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Hot summer days

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I have been painting on this spot for a few years but I have never painted this white building.  The contrast between the white building and its dark large windows is attractive to me.  I decided to put the white house as a central theme and simplified the surrounding by carefully choosing shapes.  The space is cluttered with many diagonals from other buildings, I selected only a few diagonals to counteract with horizontal and vertical lines.  I worked on the drawing for a few hours yesterday and lay down basic color scheme.

Today I realized morning’s light is exactly the opposite from the afternoon light.  I enjoyed the morning light better so the painting is adjusted accordingly.  However, I was not able to paint for more than a few hours today, the sun is brutal.   I am planning to revisit this painting soon, this one has some potential.

Image published on August 16, 2015 | | Leave a response

June Trial and Error

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Quiet and cloudy Saturday afternoon was a perfect setting to rework on this painting from 2 months ago.  The composition still seemed unresolved so I decided to make the building smaller and change some of the perspective to create more surrounding space.

Although I still paint on site, I am no longer faithfully copying what I see.  This creates its own set of challenges which I don’t always have answers for.  It’s a process of trial and error.  Looking at the progression from April and June side by side, there has been quite a few minor changes in effort to make it more interesting.

In April’s painting, the yellow building on the right hand corner seemed like a dead space.  Although I have tried changing it to a few different shades of yellow and gray, it seemed too bland.  Finally, it ended up with a shade of red brick color which compliments other dark and earthy colored buildings.

I also moved my painting easel’s position a few feet to the right which showed a narrower and an angular perspective of the alley.   It also inspired me to change the left hand side building into a slightly angled perspective to echo the subtle angles of the alleyway.  This created a new dynamic in the painting.  However it also raised other questions on the surrounding shapes for eg. shape for the shadow on the ground.  I ended up extending the angle of the building to the shadow.  These are minor choices but the choice you must make as those answers are not in a plain sight.  Ultimately more decision making in the process lead to more identity of the artist in the work.

I am very happy with this direction for my work and I am looking forward to revisiting Northampton to complete this work.

Image published on June 28, 2015 | | Leave a response

Day before Easter

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After painting for a few hours in the morning, I realize this painting  is not getting anymore interesting.  It is still missing something.  However, cloud and sun in the mid afternoon created a very interesting contrast of light and dark between the buildings.  It is moody and different from the morning light.  I am getting inspired.

For the past few years, I have been more focused on artist like Stuart Davis, Egon Schiele, Georges Braque, Piet Mondrian to get inspiration to simplify and to break down space and lines which comes easily to architectural work.   However today it seems I needed to add something else.    I have always admired moody and poetic work from Albert Pinkham Ryder and El Greco.  Their work seem to be very fitting for what I need to learn today.  I looked into “View of Toledo”  from El Greco for more inspiration.  It was done more than 500 years ago, it contains the power to evoke a certain mood and atmosphere.

I still struggle a bit to create the dark mood, the color became muddy and brownish but it is on the right track.  I plan to revisit this soon.

Image published on April 5, 2015 | | Leave a response

Spring is here – 2015

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This little alley in Northampton used to be my favorite place for painting and yet I realized have not painted it for a little while. I decided to revisit the place yesterday. Although it was raining and snowing, I spend some time drawing. Today’s weather is the perfect spring day I have seen since last few weekends. It was warm enough to paint from the car. Here is the progress I have made so far.

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Image published on March 29, 2015 | | Leave a response

New Work – Upcoming Show at Galatea Fine Arts

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I have an upcoming solo show this May at Galatea Fine Art in Boston, from May 1 to May 31. The opening reception is scheduled for Friday May 1, 6-8 pm.

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Image published on March 22, 2015 | | Leave a response

One Chimney

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Yesterday finally felt like Spring has arrived.  Between the sun and a few scattered showers, I spend some time drawing and painting.  Although I have always avoided painting this plain white building, convergence of two buildings into it seemed interesting.  None of the windows in this building caught my attention.  However, I added only one window from other building that echoes the surrounding shapes.  The chimney provided minor curves and a dark shape in the midst of rectangles, lines and muted atmosphere.  Looking back today, it may have been an unnecessary distraction.  Lets see what else can be removed next time around.

 

Image published on March 16, 2014 | | Leave a response

Warm February 2014

View from a Parking Lot

View from a Parking Lot

It was a warm and sunny February afternoon. I was happy to be painting in Northampton again. Revisiting a painting from a month ago, the sky seemed too dark. It was not working with the overall surroundings. After adding some light on the top, the dark sky morphed into a dark shape in the background. The door was moved more to the right until it was removed completely except for a few lines as a reminder. After a few hours of work, I realized this painting might not get any better. It is finished.

It is sometimes fun to see how a painting changed and evolved.  Here are 4 progress stages from different days of December last year and the final painting yesterday.

Image published on February 23, 2014 | | Leave a response

February Opening

January Snow, 2011

January Snow, 2011

Treasures Large & Small, Group show
Zullo Gallery
February 8 – March 23 2014
Reception: THURSDAY March 6, 5:30-7pm
456A Main Street Medfield, MA
hours: 12-5 Saturday & Sunday

Image published on February 16, 2014 | | Leave a response

Little more Texture

 

There were 3 major structures that did not seem to fit in this painting. The yellow wall divided the house into 3  similar horizontals. There were no other shapes echoing or complimenting a big triangle roof of a middle house. The blue house on the left is a dead space, not very useful. These all have been removed or cropped.

Paints in my palette were drier than usual. Instead of making a fresh color palette, I started using the drier paints. It was harder to apply and I had to extensively use a knife.  I usually smooth out the texture created by the knife.  This time however, I loved the texture from dried paint crumbs. From this experience, I am planning to explore texture  for future work.

Image published on February 9, 2014 | | Leave a response

First painting of 2014

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The shape and the color of the boat looked abstract from certain angle. Although, I have always avoided using cerulean or turquoise blue, with a big dark blue shape and a line of red next to it, it looked appealing. I tried to keep the abstraction of the shapes that drew me to this composition. This has been a good start for a beginning of new year.

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Image published on January 12, 2014 | | Leave a response