Sleepless City

I seldom paint landscape with such many houses. I found it is rather difficult to do it to paint each little house different, interesting and harmonious. But these type of landscape is most beautiful to me. They are full of human activities, but not totally a too modern metropolitan city. I think I all paint more of it in the future.

Watercolor on paper
Size: 10.5" x 14.5", $60 + $7 S & H

Far and Above and Sale on RedBubble

This is an imaginary image. I like red houses very much. When I saw a beautiful picture of an ice mountain, I thought it would be nice to fit it with a red lovely house. It is complete with a field of lavender.

When you paint landscape like this, it is difficult to take a photo of it in a real place. What I normally do is to compose one from different photos or change colors, lights or mood from an ordinary photo.

I have sold some cards on RedBubble before, but today I got a surprise. I sold a big print of one of my paintings, The Gaze. I am so happy.

Size: 9.5" x 14", $60 + $7 S & H

Lily Pond

I am trying to paint this lily pond with a loose style. To make it more interesting, I added some oriental structure on the right top with acrylics. But it turned out not like what I expected. I think it is better to be cropped as in the above. Let me know if you like the original one which is listed below. The price is the same.

Watercolor on paper,
Size: 4.5" x 7", $15 + $3

Yellow Bird, Singapore Zoo and Bottle Tree Village Sea Food Market

Yesterday Sunday was a very fruitful day for me. I painted this lovely yellow bird, brought my baby to visit the Singapore Zoological Garden and went to a great sea food market "Bottle Tree Village Sea Food Market" introduced by my friend.

The interesting thing about painting this bird is that I used ivory black for background and the bird wings. I remember people say that black should not be used in watercolor painting. I seldom use it as well. But today I found that it is very nice to be used here.

With a baby that is getting more and more understanding of the world, I think the best place for us to go in Singapore is the Singapore Zoo. I was thinking of visiting it several weeks ago and was put off because of the hot weather. Today, it was quite cool and I just couldn't wait to bring my daughter there.

The best thing about the zoo is that you feel it is a huge garden. You are welcomed by the many types of exotic animals in a natural environment. Almost all the animals are not caged and visitors are protected by nature barriers such as water or raised walk paths. It is very artistically designed such as when it introduces animals of certain country, it also displays the beautiful artifacts from the country nearby.

It is very big and has children playground, where a new one is being built with interesting features coming along.

My baby is so happy during the whole trip.

I also caught some very exotic plants and scenery. Maybe they can be used in my paintings.

My friend introduced me the Bottle Tree Village Sea Food Market for its fresh live sea food. The place is on the way home from the Zoo. So we went there and bought some live yummy prawn and crabs. You can image how delicious our dinner was.

Watercolor on paper
Size: 6.5" x 9", $40 + $5

Blue Poppy

I have this beautiful tube of turquoise and seldom have chances to use it. Today it is finally used in this beautiful blue poppy. I see many pink and red poppies and seldom see blue one. I love this color.

Watercolor on paper
Size: 6.5" x 9", $40 + $5 S & H

Sunset and Maple Leaves

I finished the sunset. I found that when using dark colors, acrylic tends to dry much darker than it should be. The bright part near the sun is not brighter enough after it gets dried. I am not planning to sell it.

I saw a beautiful photo of maple leaf and just want to paint it. This is a small section from the photo. For some part of the light, I use clear water and scrub it. Also, it is such a pleasure to use spattering here with dirty paints.

Tile: Maple Leaves
Watercolor on paper
size: 6.5" x 9, $35 + $5 S & H

Near the Pond and Sunset

I like green, white and black combination. It is so cooling in this hot summer time. By the way, it is summer all the time in Singapore. In this case, the colors are specially lovely to me.

Comparing to acrylic painting, watercolor painting is so much neat. You don't need to worry about your paints are drying in your plate. It is so easy to wash off the paints.

Today is a productive day. I talked to a long lost friend through phone and did another painting. I just found this friend yesterday. We talked for a very long time and I am so happy.

I am using a hairdryer to dry the watercolor painting while adding different layers. This allows me to paint quickly. I am able to do part of another painting in Acrylic "Sunset". Initially I was trying also to use watercolor, but I was worried that the color may get muddy for the sky. It has so much different colors and so rich. I should try it next time to challenge myself.

Title: Near the Pond
Watercolor on paper
size: 6.5" x 9", $40 + $5 S & H

Title: Sunset (Work in Progress)
Acrylic on watercolor paper
Size: 16" x 18"

Last Glory and My Baby's First Step

I picked up my watercolor again. I love this medium. It allows you to create brilliant colors with dreamy effect. Just be careful that you don't overwork with it. Use enough amount of color and water. Every brush must be certain. There is not much room for error.

