Softness

Another painting to depict the figure in a very dreamy atmosphere.

Warmth

A figurative painting during my school break. As I move forward to the figurative arena, I enjoy the process of analyzing the forms and planes, values and proportion before I put down the brush. A slow but very rewarding experience to produce a good art.

Smile

A portrait of my friend Sharon with her warm smile, love the moment we studied art together.

Serenity

Another recent painting of the clothed figure.

Waiting

Since I started the MFA program at Academy of Art about a year ago, I decided to focus on painting the human figures. So I took the Figure Studio and Head Drawing classes to improve my drawing skill before I enrolled to my first paint class at AAU. And here is the product of my first painting class - a painting of myself. I got a lot of feedback from my classmates and teacher during the course of this painting - the composition, the values, the colors and the proportion - you name it, all the elements of creating a good painting were explored. I really enjoy the process as it made me a better artist. Hope you like it too.

Golden prairie

Another hot summer day. Sun shines on the golden dry field. Ha, it's California summer :)

Thin Veil

I have lots of fun painting the "swirling cloud" so I decided to paint another one last night. I used a lot of imagination in this painting. It's a nice break from what I am used to paint - different style and rendering process. But I enjoy this kind of painting very much.

Swirling cloud

I snapshot this picture and love the feeling and colors of the cloud. So here is the painting.

The end of a hot day

This is a small painting of the white adobe building of Mission San Antonio de Padua during the CAC paint-out event last summer - I was mesmerized by the tranquil scene when I was strolling to the back of the Mission building to find something different. And this is the Aha moment. In this painting I was still focusing on the composition and color harmony, and tried to capture the peaceful moment of the hot summer day.

Spring Show 2013, Winner of the Small Work Award

I was just notified by the Academy of Art Spring Show 2013 that my painting "Docking" was selected for the winner of the MFA small work award. It was a great honor to be a part of this highly-acclaimed Spring Show, let alone be a winner of one of the awards. If you get a chance to visit San Francisco in the next week or 2, feel free to stop by the beautiful Palace of Fine Art and see this wonderful show presented by the best of the students at AAU.

Sandy path

Sometimes I feel I should be more thoughtful on my color choice. All those famous landscape and plein air painters are masters in color. So in this painting, I am really working on the colors to see if I can control the color usage more maturely. What do you think?

Winter storm

Surrender to the power of the mother nature

Bell Tower

The image captured during last year's summer paint-out session organized by CAC, I finally got the chance to paint it in my studio.

My Update....

I've been busy like a squirrel recently. In addition to my Academy course and my corporate job, my painting "Noon Ride" is showing in the Salon International 2013. Also, I am building my website so I can present my art work in a more organized and professional way to you all. It's quite a challenge to juggle many things at the same time, but I enjoy it very much. After all, doing art is one of the most rewarding things in my life - in addition to raise my family and being with my friends. I will keep using this blog for posting my new paintings, and hope to sync the paintings to my website too. Please visit my website at: http://ranwuart.com and let me know how you think about it. Thank you for viewing my art.

That old fence

Now the spring is coming, the field is full of lives and with the sun lit on everything, it's perfect for landscape painting. Love the weather here :) Nowadays I am really focusing on my composition and hope the composition of this painting captures the eyes of the viewers.

Pink

I spotted this little girl wearing pink from head to toe on the street. I took a picture of her and hope her cuteness is captured in this small painting.

Play

The little boy was playing by the waterfront in the hot summer day. He was looking for something, so focused that he even didn't notice that I was taking a picture of him.

Tired

Another try of painting the figure in the nature setting.

White Skirt

My first figure attempt. I tried to capture the body movement under the burning sunshine. It's challenging painting figure but I enjoy it very much.

Back Alley

I painted this warm painting in the middle of the cold winter. The mirage-like scene was taken in the summer trip when I strolled on the narrowed back streets in Rome.

Sunset by the Marsh

Yearning for a warm weather, I painted this hot summer scene in the middle of the cold winter :p)