light, Watercolor on Arches 140# Rough Paper, 5"h x 7"w, Sold

The first landscape painting I am proud of -- I feel this one did capture more with less. 

Thanks again my friends -- as I have mentioned, I could not have done this without your support! Happy New Year Everyone!!!

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Storm Over Estuary (DPW Sky Challenge)

This is a little test of landscape I've posted on my facebook page (with a terrible image taken by the iphone camera in a hurry just after I finished it) and I never got around to share on my blog, or upload to my Daily Paintworks Page. The painting was done completely wet in wet, as a test of the Fabriano Blocco per Artisti paper I recently purchased. The surface of this paper is more similar to the laid instead of woven patterns (which is the most prominent surface pattern of contemporary watercolor paper), The lovely laid pattern gives it a very antique look, as this is the surface pattern of most of the paper in the age of Cotman or Turner. Layer on this paper, or repeated wetting, has proven to be extremely difficult. Like all Fabriano paper I have tried, it lifts like crazy. But the granulating colors separate and diffuse beautifully on it, and created this glowing orange (of Burnt Sienna) along the horizon and in the light passage in the land -- a river channel reflecting the setting sun. (The photo here, unfortunately, does not show the subtle, low saturation color in the original painting.) I am submitting it to this weeks DPW challenge -- paint a sky. John Sell Cotman has said "a sky a day" is a great exercise in watercolor painting, since it is always there for you to observe. This one is painted looking at the lovely back waters of San Carlos.

Storm over Estuary, 

Watercolor on Fabriano Blocco Per Artisti140# Cold Press Paper,5"h x 7"w, 2012 #51

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Work in Progress: New Plein Air Pieces

Lately I've been pondering the question why I have not painted more landscape paintings -- I really love landscapes and they've been my initial motivation to become a painter, but I have only occasionally dabbled on some small landscapes here and there. Why? After much reflection I've concluded that landscape for me are much less literal, and more poetic; a whole lot has to go into the initial preparation stage -- dissecting the reference image (or the sweeping vista in front of me), deciding the mood I want to convey and the color scheme that can evoke such mood the best, doing small value sketches to choose which elements in the reference materials to include, and which ones to exclude. Also, a good landscape painting requires much more abstraction, utilizing simplified shapes to suggest objects, and pay a lot of attention to the actual mark-making process so that each individual mark on paper creates the illusion that it's representing something in the actual landscape. A good landscape is seldom a truthful copy of the reference material or the real vista in front of the artist's eye, but a rearranged, abstracted combination of value and color shapes that comes from within the artist's mind, guided by a good sense of design. It is in my mind one of the hardest genres of representational art and actually the closest to abstract works. I've been, subconsciously, quite intimidated by the process.

Since the best way to overcome fear is practice, I decide to work on landscape painting everyday from this point on -- this does not mean I will be able to finish a piece a day, and I can imagine there will be many throw-aways. But I will keep at it until I feel more comfortable for the entire process. I will probably do some studies of master artists' works, some plein-air exercises, and some practice projects from good how-to books, as well as work on some larger pieces from my own reference materials. Some days I may only be able to complete a few sketches or composition studies, other days I may be able to finish a couple of small works -- but I will share my successes and failures here, as well as what I have learned from them.

So here they are -- the first exercises, both started en plein air but would get finished in the studio. The first one is a river estuary view along Carmel Beach, where I am exploring the possibility of not painting any actual "objects", but just utilizing mark making to hint the undergrowth, river and sand beach. The focus is creating interesting color-variations and surface textures using various brush-marks. I did this one in a workshop with the wonderful artist Dale Laitinen, who is a master of abstracting shapes and create surface interest using brush-marks. I decided to study his work closely to add a weapon or two into my arsenal...

Carmel River Estuary,  Watercolor on Arches 140# Rough Paper , 7"h x 10"w, WIP 1

The second one is a near dusk view of headlands and rocky shorelines near Drake's Beach, in Point Reyes National Seashore. My focus is to use cool, low-key colors to hint the chilly, foggy atmosphere in the evening, and practice wet-in-wet in different stages. Again, I try to use brush-marks to hint the texture on the headland and rocks, as well as the undergrowth on the beach, instead of delineating everything I see while standing there. I did not get to finish it before dark, so the rest of the image will come from my imagination in the studio. Let's see how it goes! I will update tomorrow...

Dusk at Drake's Beach, Point Reyes,

  Watercolor on Arches 140# Rough Paper , 6"h x 8"w, WIP 1