"Central Park Bethesda Fountain in Spring" (oil on linen; 8" x 8") sold

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Have you seen the Angel of the Waters on the Bethesda Fountain New York City's Central Park? It looks serene on an overcast spring day with magnolias in full bloom.

"Smithsonian Castle Magnolias" (oil on linen; 12" x 12")

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Near the Smithsonian Castle on The National Mall, the administrative headquarters of many national museums in Washington DC, there is a beautiful garden complex called Enid A. Haupt Garden. Visit it during the magnolia season.  As hundreds of mature magnolia trees become heavily loaded with big, pale pink, cup-shaped flowers, the garden is transformed into a fragrant pink heaven!

"Magnolia Season" (oil on stretched canvas; 14" x 11")

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 A grove of magnolias at their peak on a beautiful day is the ultimate spring delight.  I have been checking upon this grove at the Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA, to catch it at the right moment, which I did a few days ago!

I just started blocking in with opaque paints over the transparent underpainting.

All blocked in.

Now my job is to make these trees look like magnolias, not just any flowering trees with pink flowers.

A little more developed.

"Springtime at Manor House" (oil on linen; 14" x 11") sold

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Reference photo

The house in the painting could be any colonial-style house common in northern Virginia.  But it is not.  It is the Manor House at Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA.  The entire park grounds used to belong to a plantation owner long time ago, and you know what that means in the antebellum South.  It is now owned and maintained by the Fairfax Country Park Authorities; much of gardening work is done by volunteers.  A nice change, don't you think?  The Manor House is open to the public a few days a week for teas, gift shopping, and art shows. As a matter of fact, I have had a couple of solo shows in the building in the past.  Naturally, I am quite fond of the place.

I took the picture a couple of weeks ago, when daffodils just started blooming.  Right above the yellow daffodils you can see a big clump of Lenten roses, which I edited out in my painting.  Beyond the house the saucer magnolias are at their peak.  It is such a happy picture that I just had to paint it.

"Glorious Magnolia" (oil on canvas; 12" x 16") sold

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Reference photo

I didn't know I was such a lover of magnolia.  Having had so much fun painting "Magnolia Season," I decided to do another magnolia painting.  Can you guess when and where I took the above picture?  Yes, it was on the same day and at the same place as the picture for "Magnolia Season."  I walked around to get the best possible shot; it is indeed picture perfect.  Even the sky with streaks of clouds is fitting for a happy mood.  The new painting is more a landscape than a floral painting, taking in the surroundings in which a group of saucer and star magnolia trees are blooming.

While working on "Glorious Magnolia," I realized the reason for my newly-found enthusiasm for magnolia.  Painting magnolia from distance is not much different from painting another favorite flower of mine--cherry blossoms.  As I couldn't possibly paint gazillion cherry florets, I didn't even try to put in thousands of magnolia bud dots.  I also had to make sure that I painted in darks under the puffy clouds of pale pink flowers, suggesting magnolia branches in the shadow and a row of trees behind the stars of the painting.  A happy discovery and a handsome painting.  Life is good.

Garden Flower Journal (pen and watercolor, 9" x 4" ea)

As some of you may remember, I make my own journal books with good watercolor paper.  With a full sheet (22 x 30"), I come up with six 9 x 9" pages for my journals, plus three 4 x 9" cards.  I didn't know what to do with them until I came up with a brilliant idea of making slender journals for whatever projects I felt like.  Thus was born the "Garden Flower Journal," from which I am sharing some pages today.

The idea was to keep track of the flowers growing in my garden and a nearby park through the spring (2009).  I drew directly with a Micron pen, which is waterproof, then loosely added a watercolor wash.  With the same pen, I also did the lettering and jotted down notations.  The unusual format of the paper made me work hard on the design of each page.

As I was looking through the pages of this journal the other day, an inspiration came to me.  Why not start a "Fruits and Vegetables Journal"?  Many vegetables and fruits are elongated.  Think bananas, cucumbers, green onions, leeks, zucchinis, bokchoy, etc.  As for fruits, I can line up strawberries, cherries, and so on.  For large, globular fruits like watermelons, I can slice them up.  How fun!  I will keep you posted.

"Whiff of Spring" (watercolor, 20" x 14") sold

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In northern Virginia, where I live, the magnolia trees are budding now; by the next week, they will dot the sky with their noble flowers.  Whereas cherry blossoms are dainty and flirty, magnolia flowers are elegant and proper.  Magnolias are very popular in Korea; we even have a beautiful song about them.

This still life setup posed a major challenge.  All the props were white (or transparent); so was the backdrop.  The only colors were found in the branches and the faint pink magnolia buds.  The shadows lacked colors as well.  All purity and Oriental.  So I had to make up colors.  Nothing overpowering, but subtle grays and mauves--just like an early spring day.  But there is a whiff of spring in the air.  It shows that although I am a colorist, I can also exercise restraint in my color choices when the occasion calls for.