I am so happy these days that my baby reaches another very important milestone. She starts to walk now. I found that the interesting thing is that she also knows that this is really different and important for her. She is so excited and claps her hands every time she succeeds in walking. She really brings so much joy to our life.

Title: Last Glory A Maple Leaf
Watercolor on paper
Size: 6.5" x 9", $32 + $5 S & H

Sunset

I am trying to develop something that is beautiful and touching, not only pretty and cute. I think I concentrated too much before on pretty and cute things. I love pretty and cute things, but at this moment, I want to produce grand paintings.

Acrylic on stretched canvas, sides are painted, ready to hang

Size: 9.5" x 12", $50 + $9 S & H

Me and Nature - Mischievous and Passionate

I painted this girl. It is another "Me and Nature" acrylic painting. I'd call this one Mischievous and Passionate girl. The other one , I'd call it "Sophisticated and Loving" girl.

I love the effect of painting. The strokes of paints are beautiful!

Size: 18" x 23.5", $450 + $50 S & H

Daugter of Nature and Christmas in July Sale

This is another version of the "Me and Nature" design with some colors added. I am thinking of painting this one tomorrow. I am looking forward to see how it goes with the painting. If you paint well, the paints will add more texture and richness of the colors in it.

The VAST in Esty has a Christmas in July Sale going on. I also have some items for sale that are at 20% off. Please do visit it.

Size: 8.5" x 11", image size is about 8" x 10", $18 + $5 S & H

Sunflower

I manage to finish the painting early today. I may still modify here and there a bit when I examine it in the next couple of days.

Acrylic on Stretched Canvas,

Size: 16" x 20", $190 + $40

Sunflower (Work in Progress)

I have painted the same sunflower in watercolor before. I painted two, one large and one small.

I thought I may try to paint it in a canvas to see how it goes. I haven't paint in a loose way for a long time and am so excited to do it in this painting.

Today I managed only to finish the first layer of Acrylics.

Size: 16" x 20"

Me and Nature 2

Come back to the digital art again. This is a simple design of second Me and Nature. The background is created from a rusty boat image.

One of my friends showed me many of his beautiful PS created art. I admire his way of creating background texture. He collects those texture whenever seeing anything interesting such as rain drops in window and a ruined wall. I think I also should carry my camera all the time.

I am wondering what will look like when I paint it.

Print on heavy archival paper.

Size: 8.5" x 11.5", image size is about 8" x 10", $18 + $5 S & H

Me and Nature - Sophisticated and Loving

This is the final of the piece. I modified a bit of the girl's hand to be more energetic. I also modified the color of her cloth to turn down a bit.

Acrylic on Stretched Canvas,
size: 18 x 23.5, $450 + $60 S & H

Me and Nature

I continued work on the painting. I found the hand gesture of the girl is not so warm and changed it to the current one.

I need to put it aside for a while and look at it next time to see if I need to change anything. When you worked intensively on it, you tend to loose a correct judgment on the painting. You have to look at something else for a while to find problem with the painting.

The artist I like very much Shirley Trevena said that if your eye always drawn to a part of a painting, the part must have something wrong. You need to do something with it. I think it is very right.

Acrylic on Stretched Canvas,
Size: 18 x 23.5

Me and Nature + My New Site

I got to settle down to paint the Girl and Flower Design. This is the first time I painted on a big canvas of 18 x 23.5 since last time that it was several months ago. Somehow the colors of the photo are not the same as the actual painting. The actual one looks more pleasant.

It is difficult to sell painting of big size. I was trying very hard to sell my painting before and now I feel that I should try harder to get my skill up and paint more.

I also tidied up my another web site . I like to assemble all the good ones that I have produced so far to assess them and try to gauge what I should do next. It is a good exercise for me.

All Round

I used the round object this time for the same design from yesterday's one. It looks interesting. I like the effect that the lines and round objects give.

Print size: 8.5" x 11", image size: 8"x 10", $18 +$5 S & H

Girl and Flower 2

This is the second design of the girl and flower. I am not sure when I will paint them. But for the moment, I will put these illustration for sale in my store.

Print size: 8.5" x 11", image size: 8" x 10", $18 + $5 S & H

Girl and Flower

I bought three long canvas yesterday. I am planning to paint three ladies and flowers. This is the idea of the first one in illustration.

Print offered on heavy archival paper

Size: 8.5" x 11", image size: 8" x 10" + $5 S & H