Airports Suck

I left the house at 1:30AM, my mom and grandma drove me to the Appleton airport to board the plane at 5:30AM, apparently you need to check-in 3 hours early for an international flight.
I almost missed my second flight because the first plane was late taking off and we ended up waiting (flying in circles) for another plane to land before us. The sunrise was beautiful though.
Atlanta airport was hellishly huge. I got lucky and noticed a subway type thing that just happened to be going to my gate, yes, the airport is actually so big they need a train (subway?) to get you from one end to the other fast enough. By some insane chance, the gate I landed at was at one end of the airport and the gate I needed to get to was completely at the opposite end of the airport and... only 20 minutes to check-in to my next flight.

However I did check-in with about 5min left. I was next to the-guy-that-talks-to-much and the crying baby but almost everyone was speaking Chinese so I was still happy.
14 hours on a plane didn't sound so bad somehow when I read it, now I never want to get on a plane again.
It wasn't even the sheer boredom, so much as the fact that I think I started to lose feeling in my legs after about 8 hours, and the fact that I still had 6 more hours to go made me want to cry (I didn't.)
I tried to sleep but only succeeded in actually falling asleep for about a total of 2 hours and only about 30min each time. Next time I'll bring more of my own food, I had changed my meals to vegetarian which ended up being totally ridiculous because all they did was take out the meat, no protein added. No wonder I was so tired!

Finally we landed. Pu Dong airport was surprisingly easy to get though even though it was mostly in Chinese, it was also beautiful, they had hanging plants all over. My luggage was the very last to come out.

I got out of the airport and it was very hot and humid, but at the end of the exit line was Wu Zheng Ping waiting and smiling.

*picture Pudong airport, which is gorgeous.

Opening at the UU Gallery

My show at the UU gallery will be hung on September 30th and the public is invited to an opening reception, with refreshments, on October 5. The reception will follow services at 11-12:30 a.m. Additional Gallery hours are on Mondays, 1-3 p.m., at 10341, Hwy. 42, Ephraim. For more information call 839-2606.

PAS opening

The opening at PAS went very well!
I am not completely sure how many people came but the turn out was great. Thanks to everyone that was able to come!
A majority of the artists came to help set up the show.
We spent three days "transforming" the youth barn (where they hold the children's classes,) into a presentable gallery space.
Here are the pictures I took after the opening ended.

Liang Zhu

Here is something I sketched after hearing a great piece of classical music, which I liked enough to find more about it.


I wanted to know more about the composer so I looked online and I found a really great old Chinese story (of course) which is what inspired the music I liked so much. I swear nothing ever happens at random.
Its the story of Liang Shanbo & Zhu Yingtai, or "the butterfly lovers". If you want to read the story here is a link to the wikipedia page:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_Lovers
Maybe a painting next?

"12 Under 30"

Opening reception August 22, 5-7:30PM @ the Peninsula Art School (youth barn)

	3900 County Rd F
	Fish Creek, WI.

I will have a number of paintings in the show along with 11 other artists.
There is also an article in the Friday edition of the Peninsula Pulse about the show. You can read this online at the Peninsula Pulse website: http://www.ppulse.com/Articles-c-2008-08-12-79227.113117_12_Artists_Under_30_on_Exhibit_at_Peninsula_School_of_Art.html

I have no idea what to name this..

My newest painting.

I now know that the opening for the show at the Peninsula Art School is on August 22 at 5PM.

Demo

I decided to do a demo of my latest painting, so I took pictures at random intervals while painting. Far too many people have asked me to do this, so here it is.

(click the image to see a larger version)



This is really rough, normally I don't think so much about the actual process I just start doing what I always do, which would be...

1. Start with a SIMPLE drawing (no eye balls, nostrils, fingers, toes, etc, etc.) and block in your darks. The darks should be done first so they are thiner and have a more transparent quality. (They will also be less muddy this way.) I don't ever use white in the darks, you end up with non-transparent darks and mud.

2. With a large brush add some of the back round mainly around the figure so it ends up thicker than the rest of the back round, that adds interest to the area you want people to look at most (in this case the girls face) Don't blend! ever!

3. Add the middle tones and more of the back round. Keep it simple and blocky, don't blend at all, just keep the values close and its will look softer. The middle tones will almost always have more color in them than any other place, because the lights are bleached and the darks absorb light (no light, no color.)

4. Work on the edges and lighter middle tones. You should always be working on edges but its easier after you have more paint on the canvas. Keep it simple, don't blend!!! You should still have blocky obvious transitions at this point.

5. I have added some lighter tones to make sure my values are correct, not every one will tell you to do this mainly because your more likely to get muddy lights areas. I also added the few "pure" black spots. More back round work, edges. At this point you can start to use smaller brushes, keep its big as long as possible, its easier to make corrections and see mistakes.

6. The rest of the middle tones, edges, back round, the middle tones of areas like the eyes and under the nose.

7. Finally, add the last touches like the darks around and in the eyes, more middle finishing tones, and unresolved edges. This is also when I normally add any sharp edges around the main area of interest.

(If you still want to see a bigger version I can email you the original photo, but be warned its huge and may take a while to download depending on the speed of your internet.)
My email is Soirsce@gmail.com

old painting

I just found a painting I did when I was either 13 or 14 in a class with Craig Blietz.
I thought I would share it.

Roses

I'm on a roll with the flower studies I think. Here is my newest, Roses.

My show at the Unitarian church is apparently set for September.

Dragonfly

This is a thumbnail of my dragonfly painting. I might work some more on it... maybe. (The quality of the photo is not that great) >_<

Art show at PAS?

My studio at my dad's house is all set up and running!

I'm starting the first "serious" painting of the summer (of a dragonfly.)
I'm also working with Julia B. on getting a show in the Unitarian church gallery, no solid dates yet, (October or November?) Hopefully I'll still be here when it opens (as opposed to in China.)

I'm studying Chinese as much as I can (after work, before work, my days off while painting.) Some good news is I took a test the other day (Chinese language) and I scored as "intermediate", I've been stuck on "elementary" for way too long.

Zaijian~

Hardy Gallery's 46th Annual Juried Exhibit

The painting I submitted to the Hardy Gallery's 46th Annual Juried Exhibit was not only juried into the show but also won a Jurors award!