"Young Mexican Dancer" (oil on linen; 14" x 11") sold

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During the annual Halloween parades of my daughter's high school marching band, I've noticed a group of kids dressed up in colorful traditional costumes.  I thought they were enthusiastic audience, as quite a few local residents showed up in costumes.  No, they were a troupe who were to perform Mexican dances as part of the parade entertainments.  Awesome!

I sat in front of the crowd to enjoy the boys' and girls' dance routines, when one girl caught my eye.  Her poised beauty at her young age (she was probably around 10) was mesmerizing.  I had to paint her.  What do you think of my effort?

By the way, I've decided to offer custom portraits of children.  I am excited!  If you are interested in getting your children's or grandchildren's portraits done for the holiday, please check out my Etsy listing.  Thanks!

"Red Boat" (watercolor on Yupo; 8" x 8") sold

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The scene depicts a small charming marina at Luce Creek in Annapolis, MD.  The red boat sings in this green, blue, and purple landscape, doesn't it?  Its actual color was dark blue!  I had a lot of trouble with this painting.  I wiped out and repainted the sky and water.  Still something bothered me.  But I liked the middle section with the boats so much that I couldn't give up.  So I redid the water one more time.  More disappointment.

I was about to toss it into the waste basket, because one cannot mess with a painting forever.  Suddenly a light bulb went off.  Why not crop it and get rid of the offending bottom portion?  I am raising the attitude of "Never give up, never surrender" to an art form!

Reference photo

"White on Red" (oil on linen; 8" x 8")

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Reference photo

All this talk of grays got to me.  I decided to go crazy and do something wild.  What if I use cadmium red straight out of the tube to contrast with the grays on the white iris blooming in my neighborhood?  How do you like my wild painting?

"Chocolate Mousse Cup" (oil on linen; 5" x 4")

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After I was finished with the painting, I sat in front of it for a long time in deep satisfaction.  Perhaps it was the red raspberry dusted with confectioner's sugar; or, the yellow green ground.  Or, chocolate. Something about this little gem makes me very happy.

"Dark Kisses" (oil on linen; 4" x 5") sold

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I bought two bags of Kisses while back, thinking that they would make a fabulous Valentine's paintings.  I finally got around to paint them before they disappeared.  When I told my husband what the title of this small painting was going to be, he said "naughty"!

"Golden Gate Bridge on Sunny Day" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

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The famous Golden Gate Bridge on a sunny day.  Fluffy clouds float by in the sky.  A red ship in the distance is about to glide under the bridge.  The red bridge casts colorful reflections in the choppy water.  I thought of Claude Monet's "The Bridge at Argenteuil" when I was working on the above painting.  I wrote about how much I admire Monet's painting three months ago.  Something about a bridge, boat, clouds in a blue sky, and reflections in the water makes a happy painting.  Don't you agree?

"Can't Wait For Christmas!" (oil on linen; 8" x 8") sold

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Now that my "still-life-painting-a-day" project is in full swing, I am constantly thinking about what to paint next.  I dug up a red-enameled silver bowl from a drawer-full of the wrapped, rarely-used, and tarnished silverware.  Hum.  A light bulb went off.  Once I get this baby cleaned up, it, along with a couple of silver Christmas balls and a Christmasy ribbon, will make a perfect still life setup!  Ah, endless possibilities!

"Red Still Life" (oil on linen; 8" x 12") sold

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As I had so much fun painting the shiny surface of the eggplants the other day, I thought I would go even further by throwing in a silver platter.  For the still life objects, I gathered three red produce--pomegranate, bell pepper, and red delicious apple.  "Antioxidant Fest" might have worked as the title of the painting too!

"Golden Delicious and Lemon" (oil on stretched linen; 14" x 18")

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Last night, I went to John Murray's still life class, feeling refreshed and ready to paint.  But I didn't like the setup John was arranging for my corner of the studio.  Red apples on yucky green fabrics--not my cup of tea.  I looked back to see the above setup, of which I forgot to take a picture.  Wow!  I persuaded two classmates to move a bit to make space for me.  John told us to wait for the night's lesson.  I couldn't.  I started painting right away.

By the time the teacher gave us the instructions (mass the apples in one color, then separate them into individual fruits), I was done blocking in my golden delicious.  John shook his head, saying something about "nobody listens to me."  Oops.  I was unstoppable, putting down one color after another, without hesitation.  He came around occasionally to help me modify small aspects of the setup to help the design.  Other than that, he loved the painting; so did I.  I was channeling Paul Cezanne, John's hero, for the first time in his class.  I was fearless.  The painting is not quite in my style, but who cares!

"Golden Gate Bridge in Fog" (oil on linen; 12" x 9") sold

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The idea for "Golden Gate Bridge in Fog" occurred while I was helping my daughter build four model bridges for her school science project.  She and her team were testing how much weight different types of bridges could bear.  Tying up the string for the cute suspension bridge below required a considerable amount of dexterity, which none of the girls didn't possess; so I came to the rescue!  Am I bad?

A model suspension bridge (balsa wood and embroidery thread)

One famous suspension bridge came to my mind--Golden Gate Bridge!  I had to paint it.  The reference photo I used showed the bridge shrouded in fog.  So, today's big challenge was this: how do I paint the vaporous nothingness, which covers about one half of the painting?  The initial sky color was too cool and monotonous; I warmed it up and introduced more colors.  You are probably wondering what colors!  Well, look very closely.  They are there.  Probably the most important thing in painting fog is the treatment of edges.  I deployed a lot of lost and broken edges to suggest the mystery of fog.

