"Serenity Reigns" (oil on stretched canvas; 22" x 28")

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I have been working on "Serenity Reigns" for almost ten years.  Its complicated, Frank Lloyd Wrightesque architecture; the confusion between the inside and outside images; and some one's casual remark that the painting was neither here nor there got in the way.  I finally worked out the design and other problems and was able to finish it yesterday.  I cannot be happier.

The painting depicts a Chinese wooden sculpture from around 1100, a part of the fabulous Chinese art collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  The sculpture is not Buddha, but a bodhisattva, an enlightened being who has delayed entering paradise in order to help others attain enlightenment.  In China and Korea, Guanyin, his/her Chinese name, is widely worshipped as a “goddess of mercy and compassion". In popular folklore, reciting the bodhisattva’s name during disaster would bring relief. I grew up in a devout Buddhist family, so am quite familiar with Guanyin's importance and popularity in the Buddhist milieu.

Seated in the lotus position, this figure wears the silk garments and gold jewelry befitting a bodhisattva. The gesture of both hands turned up with thumbs touching the middle fingers is perhaps that of discourse or argumentation. Carved during the last creative epoch of Chinese Buddhist sculpture, it expresses the gentle, benign calm of near enlightenment. (The information was collected from the MIA's website.)

On a personal level, I achieved my own calm and near enlightenment as I was working on the painting in the past few days. Let go of anger, frustration, and other emotions that interfere with the inner peace.  Don't let others determine what you should paint as well!

"Winged Victory of Samothrace" (watercolor on paper; 20" x 14")

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The famous ancient Hellenistic Greek statue at the Louvre Museum in Paris was the inspiration for the painting.  The 2nd-century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory) was created to honor a sea battle.  Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre and is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world.  Although headless, it conveys a sense of action and triumph.  I cannot imagine it with a beautiful woman's head, just as I cannot think of "Venus of Milo" with arms.  The power of imagination!

I visited the museum back in 1997 during a two-week trip to France with my husband. I was awed by the beauty of a chunk of an ancient marble.  I wanted to paint it and paint it well.  It was particularly challenging project.  The reference photo with a flat, interior lighting didn't give me much value variation.

I crumpled a thin piece (90 lb weight) of watercolor paper, which crackled (damaged) the surface.  A sacrilegious act, but I was going for an unfussy way to suggest the marble texture. The background interior of the museum was pained with minimum details, whereas I carefully punched up the statue as much as I could with the same limited palette.  It is a subtle, blue painting, which is curiously alive.  You can almost feel the breeze caused by the fluttering wings of the goddess, which is about to take off!

The painting was juried into the Art League show in Alexandria, VA in 2006.

"Iwo Jima Memorial" (oil on linen; 11" x 14")

After
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Before

A photo taken to aid the reworking of the painting

The monument viewed from the east

Have you ever been to the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, VA?  The Marine monument to many American soldiers who died during the terrible battle fought on Iwo Jima in 1945 during World War Two, never fails to touch my heart.  Last summer, a group of friends and I went there to paint this famous monument on location.  It was a noble endeavour, considering how complicated the sculpture was!  Because we set up our easels under trees facing the backlit memorial with the view of the DC skyline as the backdrop, we couldn't see the colors well.

I did my best, and after a few hours of hard work, I came home with the almost finished painting.  "Iwo Jima Memorial" was juried into the highly competitive Art League show in June 2011, which made my heart swell with pride.  Well, that was then.  After a year later, a potential customer discovered the painting on my website through the web search.  She came to my house to see it in person, looked at it, made some polite comments, and left.  The incident made me take a hard look at the painting. 

I wondered why there was so much red in it.  It was obviously due to the original orangy toned ground showing through.  As I said, I couldn't figure out the true colors of the base or sculpture while painting, which must have made me compromise in color decisions.  There was no photo to go with the plein-air painting, so last week, I went back to the site to walk around the monument to truly see the colors. 

