A new life for my old art

When I was in art school, I majored in print making. I had stacks of hand pull prints from that period; some are etchings but mostly are silk screen prints. I never sold any of them and no one has seen them since I graduated from art school. I just treat them as part of my ever expanding works. I had no intention of discarding them so they came with me for all my moves. Finally, last year, I started to remake them to my current art. At first, I used them for paper sculptures and cards
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Yesterday, I found this one which I had already cut into narrow strip among some of my old works. The piece is 5”x17” with a dark brown and blues.

 

Right away I see the blue area in the print looks like a koi swimming in the pond. I turned it into a paper cut which took almost a whole day to finish. The first one is the original print before and the one below is the finished piece.

 

 

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A day in the life of a doggie

The long winter is finally over, my Starbucks Doggie felt it was safe to venture outside without his heavy winter coat this afternoon.
At first, he wanted to stop and smell the spring flowers which just freshly open, he carefully tip toe among them and glad they had survived the winter snow.

He was over-joy with the warmer weather, he jump with such joy almost  to the top of the tree. He jump up so high almost as high as the CN Tower.

After he settle down, he went to the St. George the Martyr Anglican Church at the end of John Street He marvel at the old tower which has remain still after the big fire at 195.5.

 

As he walk along John street he kept running into his neighbors and they all greet him with warm smile. He couldn’t help but took some selfie with the CN Tower.

 

Fuzzy melons watercolor with papercut

 

Every year my mother grows the fuzzy melons in our garden. The “fuzzy melon” name likely came from the silvery fine hair on the young melons. Fuzzy melon also called, wax gourd, white gourd, winter ground, Chinese preserving melon, is a vine grown for its very large melon eaten as a vegetable when mature. The immature melon has thick white flesh that is sweet when eaten. When mature the melon loses its hairs and develops a waxy coating, giving rise to the name wax gourd, and providing a long shelf life. After harvest she would keep them in our basement and would kept well for months. The melon may grow as large as 80 cm in length.
Fuzzy melons, watercolor with paper cut on Arches 90lb rough paper 22”x28”

How Easter lily came to North America

I love Easter lily; the trumpet shape white blossom is one of the most gorgeous flowers. Every year when they are in bloom I wanted to capture it with my paints and brushes. Few years ago, I read an article …

Starbucks bunny with her Easter egg

Our bunny found not one but two Easter eggs, one is chocolate!

Happy Easter to all!

(I made this bunny with the Starbucks holiday cups and the background is one of my watercolors.)

 

Making art day and night

Lately, most of my day times are devoted to my commissioned paintings. I haven’t done any of my own work. Every evening when I going home I am feeling something is missing. I knew what I missed was not able to paint for myself.
Later, I thought why not spent the evening after supper to work on my own painting? I started to work on it, after supper before I go to bed which give me about two and half hours each night.
After many evenings later here is my result, a watercolor and paper cut. It is one of the most intricate and largest one of the watercolor with paper cut I done so far. It is 32”x22”. I think with less time each evening actually helped me to focus on the intricate details. Now I am thinking the next one already!
Making

Commission painting for a dream client

 

Although I done many commissioned paintings but still I find it far more difficult than painting for myself. In most cases, the clients just gave me a subject and let me do whatever I like but I still worry I might not producing what they expecting.
Recently, all my paintings are commissioned works. While working on one and I already have another in the waiting.
This one is a watercolor of a hydrangea; the client instruction was he wife loves the “blushing bride” hydrangea.( hydrangea with soft pink color). This is my second commissioned paintings for this client, although we never meet somehow we became friend through emails. He is such a dream client not only he sent me the full amount in advance, he insisted to pay me more than I asked. As soon as I finished the painting, I email the image to him and received a very positive respond from him and his wife. He then told me it was the gift to him wife for their 40th wedding anniversary! I was relived not only they love it also thankful he did not tell me the reason before hand otherwise it would more stressful for me.
Today, I discovered he sent me another $150 via pay pal!

Sweet almond soup

 

Most of the western meals end with desert such as cake or pastry however at the end of a Chinese meal; a hot soup desert is served. Tong Sui literally translated as “sugar water” There are many of the sweet soups such as tofu custard, red bean soup, always serve either hot or warm in a small soup bowl.
At my dinner for my mother’s birthday, our sweet soup was sweet almond soup 杏仁西米露 which was make with almond power, rice, milk, rice and sugar

Mother’s birthday dinner

Yesterday was my mother’s 82 birthdays. Although her birthday was last month but she insists it was not her real birthday as she only goes by the Chinese calendar birthday. I went home early so I could go out to dinner with her. It was raining heavy but inside the restaurant was busy with dinners already.
We ordered three dishes between two of us plus the house soup and desert. Each of us ordered something we love, mother ordered her usual, the Palace pork and I ordered the mixed seafood in the bird nest and a spicy eggplant with tofu.
The seafood in the bird nest is a Cantonese dish and the nest actually made of edibles, fried shredded taro as the container for the seafood and vegetable. The basket- like nest is filled with scallops, shrimps, fish, calamari, mushrooms and mixed vegetable.
It was way too much food for two of us and at the end it came with my favours sweet almond soup。We end up took the left over home, more to enjoy later!.

Moving my Paintings on the Public Transit

I never learn to drive and live in the city, I use the public transit everywhere. Whenever I decide on a show to exhibit my art, public transit is part of my consideration. I avoid all those shows too far or too difficult to get to.
Two of my watercolor paper cut paintings was accepted into the OCADU (Ontario of Art and Design University) Alumni Exhibition at the Gladstone hotel. One of the reasons I enter was the location was easy for me to get there with my framed paintings. There is a streetcar stop just steps from my studio which would take me right in front of the hotel.

Mid morning the traffic was light and there was plenty of empty seats on the streetcar, fifteen minutes later, I was right in front of the hotel.
I was given a catalogue of the show; When I checked on the list of artists and was surprised none of the people from my graduating year was in. I don’t know any of the artists in the show!