"Golden Gate Bridge in Fog" posed a bit of a drawing challenge as well.  Do you know what I do when I have trouble with drawing?  I paint upside down.  Most of the bridge and the distant landscape were painted in that way.  Funny, I am sure, but it works every time.  It forces my mind to see shapes, not things.  You can paint anything  if you switch your mind to see shapes.

By the way, I love San Francisco.  I think it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  It was this city to which I flew when I came to the USA to study 28 years ago.  Since then, I visited it a few more times, and every visit has been memorable.  My favorite spot is Lombard Street, the crookedest street ever!

"Two Red Peppers" (oil on linen; 11" x 14") sold

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The still life setup

We don't often give ourselves and others enough time.  Enough time for sleeping; for eating (by doing other things like reading at the same time); for others to finish talking; or for painting.  We beat ourselves up, rush about, and get all stressed out as a result.  For instance, my still life class with John Murray on Wednesdays is always hectic.  Out of three hours, more than an hour is dedicated for the teacher's putting together three setups in a crowded studio, a quick demo, and a group critique. 

Instead of being disgusted with my painting as was by the end of the class, I decided to continue working on it at home with a photo of the setup.  I don't know whether it is cheating or not, but there was no reason whatsoever to get stressed out by the pressure of the limited time.  Painting is neither a race, nor a performance art.  It is a kind of meditation.  One is supposed to be truly present, mindful of the task at hand.  Unfortunately, I tend to paint fast and dash off one painting after another, quite a few of which turn out to be duds.  I am aware of my shortcomings and intend to work on them.

Anyhow, I am glad of my decision to take the above picture.  The drawing wasn't bad.  It was my initial treatment of the green and dark blue violet draperies that was problematic.  I had ignored all the folds and creases and had also made a straight "horizon" line where the fabrics met.  Dead boring!  The color of the green cloth was too warm; the brushstrokes were too grassy-looking.  I fixed the problems, as you can see.  I also worked some more on the peppers and bowl as well.  I am rather pleased with the final painting. 

The more I look at it, however, the more I see green and dark blue landscapes in the background.  The peppers and bowl look like huge objects lying on green fields, like Gulliver in the island country of Lilliput.  Perhaps I should stop meditating while painting by staring at my painting too long!

"Red Poppies" (oil on linen; 8" x 12") sold

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"Red Poppies" blocked in

As I said in the entry on "Purple Irises," I am an alla prima painter, finishing a painting in one session, whether it takes one hour or a whole day.  The idea is that as long as the paints remain wet, you can manipulate the edges--hard edges for emphasis and soft ones to recede.  There are, of course, exceptions to my usual approach.  Sometimes I run out of time and can't finish a painting on the day when I started it. 

Or, like with "Red Poppies," I decide to let the first block-in stage dry.  The green seed heads are in front of the red petals, and you know one of the color principles: you mix two complimentary colors, then you end up with mud.  Greens and reds are such a complimentary pair, occurring in nature often and making it all the prettier.  The point of poppies is their brilliant reds--cadminus red, permanent rose, and alizarin crimson, etc.  Your heart rate goes up happily, exhilaratingly.  So adding green paints on top of fresh, juicy red paitnts would have been simply asking for trouble. 

As impatient as I am, I wisely let the flowers dry for two days, which meant that the soft greens and violets of the surrounding meadow also dried out unfortunately.  Dry brushing came in handy to paint in delicate stems suggestively and poetically.  I am quite pleased with how the painting turned out.

"Black Tulip Dress" (oil pastel on paper; 20" x 14") sold

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An unused box of oil pastels I had bought several years ago bugged the miser in me to do something about it, so this weekend I took a workshop with Lisa Semerad at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA.  Oil pastel is waxy pastel that doesn't behave like the traditional chalk pastel at all.  It doesn't produce dust for one thing.  Art is great, but with cadmiums in some paints, who wants to breathe in toxic stuff and die young? 

It's gooey, tactile, and versatile.  You can combine this nifty medium with oil, acrylic, watercolor, and colored pencil; you can paint on paper, canvas, metal, glass, plastic, or whatever!  If Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec had had these babies, he would have created an even wilder oeuvre.

There were ten students in the workshop, and we shared the attitude of fun, experiment, and childlike fearlessness.  Since we didn't have much experience with the medium and didn't burden ourselves with the expectation to create masterpieces at the end of the day, we didn't get frustrated and remained thoroughly cheerful.  Guess what!  We did make some good art!  Look at "Black Tulip Dress".  Does it look like my usual artwork?  When I thought I had been really brave, Lisa came around to ask if I was ready for some crazy stuff.  Gasp.  I said "sure."  She began to scratch with a couple of colored pencils all  over the paper!  I continued the wild act and signed my name.  What a weekend!

"Still Life with Anemones" (watercolor on paper; 10" x 18") sold

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I used to take a watercolor class with Deborah Ellis at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA.  She believed in painting from life, and set up several fabulous still lifes for her students to choose from every week.  As I switched to the opaque mediums, I don't get to see my favorite watercolor teacher any more regrettably.  "Still Life with Anemones" that I painted in her class has been hanging in my kitchen for several years.

What I like about this painting is its abstract quality.  The fluffy leaves and oval petals of the anemones break up the angularity of the vases and cloth folds, while light and dark tones criss-cross the picture plane.  Today's entry is dedicated to Deborah Ellis, a fun, kind, and cerebral individual.