Thrive in th Sun

The most surprising beauty always exists in the most common place like this windows -- during my Italian trip. The warm sun shining on the wall and the plants and pots. Yes, it's an unforgettable trip !

Bright Yellow

Every autumn I am drawn to paint the fall colors, and here is my attempt this year -- focus on unifying the bright and dark parts of the leaves better this time :)

Spice Market

I was amazed by the night scene outside the Spice Market in Istanbul when I visited there in October. This is my first painting about the night scene. Quite interesting, and I can see there are still a lot of practices down the road.

one Saturday morning

I love the arch bridge, the reflection in the water, and farmer's market happened on the bridge. It was that kind of the moment when everything was perfect :)

Hay Field - 2

Another scene of the hay field -- focus on the space and atmosphere

Hay Field

This is the first painting I did after a long trip to Turkey. The trip helped me to refresh my body and mind, and now the trip is over and I feel the strong urge to get back to my painting routine.

This is the familiar hay scene during my travel, and I like the simplicity and space in this painting.

Space

This is a small painting to capture the freshness and ample space of the wild nature

Sunrise on the Praire

I'm experiencing the use of the primary colors - red, blue, and yellow to paint this painting. I did not reach any other colors. It's not an easy practice, but the result is a cleaner and refresher painting.

into the Nature - 4

Another view of the nature.

Petunia study

This painting is for studying the form of the petunia and practicing the modeling skill to render this delicate flowers.

Triplets

The waves were pounding the California coastline along the Highway 1 on a sunny day.

into the Nature - 3

Look up the snowy mountain in summer.

into the Nature - 2

Scene from a Lookout

into the Nature - 1

A tranquil scene on the road to the wild.

Vineyard

Vineyard bathed under the warm afternoon sun.

Sunrise

The sunrise in Costanoa is amazing too.

Costanoa Sunset

Costanoa is a beautiful coastal town in Northern California. I spent one night there and really indulged in this quiet town. This sunset painting was based on my memory and the picture taken by my iPhone.

Sunbathing

This hanging basket of impatiens caught so much sun in the afternoon. I just could not resist to paint them.

"Century of Landscapes" Exhibition

It's such an honor that California Art Club has selected these 2 paintings of mine for the "Century of Landscapes" exhibition at the California Historical Society in San Francisco (from 7/14 - 10/15/2011). I am humbled to be able to show my art work with other renowned artists in this exhibition. If you come to San Francisco, hope you can stop by the place for this exhibition.

Blue Sky

Under the blue sky, everything is beautiful.

A Busy Bunch

They are busy showing off their beauty, competing for your attention, in hoping to catch the moment of eternity.

Rose Garden

Blooming roses in the summer time!

Veggies

After several flower paintings, I wanted to take a break from the flowers and paint something different. This is a quick setup and quick painting using rather cool colors. I think it turned out good.

Warm and Bright

I want to capture the bright sun light shines on the subjects on the table, with flowers in the background. The purpose was to learn the alla prima process of painting many subjects on the big canvas. It's a bit challenge for me and I learned a lot from doing this one. I believe I can do better next time.

Pink Bow

Under the warm afternoon sun and colorful daisies, the pink bow is quietly standing there, waiting to be found.

Orchid

I got this orchid from a good friend of mine a couple weeks ago, and I said to myself why not just paint it. Orchid has its unique shape and structure, and I spent a lot of time modeling the leaves and petals. It's a quite different experience from painting the roses.

Freshly Cut

Set up the roses outdoor and paint directly from them is a great experience. I enjoy it very much.

Purple Dream

As I said earlier, I want to paint lots of roses this summer. This is a small painting, I want to create the vignette effect. Hope you like it.

Open Studio - Done!

I just finished showing my art work for 3 consecutive weekends in the Silicon Valley Open Studio. It was a great experience to meet with people and talk to people about my art. I am so encouraged by the feedback and praises I got from people who came to see my work. In return, I will work harder and smarter so I can be better and better.

Also, the support I got from my family and friends during the entire event was unforgettable. Many of my "lost" friends came to the show, it's a great feeling knowing that art can be such a powerful tool to connect people.

