Long pose drawing

The best thing about exhibiting my art at Gallery Soho is discovering Joseph Todorovitch's studio right upstairs. What is even better about the discovery is an opportunity to be one of his students in his 10-week long pose drawing class. The drawing above is my work from tonight's class, which was the third class.

The class is full of very talented artist, but I think I am doing ok among them. This surprises me because... I have been primary a "landscape" painter. I really haven't work on my drawing skills as much as I should, and although I did have some training in figure drawing, it was 10 years ago already. Needless to say that my skills are beyond rustic now, and I went in to Joseph's class as a total beginner, basically. However, Joseph Todorovitch's is an amazing artist and I am truly thrill to have an opportunity to learn from him, so it is my goal to improve as much as I can during this 10-week long class.

Red Barn plein air painting

There's this red barn in the neighborhood. I pass by it quite often and always wondered about the possibility of doing a plein air painting there. But, it's off of a rather busy street, and I worried about the attention I might get from passerby traffic if I set up my easel there.

One day, I got an email from Lisa. She said a couple of her students wants to paint the red barn (yes!), and asked if I would be interested in joining the group? I said "yes" right away. With some companions, I would be less afraid of attention.

Lisa even contacted the owner of the barn, who was so excited about artists coming to paint his barn that he said he would let a few horses out on our paint out day. Well, her other students cancelled the last minute, leaving Lisa and I with a gorgeous day out on the barn property all by ourselves. There are some out buildings next to the barn. For compositional reasons, I chose to omit them. I also moved the Eucalyptus trees closer to the barn for design reasons.

Getting started now. I decided on a vertical composition. Here's a shot of my very initial step of laying down my drawing on a toned canvas panel, and blocking in big shapes.

Making progress. Most lights and darks were laid in. The actual dirt path was straight, but I curved it around for compositional reasons, so that I lead viewer's eyes into the painting with that dirt path. I had also simplified the trees behind the barn, and replaced rotten chain link fencing with wood fence. Since we set up our easels right next to the street, and there was a stop sign right behind us, yes, we did get a lot of attention. Each time I turned around, I saw drivers looking at us. Eventually one van stopped, a lady walked out to check us out. She said she drove pass by twice to see us paint. :) Tada! Here's the finished painting! Not perfect, but good enough for a plein air beginner to share on her blog. I call this one "Seeing Red". It's 9" x 12", oil on canvas panel.

Pansies

So, I completely neglected this blog for too long. Or maybe I should say that I haven't even developed it yet, but I have two excuses -- 1. Life is too busy. 2. My computer was too slow.

Well, now I fixed #2, so while life continues to be busy, here's me showing one of my newer paintings. It's a group of pansies. I always find them so lovely to look at! This piece is 20" x 16", oil on canvas, titled "Chorus". It was part of my little show at Coffee Gallery last year. It then went on to Gallery SoHo in Pomona for a few months, and now it's back home.

Truth is, while I seem dormant on this blog, I've been very active painting. I was in 8 art shows in 2010, including a solo show and an overseas show, and won a few awards as well. And now in 2011, I have 4 shows lined up, including one that I am co-curating. Very exciting.

Solo show at Coffee Gallery

I've been thinking about creating a blog for my art for a while now, but could never put my ideas into action because I've simply been too busy. But, with my solo show at Coffee Gallery, I figure it's time to create an online presence for my art. After all, this is my first solo show since 1997 so there are reasons to be excited.

The story began in September of last year, when I saw a "call for artist entries" advertisement online. Coffee Galley Altadena was looking for artists to show their art in their main room and conference room for 2010 -- each month there would be one artist showing in the main room, and another showing in the conference room. I looked at the ad and thought ... hm... this is local, maybe I should give it a try. So I did, and I got selected to show there for June this year (conference room) and March of 2011 (main room). I was so excited! Thanks to the curator, Kathy Cavellas, for selecting me!

So I got to work immediately after a group show in Taiwan with an artist association I am part of, and by end of May, I had created 7 new oil paintings to hang in the conference room. Although the space is small, I am quite happy with how the show looks. Here's a link on ArtSlant about the show.

I like the intimacy of the conference room. I believe that in an alternative setting such as this, sometimes a viewer can engage with my art more than if they were to see it in a traditional gallery setting. Although this show is small, it is a starting point to something bigger.

If you are interested in seeing the show, Coffee Gallery is located at 2029 N. Lake Ave, Altadena, CA 91001. They are open daily till 10pm.