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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.

Yvonne at work told me about her big discovery last night — her cat has been chewing her gum for years!

Yup! Her cat chews gum! And knows how to spit it out too!

She caught her in the act,  and finally realized how those tiny chew marks on her gum wrapping paper were made, and how her gum always mysteriously disappear. For years she thought it was her husband!!

For years she also has been giving credit to her husband for her cat’s minty breath. She thought her husband gave her mouth spray or something. Haha, now she knows.

Funny how smart our little companions are.

Yay! I am finally at the end!

I’ve been really, really busy. That’s why it took me so long to finish writing about the trip. But I am proud that I wrote about this trip unlike my other trips that went undocumented.

The trip was a lot of fun and hard work. Although John and I were only there for 9 days, it felt longer because we did so much. During this trip I not only got to spend quality time with my family and relatives, I also got to visit John’s old neighborhood, visited my dearest friend Erin, tasted amazing Taiwanese food, toured some beautiful sites, adn took part in the Taiwanese democratic process, All in all, it was a great trip.

I’d like to end this series of posts with this picture and answer John’s million dollar question: “What were you taking pictures of?”

This picture was taken in the car in Taipei, while John was driving to take me to Yangmingsan Mountain, where we saw calla lily farms. I was so amazed by his ability to drive in crazy Taipei traffic that I just had to take a picture to remember my moment of amazement.

John never ceased to amaze me. In the U.S., he can be a perfectly westernized gentleman, but once in Taiwan, he can transformed into a total native who speaks perfectly fluent Taiwanese, bargains in outdoor markets, knows where to shop and how to take public transit, maneuvers in busy streets in Taipei without difficulty, and he can even parallel park the car into unbelievably tight spaces!!! Ah.. my dearest John! Just how I adore him!

The next time I am in between jobs, I’d like to spend a whole month living in Taiwan to further experience life there, and to tour each city in Taiwan very thoroughly. I also look forward to visiting my hometown, Taitung, during different seasons to relive different colors that I missed since moving to the U.S. For example: the golden rice fields in autumn, orange day lily on rolling hills, the flaming luoshen flowers, plus rows and rows of yellow Chrysanthemum in harvest. I’d also like to see some old, traditional Taiwanese architecture and historical streets, and take lots of pictures to paint from before they disappear.

Not that I look forward to quitting my job, but I do look forward to visiting more places in Taiwan whenever there’s an opportunity.

On the second to last day of my trip, I visited my grand uncles and uncles at my late great grandma’s old house at Danding — a mountainous region at the southeast edge of Taipei basin.

My great grandparents had six children. My grandma is the 3rd of the six. Each of the six children (my grandma and grand uncles) had many kids, which results in my mom having lots of cousins and me having something like 26+ uncles and aunts all in the Taipei region. My parents used to spend a lot of time with that side of the family when we were little, however, ever since moving to Taitung when I was 10, interaction with all relatives in Taipei became sparse, although the family bond remained strong.

And then after we immigrated to the U.S. in 1992, interaction with all grand uncles, uncles and aunties become even more sparse because 1. once I visit one uncle, I have to visit all others to be respectful and fair to all of them. 2. visiting all of them could easily take a whole month, but all our trips back to Taiwan had been too short for that. Read the rest of this entry »