Storm Approaching

The dark sky and moving clouds are over the beautiful New Mexico landscape. The storm is approaching. We need to find a shelter to wait for the rain passing by.

Oil on canvas, 9x12

Spring Has Arrived in Texas

When we have good rain in the winter and early spring in Texas, you will see the most beautiful landscape that is covered by blue bonnets in the hill country. This painting of a blue bonnet field is a view in the City Loop by Fredericksburg. City Loop is a famous driving trail for people to enjoy the most scenic pictures of blue bonnets. There are some web sites particularly reporting the blooming status of blue bonnets every year.

Oil on canvas, 9x12

Rose on Guitar

In my birthday party a dear friend of mine, Joyce, gave me 5 dozens of red roses. They were so beautiful and were overflowed from the vase. I set some of them up for various compositions for my still live paintings. Here is one rose placed on my son's guitar. What a lovely subject to paint. Does it give you a romantic feeling?

Oil on canvas board, 8x10

Dance Girls

We watched the dance performance in the Plaza of Santa Fe, NM, on Oct 10, 2009 after finishing our lunch in a nice restaurant. Their beautiful dresses and cute dance moves caught my eyes. Here they are - dancing on the stage with the backdrop of autumn colors. I hope you feel the dance moves from these little cuties. This painting is in exhibition in the "Art for the Holidays" show in New Braunfels Art Gallery - Nov 18, 2009 ~ Jan 2, 2010.
Oil on canvas board, 12x9
SOLD

Season's Greetings!

I started a tradition last year - I would paint a holiday painting each year and give it away to a dear friend or a family member. Last year I painted 2 cute kittens sitting in 2 red buckets (see this one in my blog posted in Jan 2009). I then sent the painting image along with my greeting messages to my friends to wish them a happy holiday season. I've received many complements last year. My dear friend Joe replied: "A great painting, but do a dog next year!" Well Joe, the dog is here now to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year! A lucky someone will receive this painting as a Christmas present from me this year.

12/7/2009 updates...
This cute dog found his home with my dear friends, Chu-li and Joe. Chu-li is a dear friend of mine since college. Our friendship started from the previous generation between my father and her father who served in the same military unit many years ago. She has been my art patron since the beginning of my art journey. Thanks Chu-li and Joe for your lasting friendship.
Oil on canvas board, 10x8, private collection

Near the Taos Ski Valley

We drove to Taos Ski Valley hoping to catch some fall colors as our painting materials. We saw this cute house sitting in the forest by a creek. What a lovely place to enjoy life!. This painting is in exhibition in the "Art for the Holidays (Small Works)" show in New Braunfels Art Gallery - Nov 18, 2009 ~ Jan 2, 2010.
Oil on canvas, 12x9

Autumn Has Arrived

Autumn is my favor season. It reminds me that the end of the year is approaching and the holiday season is around the corner. I love to paint aspens in their autumn colors. It has the most beautiful color values. I painted this one using a photo I took at Jerry Peter's Museum in Senta Fe, NM. I like the warm and cool colors plus the turquoise sky pricking through the aspens.
Oil on canvas board, 9x12

Big Sky, Taos, NM

It was after the rain one morning when we were in Taos, so I decided to paint the big sky of clouds. I painted it by setting up my easel in the garage of the adobe home where we stayed in Arroyo Seco for 6 days. The house, named "Casa Coyote", has 3 bedrooms, one large living room, one big kitchen, and one dinning room, plus big windows that presents us the splendid view of Taos Mountain. It was a lovely place to stay. We had wonderful time in this house and painting trip.

Upon the first night arrival I was so excited to see the darkness around this house. I asked everyone to turn off all the lights in the house. We then went out to the front yard to watch the stars. Oh boy! The skies were full of stars in every square inch. We were so happy to quickly identify the big dipper and the north star. I was so thrilled to see these many stars again. It surely brought back the nice memory of the first time when I saw the sky full of stars in Wu-Lin Mountain Farm in Taiwan that was more than 30 years ago. Well, how time flies and life has changed on me. I've enjoyed every minute of this journey.
Oil on canvas board, 9x12

E.J. Cous House

Four of us artists took a painting trip to Taos, New Mexico in mid October, 2009. We painted in the Cous Museum one morning with Ron Rencher, a famous artist. This painting is a side view of the front entrance of the museum. E.J Cous settled in Taos in 1920's moved from New Year. He was one of the "Taos 7" artists in his time. Burney, the husband of Cous's granddaughter gave us a tour of the museum. We got to visit all the rooms including Cous' studio, workshop, etc. It was amazing to see the original studio setup of an old master. Yeap, he did have a big northern window with lots of lights in his studio.
Oil on canvas board, 8x10

Sunrise at Taroko NP, Taiwan

Taroko National Park is located in the northeast of Taiwan. The scenery of this park is breathtaking consisting of tall cliffs, deep valley, rivers, variety of trees and flowers, and water falls. The sea of clouds as painted here is a frequent scene in the mountain tops that you would see while driving through the famous picturesque East-West Cross Mountain Highway. The sun light is just picking out to warm the earth. What a beautiful thing to paint. I am so happy that I took my son and daughter in law to visit this gorgeous place in Spring 2009.