Now, back to painting!!!

Rose Cluster

This cluster of roses are so vibrant and showy, they always attract the most attention from people passing by my house.

This is my second try of painting roses with the impressionistic way. I enjoy it very much. In fact, I will do more rose paintings as this is such a beautiful yet sophisticated subject to paint.

Pink Roses

The roses are blooming in my backyard as summer is near. So I decided to paint the simple beauty with complex structure.

Before I tried several times to paint the rose petals one by one, and none of them were successful. So this time I decided to use the bold brush strokes to simplify the petal folds, as well as to capture the light on the roses more dramatically.
So far, I am satified with the results.

Lemons

Spring is here, these are the lemons freshly picked from my lemon tree. I love the fresh scent from the citrus blossom in my backyard, and make lemonade out of them.

Allied Art

I went to the Allied Art in Menlo Park one Saturday morning - it's a hidden paradise in Silicon Valley.
When I painted this picture, I could still feel the warm sun shined on me and smell the sweet scents from the flowers there.

Pears

I dropped the 3 very ripen pears in the big white cloth. Besides the pears, it's fun to paint the folded cloth too.

Ready to Serve

I decided to paint them before I ate them :)

Apples

Whole bunch of apples rolling out of the basket, it's a very warm feeling compare to the cold and wet weather outside.

My Neighborhood

This is my first attempt to paint the familiar neighborhood. The street I live on is quiet and beautiful, kind of the mixture of urban and country life. I think I've found another rich source of ideas to paint from -- my neighborhood.

A Warm Summer Afternoon

I found this picture from my friend and decided to give it a try. I was most attracted by the bright sun shining on the wall, and the the warm cypress tree standing next to it. I hope I've captured the moment of warm summer afternoon.

Roses

When I was painting this indoor setup at night, my mind was filled with the images of the beautiful roses painted by Ovanes.

I will do more flower paintings, and I know I will get better each time I paint.

Peel a Tangerine

I love tangerine, it has the richest orange color among all the fruits, and it tastes great too.

That night I was looking for some ideas for creating an interesting still life setup, and a bag of tangerines lying on my kitchen countertop caught my eyes. And here it comes! Hope you like it.

Onions

It is interesting to paint the white onion because I found the shimmering colors of the pearl in the whilte onion.

Treasure Hunt

This is a more challenging setup. Though the painting was done in 2 and half hours Tuesday night after a busy day, I had good time painting it. Hope you like it.

Radish

After a busy week from work, I finally get back to paint. It's a good feeling knowing that I can always retreat back to my canvas and palette for a moment of peace and creativity after all the hustle and bustle.

One Winter Morning

I went to BayLand to paint this small painting with a crew of people filming me for the Full Spectrum Day (it's the annual event from my department at work, for us to engage with each other, share our thoughts, review what we have accomplished from the past, and look forward to the new year to come). The theme for this year's Full Spectrum is "The Makers". I am so thrilled to be chosen to film the oil painting that I love to make.

So I did this outdoor painting in 1 hour with 6 professionals around me - they managed the light, the sound, the video, etc. They are fantastic with tremendous patience. I will share the video clip with you once it's ready.

Three's Company

Three friends stand by each other - have fun!

Eggplants

Purple is my favorite color and I love the deep purple color of the eggplants. It's quite satisfying to paint a simple still life in early Saturday morning.

Red and Blue

This is a traditional still life setting. I found it quite interesting when I added a few blueberries in the setting as I could use the red and blue colors left from painting the apples and mug for the blueberries (and the tulip).

BTW, I have registered the Silicon Valley Open Studio 2011, and will be showing my paintings to the public in the first and third weekend in May. From now till May, I will be painting more :)

Breakfast time

This is the painting I did last night with my artist friend. It was her idea of setting up a breakfast scene.

First I thought the setup was OK, but when I started rendering the subjects - a peanut butter jar, some walnuts, a slice of wheat bread and a spread knife on a white plate, I then found the fun and beauty of painting them. It's the same elements of painting any other "exciting" subjects - color, value, composition, edges, and drawing.