"Water Lily 103019"

"Why do you want to paint?" This is the question I have been asking myself for a quite long time, but I still have no good answer for it. In my early art years, I felt the answer is no brainer. I just want to do it and felt good. Now I examine my early motivation, I know that was the ego. We all want to demonstrate that our life has a special meaning. Painting was one of the few things I could easily do better. However now, I feel the ego is so absurd. It has meaning only to yourself. To other people it does not mean much. There are so many great artists created fabulous works. If you happened to be one of them, so what. For a long time, I feel painting has been my way to make a living. Well in our monetary world, it has been proved this was a rather stupid idea. If I love money, I should have done real estates and even my previous engineering life would make more sense. Recently, I am very interested in the life of Paul Gauguin. To be honest with you, I never liked his art, but his life as an human was so fascinating. "The moon" or "Six pence"? That is the question. At this new year's eve. I think I know this life better.

End of the year on Art With a Needle

Maybe you noticed that there has been no "last week on Art with a Needle" since before Christmas.  That's because we have been on vacation and who wants to write blog posts when you can be walking on the beach (or fixing meals for your adorable grandchildren and their adorable parents).

For more than thirty years we have been going to the beach in South Carolina at or near Christmas, not every year, but regularly enough that we notice when a favorite restaurant closes or a favorite grocery store changes ownership.  Some years it's pretty warm, other years pretty cold, but usually it's warmer in South Carolina than it is at home and we feel lucky.  In earlier years we shlepped the kids to all the obvious tourist attractions in and around Charleston, but lately we never seem to do much except walk on the beach.  Or, this year, play cards and board games while it rained six inches in one day and walking on the beach didn't seem like such a good plan.

But the storm ended, the sun came out, and a big storm means a bumper crop of shells and what my daughter-in-law calls "sea junk" to pick up.  Sometimes we leave our sea junk artfully arranged on the railing of the rental porch.  Sometimes we bring it home, whereupon we throw it out.  Other times we bring it home and stash it in the work room where with any luck it does not stink the place up.  But this year, I processed the smallest bits of sea junk to make daily miniatures (and brought the larger bits home, where with any luck.....).

Just before we left I wrote about helping Isaac make a pillow to give to his dad.  Bethany left a comment: "I have a little grandson that will be very happy to see Isaac's pillow -- he loves to sew with me by hand and at 5, he is almost ready for lessons."  Well, your little boy is doing it the opposite way from Isaac, who learned on the sewing machine first but isn't much interested in hand-stitching.  If you're thinking about graduating him to the machine, you might want to read some of my past posts about teaching kids to sew.

It's getting late in the year, but I'm still hoping that Sharon Buck will send me her street address so I can send her an ornament!

Our China 2020 trip plan is almost ready

Again, we will organize another China painting trip in September 2020. Our Beijing office and myself is busy arranging the China 2020 painting and touring trip. We have identified the places we want to visit and made a Youtube video of the plan. Please check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j09CDUQeyyI Very soon we finalize the detail planning and I will announce officially the program with the dates, pricing, and itinerary. In comparison with our previous China trips, we have a few major improvements for the 2020 plan: (1) We have slow down the paces to make the trip as a relaxing vocation instead of rushing through the tourist attractions; (2) We will arrange to purchase art supplies locally and rent easels so you don't need to carry heavy art gears for the trip; (3) We will relax the dinner plans and you have more options for your meal selection. My team and I will work hard to make the China trip better and better. Please check our China 2020 webpage and I will update this page soon. If you are interested in travel with us to China in September 2020, please contact us and we will put your name on our list.

My online charcoal drawing course is now available at Schoolism for an inexpensive self study subscription, or critiqued where we work directly together. Check it out at https://www.schoolism.com/school.php?id=50 It's on sale for a limited time!

"Water Lily Study 121819"

I started painting again. I know some artists who paint same type of paintings for a quite long time before shift to another topic. I think that is a good idea. In this way you may use the repetition to get a deep understanding this specific theme, and establish the skills and enrich the paintings. I have painted a few water lily paintings. I feel I just touch the surface. We know Monet painted so many water lily paintings. There are reasons for that. I may want to do the same thing, at least for a short period of time.

Kid at the sewing machine!

Isaac accompanied his mom to the fabric store last week and saw some fabric with deer.  He wanted to buy it and make a pillow to give to his father, who loves to hunt.  So he came over yesterday to sew.

Although Isaac has been using the sewing machine for four years now, it has always been collage/applique.  All he had to do was pivot the fabric to point in the direction he wanted to sew, and pedal-to-the-metal.  We never cared whether the stitching went right down the middle, or if it caught the entire piece being attached, as long as the seam didn't run off the edge of the base fabric.  He had never attempted to sew a straight seam, nor keep the raw edges to the inside.  So this project was going to be a challenge.