As it turned out, the granite base had a lot of red in it.  Aha!  That's what pushed the painting toward the reds.  No matter.  In reworking "Iwo Jima Memorial," I decided to push the base toward blue violet.  I introduced more colors and deeper values to the sliver of the background, made the flag brighter, and above all, translated the shadows on the figures into violets.  The reds that still remained became lively, no longer deadening.  I believe the reworked painting is a big improvement on the original state.  What do think?

"Mount Rushmore" (oil on stretched linen, 28" x 32")

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"Mount Rushmore" is the most ambitious and largest oil painting I have ever painted.  A celebration piece, actually, on my becoming American citizen last month.  I even learned how to stretch canvas by watching my teacher Diane Tesler, who did the actual work.  With a teacher like that, one can go far indeed.  Thank you, Diane. 

I had done a miniature painting (6 x 8") of the same subject, which simply did not do justice to the grandeur of Mount Rushmore.  The sculptor Gutzon Borglum had an awe-inspiring vision to carve the likenesses of four great presidents into the mountain itself.  I had the photo of the usual view of this American icon, but chose this view for two reasons.  From this vantage point, one can see only George Washington and Abraham Lincoln--my two heros--fully; Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt can be just glimpsed.  And I wanted to be present a different picture not too many people have seen.

I added  a lot of sky, more than a quarter of the painting, which made the huge sculptures look way up and grand.  Although it is a close-up picture, I wanted the viewer to feel the air between her and the subject.  So I kept the values of the subject light (high-keyed) and introduced the blues of the sky into the rocks.  The V-shaped chasm was painted warmer than the rest of the painting as sort of a divider between Lincoln and the other three presidents.  Originally, he looked so deathly ill that I had to give him more life, so to speak.  I am proud of my endeavors and thankful to the great presidents who created and kept together this country.

"Iwo Jima Memorial" (oil on linen, 11" x 14")

A friend of mine wanted to paint Iwo Jima Memorial.  She went there twice just to draw and several more times to paint it in the course of two weeks.  Impressive!  Tuesday last week I was supposed to meet her there, but somehow missed the exit off Arlington Boulevard and ended up in Washington, DC.  Oops.  Yesterday I followed another friend's car not to get lost again.  I don't know what the story says about me: my stubbornness or poor driving skills.

Anyhow I made it this time and was impressed by the memorial.  I have seen it many times driving by, but never actually visited it to pay my respect to the people who died during the terrible battle fought on Iwo Jima in 1945 during World War Two--20,000 Japanese and many American soldiers as well.  The weather could not have been better after the last several steamy summer days of Washington.  Four of us settled in a shade to paint the view undistrupted.

The biggest challenge of painting "Iwo Jima Memorial", of course, was drawing, since it involved the sculpture of five men.  You don't have much margin of error in drawing human anatomy.  The sculture doesn't move, but the shadows do.  When I started the drawing, the memorial was backlit; by the time I started painting it was sidelit.  This worked in my favor, but the shadow/light shapes had to be adjusted accordingly.

I used to have a tendency of getting into a slight panic mode whenever I painted outside.  The pressure of limited time, the sun's movement, clouds moving in and out, and so on made me hurry and do a sloppy drawing to get going with painting.  Now I usually sit down to paint, which is less tiring to my lower back and somehow inducive to a more calm attitude.  If I nail the drawing at the outset, the painting takes less time and becomes less belabored.  Each brushstroke is deliberate and there isn't much blending going on (or, at least, that is the goal).  Richard Schmid is my saint patron; I read his book, Alla Prima, in rapture.  These days I try to channel his spirit whenever I paint.  I cheated, however, with one thing.  The flag was painted at home from a photo.  Am I bad?

The painting was juried into The Art League show in Alexandria, VA in June, 2011.

"Saintly Garden at Carmel Mission" (oil on linen, 5" x 4") sold

sold

While travelling in California three years ago, I found  this statue of a Franciscan saint at Carmel Mission.  It probably is Father Serra, who died in 1784.  He is gently holding a crucifix in his arms in the midst of a beautiful garden.