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I call this one “Into the Woods”. It’s oil on canvas, 60″ x 48″.

It’s loosely based on this photo, which was taken in January, when John and I made a trip to Yosemite National Park. We hiked midway to top of Yosemite Fall in snow, and passed by those gorgeous trees. When I saw those trees, I immediately knew I’ve got to paint them.

So I printed the image out, but the colors on the copy turned out really different from on the digital image. Was it my computer? Or was it the printer I used? Anyhow, as a result, the colors on my painting also took a departure from the original digital photo. But I think it worked out better this way. Instead of some reddish, brownish, greyish, blueish green as in the photo, I’d rather have more light bouncing through the leaves for an inviting feel.

I am quite happy with this one. At 60″ x 48″, it looks rather majestic. Well, at least my mom said so, and that made me happy.

Now that the travelogue is done, I am finally going to write about my paintings. Lots to update in this area as well, so here comes the first post.

I finished this painting of a vineyard at sunset about two and half months ago. It is loosely based on this photo, which was taken when John and I took a road trip along California Coast and spend a day at Paseo Robles wine country. We visited several vineyards along the way and I tasted 31 different wines in a weekend — definitely record breaking.

This was painted on canvas with acrylic paint. At 12″ x 16″, it is my smallest painting so far. I didn’t think I would enjoy painting small, but at the end I actually felt it wasn’t that bad. With this painting I also did not use pencil to sketch at all, and that was also an experiment.

I am quite happy with the outcome, although I’ll have to take a better picture of it as this picture of the painting was taken in dim lighting so it doesn’t do full justice. It was autume, it was sunset, the grape vines were golden, and it was a very happy trip. This painting, to me, documents that happy memory. Although new, this painting has already been in one art show, which I’ll talk about in my upcoming posts.

Now to the right is a painting I wrote about before. This one was a class assignment and an experiment — where I divided one image into sixteen different grids and painted each grid a different way. I looked into paintings of many artists, primary 19th century European artist and some modern artists, for inspirations. So, the sixteen grids were painted with techniques learnt from Monet, Van Gogh, Oscar Schlemmer, August Macke, Gabriele Munter, Georgia O’Keefe, Amedeo Modigliani, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Sandro Chia, Paul Klee, Edouard Vuillard, Franze Marc, plus pointillism, knif painting, my style, plus something else I invited. It is 30″ x 40″, and it is also acrylic on canvas.

I have to admit that when I began this assignment, I didn’t enjoy it. I felt like I was copying one artist after another. But at the end, I felt it was worth the effort. It pushed me to paint in sixteen different ways, and to know that, hey, I can do other techniques well too!

More painting talk to come soon.

Slowly but surely, it’s getting there.

10 grids down, 6 more to go.

A classmate said I make yummy colors.

Cupcake anyone?

I have less than two weeks to finish two paintings. Gotta speed up!

I just really, really, really love to paint, and I have been so blessed by the opportunity to take a nighttime painting class at a nearby community college twice a week! I do not need the class, yet it is really good to paint in relaxed group setting with a good teacher.

What you see here is a class assignment I am working on. It’s a very interesting, yet challenging assignment. We took an image, composed it on a canvas no smaller than 30″ x 30″ on each side (mine is 30″ x 40″), then devided the composition into 16 equal-size grids. Then we approached each grid as an individual painting, and painted it in different style/texture/color scheme… etc, or with different choices of tools/medium. At the end, since the grids originated from one single image, the whole picture supposedly will become somewhat of a uniform piece. In the process, we, the students, will have been challenged to paint sixteen different ways.

In my case, I printed out a picture of a Tiger Lily flower that I took a few years back and go crazy with it (or try to anyways). This is my first time doing a grid painting; also the first time I really push myself to go beyond my comfort zone by trying so many different things all on one canvas. As of tonight I’ve oly finished 6 out of 16 grids, so you don’t see that many variety of techniques yet, but believe me, I am pushing myself with this experiment. It shall look quite interesting when it’s all done. Although I already disovered that as much as I tried to do different things, I still stick to relatively true colors, because having been so very strongly inclined to traditional painting methods all these years, it’s hard for me to deviate from my own habits. Neverthless, some conscious effort to explore have been invested, and such effort will continue till the completion of this project.

In the meantime, I am also slowly working on a painting of a vineyard that’s inspired by a roadtrip with John. That one will be done entirely my style. This coming weekend, I also look forward to gessoing another canvas to start another painting.

Nothing can quite compare to the joy moving paint across a canvas gives me. Every time I attend the class, or paint at home, I kept on asking myself “why did I step away from painting for so many years? How could I have done that?” Before last August, I didn’t paint for more than five years. During that period of time I finished grad school, got started on my career, travelled to some new places, met many new people, gained lots of fabulous experiences, but I did not create any art. Why did I do that?

But than again, life experiences and creative endeavors do go hand-in-hand. My life experiences can only complement my art. I am blessed to have journeyed into different worlds, and I am truly thankful to have the youth and energy and resources and support to chase some really beautiful dreams.

The painting instructor always plays music in class. Tonight’s music choice was Chopin. All of a sudden, my two past lives - my painting days and my piano days - merged. It was such a beautiful moment to realize how lucky I am.

Not a bad way to spend Valentine’s Day while my love is away.

To the left is my newest painting that I finished late last night. The dimer, yellow lighting at home did not allow true colors to be captured, however, you get the gist of it. I am quite happy with this painting. It’s a good come-back effort after not having painted for more than 5 years.

This will be one of the three paintings that I’ll present at the final critique of my class tomorrow night. I am eager to find out what comments I’ll get from the instructor.

Since I already have a BA degree in Art, I really don’t have the need to be in a painting class at a community college — I really don’t need to make that kind of effort to be in class after a long day at work. But, I want to make a serious effort to get back into painting, and to improve my skills so I can be the kind of painter I envision I am capable of. I really, really do love to paint.

I think I’ve achieved my goal here. I don’t feel rustic anymore, and am ready to paint a lot more from this point on, and to embrace different subject matters. In fact, I’ve registered for another painting class for the Spring semester! Can’t wait!