Fortunately, he rose to the occasion.  After all, he's nine years old now!  I cut out the squares of fabric in advance, then put a piece of blue painter's tape on the sewing machine table so he could maintain a half-inch seam allowance.  I marked the corners with a pencil dot so he knew when to stop sewing and pivot.  But he did all the rest.

The hardest part came at the end, after we turned the pillow cover inside out, stuffed it and pinned the last side closed.  It took help to hold the foam rubber away from the pillow edge so the gap could be neatly stitched shut.  But we managed that part too.  Here's Isaac with his finished present:

"My OG Place Update 2"

I have got many comments after my previous post. I apologize I was not clear: OG stands for "Off-the-Grid". My structure is located in a very primitive location. There is no power, no water, and no septic. To make this place inhabitable, I must build all infrastructures. So my today's image is not artistic, but very engineering. (1) I have installed a 800W solar system (about $2000) so I can run a window AC, all my lights, fans, and water pumps. (2) I collect rainwaters (about $600) with 300 gallon tank space, and 4 stage filtration for water purification. (3) I installed a propane tankless water heater for a shower. (4) I bought a composting toilet (about $1000), and the waste goes directly to a small organic vegetable garden.  (5) I use a propane heater ($200) and insulated the bedroom only to save fuel (Texas does not get too cold in winter). So far my total expenditure on this project is about $8000. Lumber and other materials are from the Home Depot, and appliances and miscellaneous are from Amazon. All the DIY knowhow is from Youtube. 

And the winner is...

Sharon Buck, who's going to get an ornament from me -- if she sends me her snail mail address. 

(I'm at artwithaneedle@gmail.com if anybody ever needs to find me.)

My OG (Off-the-Grid) Place Update

After my final workshop was done before Thanksgiving. I have decided not to paint for a month. I spent almost all my time in upgrading my OG place. Now I can live in it comfortably. Of course, my purpose of doing this project is not to building a regular house. I try to prove a concept: You don't need a lot of money to live decently, and it can be done by a single human being. There are multiple advantages of doing this project. (1) I am in control and can change and fix everything. (2) I have my own eco system and minimize the waste. (3) I don't buy insurance for this house because it is so cheap. (4) Keep away from harmful chemicals and minimize the use of plastics. (5) Keep away from the Internet so I can have quiet time. (5) It is very affordable. I don't need to be a slave of money.

Now this month of down time has passed. I will start to paint again.

Last week on Art With a Needle

I spent four days at the retreat center, an outing that always comes at the most inconvenient time -- we have a perpetual reservation for the second week in December.  Yes, it might be more efficient to be at home working on Christmas ornaments or getting a start on holiday baking or just cleaning the studio, but a small group of us write it on the calendar a year ahead of time and we show up, even though it may mean missing another meeting or driving in from the retreat center for a meeting we need to attend. 

I didn't accomplish much art, but I did go through many, many piles of accumulated stuff and got the stuff read, sorted, acted upon or thought about, as the case may be.  A huge grocery bag full of discarded paper to go in the recycling bin.  I also did my good deed for the joint causes of friendship and literature by reading the draft of a mystery novel written by the husband of one of my art pals.  I'm a good editor, if I do say so myself, and I love mystery stories, so I was happy to spend time with this book and think about what I liked, what I felt was not fully explained, where I wanted more detail, and similar global issues.

I read a neat book about hand embroidery that one of my friends had brought along, and got a bunch of ideas that I'd like to experiment with.  The same friend showed me some little dolls she had gotten from Guatemala, dressed in bits of handwoven fabrics, which in turn inspired me to make a little doll as a daily miniature.

little dolls from Guatemala -- maybe one inch tall?

my favorite miniature -- the dress is a scrap from Vickie's quilt

Since returning home, I've been sewing on ornaments.  All the international ones are in the mail, but several in the US still have to be sent, plus the hand-delivered ones in town.  Left it too late this year, I guess.

Susan Sawatzky was so kind as to send me a link to a YouTube video on calligraphy, but when I went to the site I was told the video is unavailable.  Sob.  I'd love some new ideas on calligraphy.  This week, preoccupied with affairs of state, I have mostly been copying the Constitution.  Sounds boring, but we could all probably do with a refresher course in what that wonderful document says and thus how our government works.
 

"Demo at Gainesville GA 2019 3" --- Sold

Flowers and more flowers. This is my final demo painting in Gainesville. I am in the mood of celebration. I have made another great year of painting and teaching. I am so grateful. Thank you all my art students.

On retreat

Every December I spend four days at a quilters' retreat place with a small group of art pals.  Much as it's great to concentrate on art for a while, I have gotten into the habit of using my retreat time to attack my huge piles of papers accumulated over months.

