"Daisies in a Cup"

6"x6", oil on gesso board

This painting is done with the palette knife a few weeks ago. I was able to scan this painting since the painting has dried up. I am happy with scanning the painting rather than shooting with the camera, it gives a lot more close to the the true color of the painting, also no distortion of the size.

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"Head Study 5"

Basquiat:A Quik Killing in Art
 6"x6", oil on gesso board

Recently I was introduced to Jean-Michel Basquiat.

I am so intrigued by his work and his life.  Also his expression in his face....

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Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988

Untitled acrylic and mixed media on canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1984

Untitled acrylic, oilstick and spray paint on canvas painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1981

"Objet d'Art"

12"x12", oil on Canvas

This is a painting I did last Fall for the oil painting class at Pierce College. Objective of this assignment was to intrigue the viewer and create the impact with an object... not as random or insignificant, but awesome, intriguing, powerful,precious.


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"Yellow Lyrics "

7"x5", oil on Canvas panel

.....I wrote a song for you,
And all the things you do,
And it was called "Yellow"
So then I took my turn,
Oh what a thing to have done,
And it was all "Yellow.".......
-COLDPLAY LYRICS



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"White Roses"

6"x6", oil on gesso board

Another painting of roses...I picked some white roses from the side walk bushes while I was walking my pups. I really wanted to paint roses real simple and suggestive... loose, no hard edges... Not to get lost in their complicated pedals. Still I got allured again.
Finally wind calmed down. I am looking forward springtime, then summer....


PS. I am having a hard time to get the correct color for last two posts. They are too green. I am reposting. If you get double posting in your Inbox.. I apologize.


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"Two Yellow Roses"

6"x6", oil on gesso board

Finally, my first small painting of 2012.

I wanted paint quickly with fewer strokes as possible. Fresh start... but it turned out to be rather labored. These are yellow climbing roses from my winter garden. Even through the hash wind and cold weather still there are some blossoms. It is so windy during winter monthes here. These homes are built on the hill. The speed of wind today was 60ml/hr. I call it "Wuthering Heights". 

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"Head Study 4"

Daniella
 6"x6", oil on gesso board

I am enjoying young people at the college. They are like humming birds in the fresh air.
I met Daniella at Pierce college art class I am taking this Fall. She is only 19 yrs old and so beautiful.
I thought I will do a quick study of her from a photo which I took.
Well! so much of quick study!
I was repainting over and over to capture my impression of her.  It is  almost impossible to capture just the essence  from the photograph without  copying the photo..
I had to stop here before I totaly scrub off  whole paiting out of  my frustration. At least I have something to revisit later to see what I was trying to achieve from this study.

"Head Study 3"

Pissed Off
 6"x6", oil on gesso board

I did this painting last week, but didn't shoot till today.
This painting is done from another woman's mugshot, looking very pissed off.
I am not sure that she is a celebrity or not. Maybe she is.....

I signed up some art classes at nearby community college: Oil painting and Print Making. The Fall term  started two weeks ago, keeping  me very busy. Also signed up Boot Camp style  exercise program. Boot camp is Monday through Thursday, from 5:15 till 6:30. This program is a merciless real killer.  Through oil painting class, I am learning how to build the canvas from the scratch. Go to Home Depot, get the materials for stretcher bars, learn  how to cut the bars, stretch canvas on the frame, prepare canvas with gesso .....

I get more fit and stronger and paint till 100 years old!!
Sounds like a good plan?

This painting is available for purchase.
Bid at DPW auction:
http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Buy/Auctions
After Auction, buy direct here.

"Head Study 2"

The Girl with the Flaxen Hair
 6"x6", oil on gesso board
V.2

I worked more on the below painting. The reason why I chose to paint this girl was her dazzling smile and V.1 didn't capture that smile yet.
The image I was using to start the painting has been disappeared. I had to work out of my memory. I was so afraid working without reference,though.


V.1

This painting is available for purchase.

Bid at DPW auction:
http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Buy/Auctions
After Auction, buy direct here.

"Head Study1"

6"x6", oil on gesso board

I am thinking about to focus onto one subject matter to do a small size painting a day, so call, Daily Painting. Maybe Head studies......

So far,I couldn't paint fast enough to post every day.
Often I don't know what to paint. It takes long to figure out the subject and setting up and lighting. If I eliminate those prep time to slow me down.....

I thought I have to have a real model to make a painting.
Actual setup for Still life painting, outdoor trip for Pleinair painting, live models for figurative works.
Recently, I did some head paintings from photograph. It was not that bad as i thought.
I have more fun to do human head than still life. There are emotions and expressions to pull out even from the bad photos of human.

So here is "Head Study 1".

