New challenge

It's been a long time since I wrote this blog! Last 2 years passed so fast after chasing 2 toddlers everyday:) Recently, I finally was able to start having few hours a day to work on some art.

I am thinking to start up a etsy shop soon......let's see how it goes!

Today's inspiration: Andrew Wyeth

Yesterday, I had a life painting class, and my instructor told me to look up an artist, Andrew Wyeth. I was familier with N.C. Wyeth (very famouse illustrator, who I love), but I had never heard about Andrew Wyeth!

Here is my favorite piece from N.C. Wyeth,

I looked up Andrew Wyeth, and I LOVE his work!

Here are peices from Andrew Wyeth,

I love the color....I love the senstive touch in his paintings. I love how the paintings make me feel like I am there. I can feel the air, the wind, the waves, I can smell the ocean.

This was truely my inspiriation from today.....

-M

Painting from life

At my work, we have life drawing/painthing classes twice week. I love these 2 hours classes during lunch time.I grab a cup of coffee, listen nice classical music, and just draw....

Here is a drawings I did few weeks ago,

Charcoal on paper  11x17

This one took about one hour to draw, a long pose. Some times, the long pose becomes too stiff. I started to blend too much, and it becomes too smooth to me....which I regretted later on.

Here is a short pose, 5 mins.

Charcoal on newsprint  18x24

I love short poses. When it's a short pose, I can keep the energy going. The model can hold this more energic posees, and I have more fun feeling the gesture and energy. I think you can see the big difference in these drawings.

Every Thursday, we have short poses like them, and every Tuesday, we have 2 hours long poses. So I decided to try to paint figures. I took some painting classes in college, but I was never good at it. And I totally forgot what I have learned....so now I have been struggling and struggling with color....

Here is a piece I did today,

watercolor 9x11

What a mess.....I get so confused when it comes to warm and cool color. I see the cool shadow, but then I see some red or warm orange color in it, which confuse me so much! I wish somebody tell me what is going on.....

There are some oppotunies coming up to show my art in few months, so I have started thinking about what I am going to do with those peieces. I am loving this nice cool weather, nice warm drinks, and cozy house. Cannot wait to share them with you soon.....

-M

Trees

This Saturday, I got a great oppotunity to put my artwork in a show at Gallery Nucleus. My friend, Victoria Ying and Mike Yamada is having a new book "Curiosities: An Illustrated History of Ancestral Oddity." and they are having an art exhibiti inspired by the book.

Here is a piece I did for the show,

"Tree spirit" 5x7 framed watercolor on paper

This is actually my first illustration I ever really did, and my first art piece to put on gallery. I am so scared and I feel like I am being naked in front of everyone to show my piece....

I was also inspired by my son when I was working on this piece. He is 15 months old and he loves trees and leaves. Whenever we go for a walk, he will point out every trees and leaves, he gets very excited. Kid's imagination is so unlimited, and I get so much joy from watching my son's reaction to those moment. I love how kids can find the pure and simple joy in life.

I hope everyone can make it to the show :)

-M

Ballet dancer

"Ballet dancer" 8x10 oil on canvas

This is one of my latest paintings I did. I always had a desire for dancing. I never wanted to take dance classes when I was young, but during teen age year, I wanted to be able to dance, started taking ballet classes.

I haven't take ballet classes lately (especially after having a baby...) I always think dancers has this beautiful way to express their emotions. It's almost like us, the artists. Instead of using paint bursh, they use their body to express. I think they are so beautiful.

I am still not sure as an artist what I want to express and what I want to paint and communicate with others yet, but painting figure is definately one of desire I have.

Last Struday, I got a chance to sell my artwork with my friends at bazaar/craft show. And my friend mentioned about the warm tone and cool tone, which....I totally forgot about it! Yes, I remember learned about it in class, but I totally forgot about it until she mentioned! So in this painting, I totally ignore about warm and cool...haha. So next time, I will remember now.....

-M

Waves

Last night, after making some painting of signs, I started working on another oil painting. This time, I wanted to try some "seascape"....I always have the love of ocean, everytime I go see the ocean, those big waves scares me, at the same time, it memorialize me. I see how powerful God is, how beautiful God is...I wanted to capture that.

I found this amazing seascape artist, Ruo Li, who inspired me to try to paint ocean,

It looks really realistic at first, but there are some parts that he actually stylize it, make the each waves nice shapes. I am not sure if he works from photo or real life...I wish I can do this...

I don't really have any experience doing landscape, and I have no knowledge of that. But I wanted to try, all I need is more practice, right?

So here is what I did,

"wave" 8x10 oil on canvas

OH, it looks terrible....why my color so bright....? The waves are so hard to paint.....

So now, I have this great challenge, all I can do is to get better from here....

-M

Ballet

     

"Morning"   8x10 in.  Oil on canvas

Last night, after my baby went to sleep, althought I was so exhausted, I made a cup of coffee, got a slice of pumpkin cheesecake, and started painting. Even though I was so tired at first, once I started painting, I could feel so much joy in my heart, the time passed so fast.

My husband was also working on the project in the other room, and we would take a break once in a while, and we were joking around laughing in the middle of the night in the kitchen, eating cheesecake:)

After few paintings with Aclyric, I decided to try out some oil painting. I took few classes a while ago, but I don't have much experince with oil. However, I loved it! I loved the thickness, how the paint mix together, how you can put it on top.....it was just fun.

The challenge in this painting was that there were so many brown....the building were brown, the barr is brown, her skin tone was brown....I didn't know what to do with it! Now when I look back at this, I wish I used more gray and washedout color in the background, so the dancer stands out more...oh well.

I am selling this artwork at Southlands Church, Brea, CA, October 20th from 10am to 2pm. Hope this painting will find a nice home :)

-M