Sunday, December 18, 2011

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 !

Sunday, December 11, 2011

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 :)

Sunday, December 4, 2011

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.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

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 :)

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Hay Field - 2


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

Sunday, November 6, 2011

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.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Space

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

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

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.

Monday, September 5, 2011

into the Nature - 4

Another view of the nature.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Petunia study

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



Thursday, August 25, 2011

Triplets

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

Sunday, August 21, 2011

into the Nature - 3

Look up the snowy mountain in summer.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

into the Nature - 2

Scene from a Lookout

into the Nature - 1

A tranquil scene on the road to the wild.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Vineyard

Vineyard bathed under the warm afternoon sun.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Sunrise

The sunrise in Costanoa is amazing too.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

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.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Sunbathing

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

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

"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.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Blue Sky


Under the blue sky, everything is beautiful.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A Busy Bunch


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

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Rose Garden


Blooming roses in the summer time!

Monday, June 13, 2011

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.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

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.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Freshly Cut


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

Saturday, May 28, 2011

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.

Monday, May 23, 2011

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!!!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

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.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

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.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

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.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

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.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

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.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Ready to Serve


I decided to paint them before I ate them :)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Apples


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

Saturday, March 12, 2011

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.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

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.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

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.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Onions


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

Saturday, February 5, 2011

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.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

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.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Three's Company


Three friends stand by each other - have fun!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

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.

Monday, January 17, 2011

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 :)

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

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.