This is from a model-mugshot. I see the defiance in her expression. I wonder any body could tell who she is.
I realized that there are endless supply of head shots everywhere and many artists painting heads.
It will be interesting to see how my way of painting evolves. I like to get much more bold and expressive.

"Tomato and Knife II"

7"x5", oil on Canvas board

I am trying to paint with more paint on the brush lately.
It requires a commitment. Instead of layering with thin paints or picking up the the color from here and there on the palette, I have to mix certain amount of paints to be able to load the brush.
It frees me from getting into too much details, giving the life to the painting. Also I like the interesting edges happening naturally.

This the second painting of "Tomato and Knife" for me. Since one is sold through DPW Action recently, I decided do another one.
Definitely, "Tomato and Knife" is DiebenKorn inspired subject.
His tomato paintings are looking like he just slopped down the paints in 5 minutes. But when I examined his paintings, I realized how accurate his observation is and .......his compositions!!
How could I be bold and confident as he is!
He is one of the artist I admire most. I am so amazed by all of his works!!


This painting is available for purchase.
Bid at DPW auction:
http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Buy/Auctions
After Auction, buy direct here.

"Girl with Red Hat"

6"x6", oil on gesso board

NFS

"Stock Plunge"

6"x6", oil on gesso board -NFS

This is the image of a trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on the day of the stock market falling from LA Times on Aug 5.
I thought the diagonals with the expression of the shock in the image works together perfect. It is not my own shot but  I wanted to regenerated into a  painting for the sake of fun and learning.
I painted the  whole surface with red to begin with and kept red showing through to exaggerate the panic.

"Roses in My Mug"

6"x6", oil on gesso board

This week's DPW Challenge is to paint my mug.
I am surrounded by white roses in my neighborhood and I can't stay away from them. So roses in my big blue mug...

Recently, I am searching what I am inclined to paint and how I create the painting from them.
I have been painting under the art direction for 20 years in animation studios since I graduated from ACCD.
I don't have my favorite way of painting.
Each movie has a different artistic style and the artist has to paint what was required.

Now my heart is my art director.
One thing I know about my self is I like to have the spontaneity, some spirit and emotion in my painting. Also I like to go beyond just depicting how they look. 

This painting is available for purchase.
Bid at DPW auction:
http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Buy/Auctions
Or buy direct here:

"White Roses"

6"x6", oil on gesso board

This painting is available for purchase.

"Peach Tree"

7"x5", oil on Canvas board
$100














This is a peach tree in my back yard. This tree bears the most delicious peaches.
I share the peaches with birds,squirrels and my neighbors. Sometimes I have to be fast to pick them before birds put the marks on them.
All the peaches are gone now. All leaves!!
I did this painting to enter the DPW Challenge. It has rules of using limited palette (Ultra Blue, Cad Yellow Med (or Lt), Cad Rd Lt and white) and painting time to one hour. It was not easy to get subtle temperature change in Greens since UMB is warm blue.
Well painting time is limited to an hour, I couldn't be fussy much.
Photography didn't help me either to show cooler colors at the bottom part of painting. This is Early summer. Every thing in my garden has fresh greens. This palette might be very good to use for fall season even though we don't have much of fall color in Los Angeles, CA.

"Tomato and knife"

7"x5", oil on Canvas board
SOLD

"Tension"

6"x6", oil on gesso board

How do I make an interesting painting with just two tomatoes?
What color will be good for the wall and floor?
To go analogous, or to go complementary:
that is the question: whether they are nobler in the mind to suffer......
I am no Hamlet, but I am a serious painter.
Every beginning of painting is like I am just stepping a white room to find my way into problems. I don't yet know what I am trying to solve and how I am going to solve them.
After all, I enjoyed to paint these tomatoes and making a composition. The translucent surface of tomato is quite intriguing to paint.
The title for this painting is " Tension ". I sense the tension between two tomatoes.

9"x12", oil on canvas board

I hesitate to post this painting because this painting is one of those quite experimental, problematic and not quite resolved yet with composition, color balance, brush stroke....to me.
Seems like I am treating paintings as labor instead of free flowing creative activity lately.
In this painting, the first problem I have created was adding the reddish background behind the apple. Somehow, I like to add some geometric shapes to the still life painting. Then color....to work with red, I used yellow green on the flowers.
I could spend lot more time with this painting, but is it worthwhile?

Maybe I should enter this painting to DPW Critique Me Challenge....

"Unfinished Symphony - Roses in B minor"

6"x6", oil on canvas board

I started this painting a week ago over the old painting mostly of BG and RV. I thought that I had to work a lot more on this painting. But I reached at the point where I was not happy about losing the beneath colors from the old painting.
So I stopped because I didn't know what to do.
Now roses are gone. Also time went by. I am getting more comfortable with this "Unfinished" painting.
I tend to over work lately, I am going to call this painting finished as "Unfinished". The title of this painting would be "Unfinished Symphony" or "Roses in B minor"?
This painting remind me of Franz Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" (Symphony No. 8 in B minor)

It is a small painting after all. There are plenty of roses waiting to be painted.
In the future....
I might like to adopt the painting process of painting by layers .

