Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Montmartre at sunset


Oil on canvas, 18x24

It's in front of the lovely "La Maison Rose". We had dinner there. Montmartre is overrun by tourists now of course, but turn away from the crowds, and walk downhill a couple blocks, you enter a relatively quiet neighborhood. Sitting on the corner is la Maison Rose, a pink house (restaurant) with outdoor seating. Parisians love to sit outside!

Snails, anyone?

I love snails. Ah, only remembered to snap a shot after they were gone...


Duck confit with pasta. Yummy!


Nice evening. The sun sets so late! Like 10:30 pm!

Everyone who has been to Paris has felt her magic. I cannot begin to describe her beauty. Just trying to capture something on canvas, one by one. I came back only a couple of days ago, and I want to go back there already.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Paris!

I'm leaving for Paris for a week. Will visit the Louvre for the first time! I don't think I'll be able to paint but I'm taking my sketchbook. Don't have a new painting to post but this simple imagined landscape I did a while ago...



Au revoir!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Figure study



One figure study from Robert Liberace's class. This one turned out better. He liked the face the best, and said the handling on the body is a little heavy.

This is very different from how I usually paint. He places more emphasis on drawing, values, and anatomy. Otherwise I will go crazy with colors! But in order to learn one has to forgo her usual way--at least for a while! Plus it's always good to try different approaches.

I enjoyed painting figure after a long period of painting landscapes and still-lifes. I would like to do more.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Mountain Maryland Plein Air

Just came back from Cumberland in Allegany County, Maryland. The second annual Mountain Maryland Plein Air Competition is organized by Allegany Arts Council. I won third place!

These are my works:


Old train station. 11x14. This one won me the prize.


Judy Miller farm. 11x14. I like this farm painting. Only the above two were put in for judging.


Mountain road. 11x14. This is the first painting I did after arriving in Cumberland.


View from Dan's Rock. 12x16.


Looking up Washington St. 16x12.


Train tracks. 16x12.


Cumberland morning. 12x9. Done in Quick Draw.

This competition is a little more relaxing than the last one in Wayne, and the mountain scenes are inspiring (the cloud formations in the mountains are fantastic). Cumberland itself also offers many interesting motifs such as historic buildings, old railroads, churches with steeples perched on a hill, etc. It helps if you have a lot of good subjects to paint! We only needed to paint two and a half days and turn in two best paintings for showing and judging. And the next day, Saturday morning, was a two-hour quick draw.

Now for the inner journalist in me, I have to report the whole event.

Best of Show winner: Stewart White.


First place winner: Tim Bell.


Second place winner: Lisa Egali.


Honorable mentions:

Edward Cooper


Barara Nuss


There are a couple other honorable mentions but I didn't get the names and the photos of the paintings...

Another watercolor of Stewart White I really like:


Another Ed Copper's painting I like:


Also Haiou's paintings:




She sold both paintings. She's getting more and more loose and colorful! Very free. Works on large canvases too.

Lee Boynton was the judge. It was nice to see him. I took his class and joined quite a few paint-out lessons with him and he is such an enthusiastic teacher. He is the founder or one of the founders for so many good things happening in this region like Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association, Plein Air Easton, and Paint Annapolis.

I did not expect to win anything. I was hoping to maybe sell a painting or two. In the end, I didn't sell but won a prize. It always feels good to win but the joy of winning did not last too long this time--mostly because I've seen there are so many good painters out there and know that I have much to learn. This is an exciting journey--the road to artistic excellence, and one that seems endless, which makes it even more intriguing.

More Quick Draw paintings:

First place by Stewart White.


Second place, David Diaz. Sorry I don't have a photo of his painting...

Third place, Linda Kirvan. Way to go, Linda!


Tim Bell's Quick Draw painting.


I like this big train painting. Done by a 22-year-old!


One other thing: I virtually became a red-neck after a one-day painting because I forgot to put sunblock on my neck and the T-shirt I wore that day happened to have a wider opening. I guess the sun is more intense in the mountains due to the elevation. Mental note: Wear sunscreen--everywhere!--and buy umbrellas.