"Wuzhen Street 1 (Day 2)"

The second day went well. Now the painting look like this. I am not far from finishing it. On the foundation of yesterday's value design, I added more color. I put more designs on opacity and temperature. The warm and cool are very similar to what I did with the dual light source still lives before this project. In addition I want parts of the painting remain transparent and other parts I painted opaque. After establishing all those painting elements. I went further for more geometric design, which is balance of 2D shapes, lines, and dots. I did not add much details to make the painting more realistic. The only realistic part of the this painting is that I want to make sure the perspective is correct. That is it. Other part of the painting, I want to leave it to the viewers to figure out what is going on. I am not very sure what I should do tomorrow. Maybe enhance the color a little more.

ISABEL MARANT PRE-FALL 2014 - 2015

Isabel Marant is a designer from Paris, who has her own business since 1994, has become a real style icon for us. "Championing relaxed off-duty fashion with a romantic bohemian edge, Marant's luxury sweatshirts, perfectly cut bomber jackets and sell-out wedge trainers have become the ultimate cool-girl staples". And we totally agree with it. In this collection you see these different styles that together form one style. This particular mix is the new trend in fall 2014/2015.

Photography Josh Olins

Via Studded Hearts

Adieu…saying goodbye

Disney Color Key

This is one of more than 300 color keys I painted for Disney's The Pirate Fairy.

"Wuzhen Street 1 (Day 1)"

This could have been an old news that my painting "Morning in Zhouzhuang" had won the "Impressionist Honorable Mention Award" from this year's Oil Painters of America National Juried Exhibition. I felt very fortunate and honored of receiving awards from last 3 consecutive years' OPA Nationals. I felt specially happy that I am no longer confined to the "still life" genre. I want to explore more on cityscapes, and figurative paintings. Today I have started three 12" x 16" paintings simultaneously. The image showing here is the value design of one of them. I am going to spend a few days working on these paintings. So please ride on and see how they go.

Photo suite 130 -- livestock of the British Isles

Home made yogurt

"Shining in Warm and Cool 2"

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I did another two-light-source painting. How we light the still life setup is a very important part of the design. It has happened so many times in my workshops during still life setting up time, students only pay attention on how to group objects together, but completely ignore how the illumination should be. This painting and the previous one are typical examples showing how the light becomes the major player of a still life painting.

Sign of the week

Thank you!

The block in question that I asked about yesterday is King's Cross or King's X.



And I sewed one up to show you (and my readers) what it looks like.

Thanks to everybody who responded!

"Shining in Warm and Cool"

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Back to Austin for three days, my art keeps on going. I did this painting yesterday as a demo for my Austin mentoring group showing how I paint metal. There were two light sources: one warm source from a halogen spot light on the left, and natural light from the right. I think I did light distribution "correctly" on pewter pot, but I can't explain why I did the light on the bottle "incorrectly". I used so called "artistic license" for that.

"Great Smoky Mountains"

After visiting Biltmore and Asheville, I followed the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It was an amazingly beautiful drive. On and off, I drove through the clouds. I felt so blessed traveling to such wonderful place.

Charcoal on toned Strathmore paper.

“Biltmore"

After my Waynesville workshop. I visited Asheville for a day. In this incredible place called "Biltmore" I saw six John Singer Sargent's portraits, one Andrew Zorn's painting, and many more great art works. I was so amazed by how the super rich live their lives. Facing to such unbelievable luxury, what do you think?

Photo suite 129 -- graphic architecture

April and may hearts

- light | fashion | vase | box -

"Demo at Waynesville 2" --- Sold

Having not done completely black background painting for a while, I really enjoyed doing this demo. The flower in the back I painted very abstractly. I like the texture and color.



It is very cool in the Smoky Mountains. Temperature is around 70 F. It is second place I stayed having cool summers and relatively mild winters. The first one was San Francisco.

Rio 2

the private desk

A desk, made of white oiled ash wood and grey powder coated steel. A perfect combination!

The desk is pure simplicity, with the simple construction and fine lines this is a beautiful piece of art in your home.



Theresa Arns - The private desk

"Demo at Waynesville 1"

This is the first demo on my Waynesville workshop. I want to thank Margaret Roberts and Ann Todd for putting this workshop together. Thanks to all the Smoky Mountain artists for attending. I really enjoy the southern hospitality here. I enjoy the wonderful food everyday and beautiful cool summer in the woods. I feel I am very fortunate.

Sign of the week

DIY stamped scarf

An easy lightweight summer scarf like this is perfect for the summer ahead of us. Perfect to have with you for unexpected moments where it can get a bit chilly. This scarf can be made by yourself using a jersey knit and a stamp with the pattern you like.



A great DIY to make something unique and beautiful. Take a look at the blog of Almost makes Perfect for this project and more.



images by Molly Madfis - Almost makes Perfect

"Demo in Atlanta 2" --- Sold

As usual, I involve flowers in my second demo. Silver and glass are the objects I really enjoy painting as well. I didn't spent much time on the leaves. They are just whole bunch of abstract shapes.

Photo suite 128 -- Oslo from my hotel window

"Demo in Atlanta 1"

I am in Atlanta now. I want to thank Donna Thomas for organize my workshop here. Thanks to all the artists for coming and painting with me. This is the first demo.

PR from Daniel Smith !!!

http://ift.tt/1oYG3V8



So....I'm watching paint dry this afternoon and glancing through Face Book....WHAT comes up but this wonderful watercolor that looks REEEEEELY familiar. For a great tutorial on glazing click the above link. Janie has another notch in her "Belt of Fame" !

Vipp flower styling workshop

Last week we went to Copenhagen to join the Vipp flower styling workshop. This year Vipp celebrates it's 75th birthday and that means lots of flowers to celebrate this anniversary. A very special day at the Vipp flagship store where the great florist Louise Moestrup told us everything about what to do with all the flowers and how to create flower balls and beds. We were challenged to create these two pieces and work with all the flowers.

After this workshop we worked together with Daniella Witte to create floral kitchen and bathroom settings. Above you can see the result of our teamwork and we love how the images turned out. Thank you again Daniella for our great work together, it was so great doing this.

All the pictures are also on the Vipp instagram account where you can vote for your favorite image. Well ofcourse we would love it if you voted for us and help us win this styling battle :)

A big thanks to the Vipp team for inviting us, the great day, conversations and food and Anders Hviid for the great pictures.

More pictures also on the Vipp blog here.

Styling: April and May & Daniella Witte

Photography: Anders Hviid