With this painting I have been voted as the Artist of the Month for January, 2010 in New Braunfels Art League Gallery. It is an honor for me with this recognition. I will have about 10 paintings exhibited in the NBAL Gallery in January 2010.
Oil on canvas, 16x20

Autumn Leaves

Autumn is an exciting time of the year. I enjoy the vibrant colors of fall and feel needing to catch the beautiful moment before winter arrives. This painting was done last year. I rebrushed it recently to modify some colors and edges as I do from time to time with many of my paintings. The gazibo is a famous landmark in New Braunfels, Texas located in the center of the downtown square. I like it to be around a little charming lake surrounded by fall colors.
Oil on canvas board, 16x20

Fall in Denali National Park

A group of us took a land and sea tour to Alaska using Royal Caribbean's tour package in early September 2009. We got to visit the most beautiful Denali National Park that was in the pick of fall colors - red, yellow, purple, blue, and green. We had the breathtaking 360 degree view of the park. My pictures would not do the justice. The park is opened from May through September. I plan to paint a series of Alaska landscapes. Here it is my first one on Denali's fall colors. Yes, the mountain hills were covered by the red fireweeds. They are very red!
Oil on canvas board, 9x12

Sunset Lilies

Yellow in lilies is not a common color. I found these beauties in Hualian, Taiwan. Under the water reflection of sunset, two kois swimming toward the lilies. This painting was done using several photos I took to compose them into one piece of art. It took me a while to come up with this composition. I sketched the draft in pencil a few different compositions and settled with this result. This painting has been juried and accepted in the Artoberfest Fine Art Show in New Braunfels, Texas. The show runs from Oct 3 through Nov 14, 2009.
Oil on canvas board, 12x16

Dream of Lily

Water lilies are one of my favor flowers. Its delicacy, beautiful shapes, and growing in the water always bring me a nice feeling when I see them. This purple lily caught my eyes when we were visiting Hualian in Taiwan in April 2009. It was easy for me to paint the flower, but it took me several revision to come up with the supporting background of leaves and water flow that I am happy with. Here you go the beautiful lilies.
Oil on canvas board, 12x9

Lily Patch

This painting is a corner of a large water lily pond located in Hualian, Taiwan. The water reflection immediately caught my eyes. I like the prominent dark shadow on the left side and a few dancing darks to support the leaves around the canvas. Your eyes would jump among the lilies and the lights on the leaves. It was fun to paint this one since the composition was well formed by the nature. This painting has been juried and accepted in the Artoberfest Fine Art Show in New Braunfels, Texas. The show runs from Oct 3 through Nov 14, 2009.
Oil on canvas board, 11x14

A Young Couple

This young couple are my favor people in the world - Lindsay & Clifford. They both graduated from University of Texas at Austin and received their MBA degrees while working at an energy company in Texas. I painted this one using one of the photos they took in Taiwan last spring. The strong lights and darks plus the color harmony caught my artist eyes for a protrail painting. Both of them are my art critiques. I often asked Lindsay to comment on my paintings. As you know painting someone you know is very challenging. Yea.. they like this one.
Oil on canvas, 20x16

Pink Lilies

It seems that I had an easy time to paint this one. I came up with the composition very quickly and just got it done. It might be that I had the feeling of art at the moment. I like the posture of the big pink lily and the interesting water flow.
Oil on canvas board, 11x14

Mission Valley School Ground

My friends Yaeko and Dan took us around to visit some historical sites in Texas hill country outside San Antonio. Mission Valley School was established in 19th century by German settlers to teacher their children. This was an one-room school with beautiful school ground consisting of many native trees. Now the school is not open any more. This facility is used as a community center for near-by residence and ranchers. This painting shows the picnic ground and walking trail of this historical site.
Oil on canvas board, 9x12

Autumn in Landa Park

Trees turned yellow and orange in the autumn in Texas. I encountered this autumn scene during the Wurstfest Festival in early November. The sky was blue, river reflected with beautiful colors, and ducks were swimming. Landa Park is one of the most beautiful parks in south Texas, located in downtown of New Braunfels.
Oil on canvas board, 16x20

Horse Whispering

Two horses standing in the blue bonnet field - you know this is Texas. These 2 paintings are displaying in the "Texas" show in New Braunfels Art Gallery in July 2009.
Oil on 2 canvases. 12x12

Spanish Door

A Spanish door found in Mexico. Can you tell I painted this one totally with 2 palette knifes? It was a lot of fun in doing it without picking up a brush - I was tempting though.
Oil on canvas board, 10x8

Lilies in Red

We took a trip to Taroko National Park in Taiwan in early April, 2009. These red lilies are blooming in the garden of the 5-star Mei-Lun Hotel where we stayed in the city of HuaLian. This hotel is surrounded by beautiful landscape consisting of a golf course, waterfalls, and a huge meadow. Lilies in red, white, and pink were blooming nicely in the garden. We had a wonderful time exploring the beauty of the national park and the coastal line of east Taiwan. Here I used abstract as the background to support the rich red flowers.
Oil on canvas board, 8x10

Brush up - Bonagna, Italy

It was after the rain at an alley in Bonagna Italy when we arrived in late May 2008. I brushed up the mood in this painting to show the evening sunset and lights reflecting on the building. This painting is currently exhibiting in the "People and Places" show in New Braunfels Art Gallery.
Oil on canvas board, 18x12

Spring in Coburn Ranch

My artist friend, Yaeko, and her husband live on a beautiful ranch in Texas hill country. Deers are their frequent visitors. Here they are - three deers are enjoying the beauty of the land and sun shine.
Oil on canvas board, 12x16

Yellow Roses

Yellow roses of Texas - what a beauty!
Oil on canvas, 11x14