Charity Contributions

I want to thank those who had bought my paintings this summer where 100% of the proceeds have been donated to Tzu Chi Foundation. http://www.tzuchi.org/

Tzu Chi Foundation is a Buddist compassion relief organization that is very active in disaster relief around the world, as well as building hospitals and schools. They are in more than 45 countries around the world. The paintings where the proceeds have been 100% donated include: Yellow Tulips, Swans under a Bridge - Prague, Canary Island, and Fluffy Bird.

I'm very glad my paintings can make a small difference. So I decide from now on, I will donate 100% of the proceeds from my paintings.

Farm House Sunset - PEI

This is for Virtual Paintout August 2010 Price Edward Island challenge. It's oil on 9x12.

This is the painting I originally started out working on for the Prince Edward Island challenge. Half way through it, something just didn't look right. That's when I put it down and started the Lake of Shining Water painting, which was a lot simpler in terms of composition, color and value.

What had originally caught my eyes with this scene was the country side feel: simple house, fresh laundry, picnic table, sparkling ocean and sunset light filled atmosphere. (ref photo) I was having trouble bring all the pieces together, especially from a color perspective as there were too many different elements. My last minute attempt to fix it just before the challenge deadline was to simplified color to mostly purple and yellow related colors (complementary). I think this is a good time to put down my paint brushes on this one since I think the painting will look very over-painted if I keep tweaking things.

Three Peaches

This is for Rookie Painter August 2010 challenge. It's oil on 8x10 canvas board.

The original reference photo had a few more items in it. (ref photo) I thought about rearranging the other items, such as the gold vase and black pot, but I thought the painting would be quite complicated, and I may run out of time. So I decided to keep it simple, and just painted the three peaches.

Like the cherry challenge before, I wanted to make the fruit look as tangible and juicy as possible, especially given that I can't eat them anymore. (I developed allergies to things like cherries and peaches, sigh.) So you may say these paintings represent my longing to eat these fruits.

The color I used inlcuded lemon yellow, orange, windsor red deep, alizarin, madder, ultramarine violet, and a touch of ultramarine blue, yellow orchre and white. The background is a white with a tint of green, to make the peaches pop more (hard to see in the photo). Shadows are combination of portland grey and ultramarine voilet, and a touch of orange.

Water Spiral

This is for Wordpress challenge August 2010. It's oil on 8x10 canvas board.

The reference photo had a girl dipping her hand into a waterfall. For me, there was too much going on in the picture. I thought, since I am doing a van Gogh style painting at Anastasia Art, I would use this opportunity to try a van Gogh technique here. I liked his signature spiral style, as seen in Cypresses and Starry Night. So I figured I would do a quick study using the spiral for water falling into the pool.

Lake of Shining Water - Prince Edward Island

This is for Virtual Paintout August 2010 challenge - Prince Edward Island. It's oil on 8x10 canvas board.

I actually started out painting another scene for this challenge, but it didn't turn out the way I wanted. Then I had remember seeing a very interesting picture of cloud reflection in the lake, (ref photo) so I did this one instead. (Still trying to figure out how to fix the other one I started out).

Prince Edward Island is the setting for one of my favorite books when I was younger - Anne of Green Gables. At first I was looking for Green Gables or Avonlea in Google map, but I couldn't find much. I came upon this lake scene, not sure if this is the real Lake of Shining Water as mentioned in the book, but in my eyes, it's shining enough for me.

I started out painting the negative spaces in the sky and the lake, i.e. the blue parts. The sky is a combination of cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, violet grey, and white. The sky reflection in the water is darker, it's a combination of coeruleum, ultramarine violet, portland grey light and medium. The clouds in the sky are mostly white with a touch of yellow and violet, while clouds in the lake are mostly portland grey light with ultramarine violet, all blended with a fan brush. I made the grassy area more orange-yellowish for bigger contrast (orange and blue are complementary colors), color included indian yellow, raw sienna, burnt sienna, and sap green. Finally, I used a palette knife to add in more texture for the tall grass using color that's left on my palette.

Dahlia

This is for August 2010 Rookie Painter challenge - Dahlia. It's oil on 9x12 canvas board. (ref photo)

Similar to the yellow tulips I did for this challenge, I decided to use a darker background for the sunlit flower in order to accentuate the glowing nature of the flower. The sun lit area is painted with cold color - mostly lemon yellow. The rest of the flower is painted with warmer colors - naple yellow, permanent rose, radiant red, cadmium red, orange, cobalt violet, madder, alizarin and ultramarine violet. The work is tedious as I had to paint petal by petal. The background is viridian green mixed with ultramarine violet, although it's so dark it appears black in the photo.