Here I am on Monday morning, with a table full of boxes of piles.

( You're only seeing half of what I brought.)

After a day and a half of work, I've cleared two boxes, caught up on photographing my daily miniatures (I was two weeks behind), gave a tutorial on my quilt facing method, and had a really great night's sleep!

Others in the group are actually making fiber art.  Robin Walston has a new quilt on the design wall:

and
Debby Levine, my bridge-walking companion for many years, is working out how to knit silhouettes of Louisville's bridges into caps:

The week is off to a good start.

"Demo at Gainesville GA 2019 1"

My final workshop teaching of the year was at Gainesville GA. Having done so many landscape paintings, it felt really good when I was painting still life again. Nowadays, my paintings get a kind of "stylish". I don't know it is good or bad. Definitely, the painting is recognizable. I am happy about that. However in a negative connotation, my painting is getting more cliched. I am not surprised this happens. As a human, I never dreamed to become a super man. I just wish I could have been smarter, so I could have not fell in traps the commercial world. I will try harder and come out of the "burn out" phase. Let us allow the art being "cliched" for a while. I will cook something new when the future comes.

Last week on Art With a Needle

Seems like I didn't do anything all week except work for PYRO Gallery.  I did a shift of gallery-sitting on Sunday, went in on Wednesday morning to hang my work, made the gallery tags for everything in the new show, printed them out and helped affix then to the wall on Thursday morning, went back Friday noon with a few more tags that for some reason hadn't been finished in time, came back at 5 to help set out the food for the reception, talked with dozens of people during the reception, made a few wall tags for new work that replaced things sold at the reception, and then back again to work a shift this afternoon.

It was an exhilarating week, because we had a very successful opening, but I am looking forward to not setting foot in the gallery for the foreseeable future.

Three of my pieces sold last night, all of them the little postage stamp hangings.  This morning I rooted around in my boxes and found one more postage stamp piece that I hadn't taken in, and found another one pinned to my design wall, which with 15 minutes work was ready to be hung.  So I hung the two new pieces in the holes left by the sold work.

six postage stamp hangings, before the opening reception

minus three, plus two, this afternoon

A comment on the blog this week from Rose, who noted my mention of my broken ankle and told me about HER broken ankle last year.  I had it so much easier than she did, and so much easier than a lot of other people I have talked to who broke ankles or other pedal bones.  I am so fortunate -- it could have been so much worse.  I guess we're getting to the age range where it's so much more common to fall, and to suffer consequences.  I wish for all my friends and readers a great new year, free of broken bones and other misfortunes.

Here's my favorite miniature of the week:

On the wall for Off The Wall

PYRO Gallery's new show, which opens tomorrow, is called Off The Wall, because if you buy something, you can take it off the wall and take it home with you right away.  Usually work purchased from a gallery show has to stay in place till the show closes, but we recognize that holiday gifts can't wait till December 28.

All the PYRO artists have work in this show, and I had hoped to have some new work ready to put up.  But between the broken ankle and the long cruise, I've been out of commission too much to get a lot made.  Besides, I need to hoard my new work for my solo show in June.

So I have a wall full of oldies but goodies, plus two new little postage stamp quilts.  I got them hung this morning but the wall tags aren't up yet.

If you're anywhere near Louisville, come by and see the show!  We're open Thursday through Saturday, noon to 6 pm.  The opening reception is this Friday, December 6, 6 to 9 pm.  PYRO is at 1006 E. Washington St. in Louisville.

Workshop reminder and my 2020 calendar

Happy Holidays my artist friends. The last month of the year 2019 has arrived. I am glad I finally have some down time. I am not traveling to any places for the entire month of December. During the Thanksgiving holidays, I got a chance working in my OG (off-the-grid) place for a few days, really enjoyable. I live intensionally for this month, writing down what I have done and will do on my notebook, otherwise, the time will soon pass without being noticed.

My friends, I want to use this time to remind you that my January workshop in Austin will start in exactly one month from now. It will a fine event to kick off the special year of 2020. We will improve our vision to art and to life, at least our mind's eye will have a 20/20 acuity. Please check: http://www.qh-art.com/qiang-huang-2020-still-life-workshop.html for more info and sign up.

I am also excited to announce that my 2020 painting calendar is ready to order. It has documented pieces of my artist life of this year. I hope those painting images bring you joy for the coming year. It also makes a good gift to your friends and relatives. Please visit: http://www.qh-art.com/calendar-2020.html to order or browse my art images. Thank you so much.

"Demo in Huntsville 2019 4"

After En Plein Air Texas, I really feel good about painting water lilies. I want to paint more of this topic. Maybe doing a few large ones. This one is a demo showing using multiple ref photos to do one painting.