"Daisies"

5"x7", oil on canvas board

I did a this setup on the lawn in my back yard. I wanted to paint this under the natural lighting. Blazing afternoon sun made a poor daisy facing the sun wilt right away.
It was lot easier for me to paint outdoor. I didn't feel like going into the detail which indoor still life setting often delude me. Also with the rapid lighting changes, prevent overworking which is most beneficial for my obsessive mind.

"Rose Bud"

6"x6", oil on gesso board

"Lavender on Blue"

5"x7", oil on gesso board
vs.1
NFS

vs.2

"What I Paint With"

6"x6", oil on gesso board

I did this painting for this week's DPW challenge.
I painted over the old painting, mostly Red and Green. The handle of the knife, the shadow of the paint tube, the bright Red and dark Green areas are undisturbed from the old painting.
It has turned out to be a fun process of the making a painting.
The choice of the Green and Red handle brushes was made to work with Red and Green of the old painting. The new color added were Blue and White, which are the color of the paint tube.

"Bougainvillea "

6"x6", oil on gesso board

I love beautiful hot, flaming Bougainvillea during fiery hot, dry summer days.

"my friend, Shirley"

8"x10", oil on canvas board

 This  painting is a  portrait of Shirley, a friend of mine, who is 91 yrs of age this year.

She is such a lovely, energetic little lady. Going to concert and theater, teaching piano, entertaining friends....Hard to believe her age.
Last year for her 90th Birthday, I made a small drawing of her as a gift. It was a three quarter view from a photo I had, and she didn't like it at all. Few month later she sent me a photograph and asked me if I could paint her from it, because she likes how she looks in the photo. This is the first portrait painting I ever did by the request and I will say that it was not easy.

I  do lots of head studies since the art school till now here and there  for 20 yrs of my artist life.
Many of them are quite successful to my eye and it never mattered whether the model liked how they looked in my paintings or not.

I couldn't be spontaneous at all while I am working on this painting. I was just so concerned about the likeness and whether she would like it or not.
 I am so relieved that I was able to pull this painting together without giving up!
Also I am glad that she looks quite young in this painting.

I finally begin to understand portrait painters after this experience.
Also I remembered Sargent's quote, "You lose a friend whenever you paint a portrait of a friend".

I hope not......  

"Head Studies_Pirate"

Head Study I

Long Pose (2hrs)



9"x12", oil on canvas board

Head Study II

Quick Study (15min)



8"x10", oil on canvas board










These are head studies with the costumed model at the Art Center. Pasadena.
The model was "Tucker", who used be an assistant Animator at Disney. He said that he has a life-long hobby of collecting costumes, now he enjoys modeling wearing his costumes and creating characters.
I did two paintings of him.
The first painting took 2 hours.
It was almost time for the painting session to end in about 15 min. I wanted to go home.
Then I changed my mind and told my self "Let's see what I could do In 15 min".
So here is a second painting. I am so happy with the result.
No fuss ... That is FUN!
Feels like you are flying with the brush.

I have enjoyed the first painting, but with lots of efforts.
The second one was a breeze!! .........................

Tucker saw my second painting and was very happy too.

"Irreconcilable!"

5"x7", oil on gesso board

Well...I had a luck painting fast with "Geranium".
I can't figure out why this painting took so long...many, many hours... so embarrassing to tell anyone or even myself!
It is "Irreconcilable Differences in Painting", composition, subject matter..... hard to be together.
I was not happy all the way along...up to this point.
It is all right now with me to be able to stop tackling.
From the beginning of the first completion, nothing much changed, very subtle...
Probably, others can't tell the differences.
Still wants to make the right side tomato little more saturated... I am going to leave it now, to avoid further resentment.

"Geranium"

5"x7", oil on gesso board

Once in a while, painting goes very well, quick and breezy. The first application of paint seems just right. This one was one of that rare occasion.
This geranium in my back porch is being neglected, regardless always have a few stunning Red blooms all through the year.
It is impossible to reproduce the natural, brilliant Red of this geranium, even with pure pigment of Winsor & Newton Oil.
Still quite happy about the result looking gorgeous in this painting.

"Bougainvillea on Blue"

8"x6", oil on canvas board

I was trying to paint a BLUE painting with ORANGE focal point. Also make more abstract rather than copy the object.
Seemingly this is my artistic quest...
It is quite challenging for me and takes a lot longer to finish a painting up to the point I could accept when I make the painting this way.