Photo suite 153 -- kids in transit

Rome

Chartres

London

Quirigua, Guatemala

Antarctica

Louisville

"White Cup with Blue Stripes"

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I did this painting last week. There are too much things going on so I did not get a chance to post it timely. It seems my daily painting practice has moved to a new phase. I have not done any 6" x 6" for several months now, and my comfortability level in dealing with relatively large painting surfaces is increasing steadily. Showing painterly effects on larger canvases is my effort now, and this effort will continue for a while. The visual impact of a larger painting is significantly stronger than that of a small painting, so now I am a more serious painter than before.

APRIL AND MAY HEARTS

- 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 -

My 2015 Painting Calendar

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Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. My 2015 painting calendar is ready. Please preview the images and purchase

gift boxes by Iittala

With the holidays ahead you can't get enough inspiration for gifts. Most of you probably already know Iittala from it's beautiful glass and tableware collection.



Iittala started as a glass factory and today it offers a collection of objects that are made to last a lifetime. They don't just create beautiful objects but believe in timeless design that will never be thrown away. All the Iittala products can be combined in so many ways depending on your taste and style.



For the upcoming holidays Iittala offers the perfect gift by 3 unique gift boxes with different themes: A toast to us, Let's enjoy good taste and Light up your life. We used the products from the box Light up your life for the above pictures. The box contains the Alvar Aalto bowl (designed in 1936!) and 3 different glass candle holders. The beautiful color blue, shapes and details makes this an ideal gift for someone special.



You can find all the gift boxes here and with the 3 different themes there is a perfect box for everyone.



Images by April and May

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving! I am grateful for all of you and for your friendship!

Bad ideas in baby fashion

Found these yarns in the clearance bin last week and wondered who had the brilliant idea to dress babies in camo -- particularly pink camo. Although maybe a pink camo sweater would complement the pink gun that you'll no doubt want to get her for her third or fourth birthday.



Besides, the color combinations are ugly, if you want my professional opinion.



For feminine weaponware, perhaps you would prefer this camo colorway, which has its own trademarked name: Muddy Girl Camouflage.

Give away Mooigoed!

We are having a great give away today from our blogfriend Mooigoed!



Together with Mooigoed, the online shop where minimalistic design go's hand in hand with beautiful decorated details, we're offering you a chance to win this minimalistic design Mantel Clock!



What do you have to do?



- Leave a comment why you would like to win this clock

- Follow Mooigoed on Instagram

- Share a post from the give away with #mooigoed on your Instagram account

- To increase your chance on winning follow Mooigoed on facebook



We will announce the winner next week..



xo April and May & Mooigoed



Photography by Fiks Studio

CTNX is a wrap!

Great weekend at CTN Animation Expo!

Good to meet all of you who came out to the workshops as well as old friends and co-workers!

This is myself, Rodolphe Guenoden, Christophe Lautrette and Armand Baltazar.

Photo suite 152 -- more cars with names

The1st World Watercolor Competition in France

This is a book of the first competition organized by France. Watercolor Magazine Competition in France. While I wasn't selected to be one of the 23 finalists, I was nominated to the second stage of 295 artists out of 2000+ artworks from 82 countries, which is a miracle for me! I sent a copy of the book to my parents.

Pennsylvania Watercolor Society's 35th International Exhibition

I feel blessed that my piece "Invitation" was selected into the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society - PWS 35th Annual International Juried Exhibition at the State Museum of Pennsylvania! It was my first entry to this show!

A very thanks to Juror, Sterling Edwards for this show for selecting my painting as the Honorable Mention Award.

Sign of the week

“Yellow Rose in Blue Vase"

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You can see I am practicing the design of my brush work. This is the third painting in this series. Painterly painting style does not happen accidentally. It requires a thoughtful process. I am still in the early stage of my style design. I heard comments like this: so and so's painting is too stylish. It has a feeling of some degree of negativeness in it. It sounds like the painting is developed by following a formula. Personally, I am not against using formulas. When I was doing my scientific research work, I used mathematic formulas all the time. The same principle applies to art as well. However, the issue is how many formulas do you have? If you only have one or two, that is problematic. Moreover, if your formula was not derived by you, in other words, you don't know why but just simply follow the steps, then the painting will be boring. So my "two cents" is: 1). painting from life, 2). summarize your own formulas, and 3). cumulate formulas as many as you can.

APRIL AND MAY HEARTS

- 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 -

Owl #3

Ohmyhome ceramics

OHMYHOME is a new interior label from Holland and they have just launched this beautifully shaped handmade ceramic line made of natural speckled clay. Besides the ceramic line you'll also find some other beautiful designs/products in their webshop like posters, prints and lamps. Check it out here :)

Pet portrait commission

Hi all, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm currently working on a pet portrait..something I rarely do, as commissions can be stressful, especially if the customer wants to many things in the painting. This painting is a surprise Christmas gift for a friend/relative of the customer, so I wasn't able to take my own pictures of the pet..I had to rely on the customer's which were sent through email and rather pixelated and not real sharp. The important elements they want to include in the painting other than the dog, are the dog's toy purse, it's name tag, and it was important that the dog be on a lawn. So, I was sent separate pics of the dog, the lawn , the name tag and the toy purse..none of them to scale with each other. Fortunately I have Photoshop so could size and piece all the elements in one photo, so that is what I've been working from. The picture of the dog wasn't on a lawn, it was lying in the backseat of a car (black upholstery) so I had to cut it out of the seat and place it on the lawn pic and will try to make it look like she's really lying on a lawn. Here's what I've done so far with it. Still have a ways to go..I'll post another pic when I'm farther along.

"Shower in Cool Light"

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Am I getting crazier? Am I going too far? Please let me know. I felt pretty good about this painting. Finally I gained some freedom in relatively large paintings. This one is 11" x 14". Painting loose, but can not be sloppy. All the perspective, symmetry, and value need to be correct. Don't you agree?

CWA show

Hi all, I hand delivered my painting to the upcoming California Watercolor Association's annual national show since it was just a little over an hour's drive. It was nice I got to see a sneak preview of the show as they had the shipped paintings there too. I got to get a close look at Ona Kingdon's entry..OMG so fabulous! It's going to be a great show this year! Here are the pics I had taken of me with my painting and with Ona's. Looking forward to the reception in January.

Anine Bing

The clothing line from Anine Bing is simple and very easy to wear. It's a perfect match between great quality and the perfect fit. Because the styles easily go together you can mix it all up. The clothes are made of the finest materials, all according to Anine’s rock-bohemian style and Anine gets her inspiration from music, L.A. , flea markets, bloggers and from life at large.



Being not only a fashion designer but also a mom of two children and a singer/songwriter we admire all the things she has accomplished. Be inspired by the great sense of style in a pure and feminine way and follow Anine here on instagram.

Portrait Sketch