Guggenheim at Bilbao

I feel like getting back to watercolor again. And I had a dream of going to great art museums. So I am inspired to paint from a photo of Guggenheim at Bilbao by Oty in WC reference image library. I wish I get to see many great art museums in my life. The work is 5x7 inch watercolor postcard. I did use only 4 colors: WN permanent rose, WN cobalt blue, WN Payne's gray, and M.Graham Quinacridone Violet. M.Graham was given to me by my Wetcanvas friend in Australia, JJ or Judy Bevin. So thanks Judy, I put it to good use.

Baby Sketch#2

I tried this yesterday. It seems improve a little from a day before. Anyway I enjoy making it so much and decide to put some Conte Crayon on the sketch. Her body still looks off proportion here and there but that is OK. I will try some more.
6x15 inch Conte Crayons.

Baby sketch#1

Well this Sat. we did not have a baby sitter. So I cannot paint much. But the good thing was that I got to sketch my baby when she was sleeping. My daughter loves to be naked at home. The first two sketches I missed the head part entirely. The third one, is a complete body sketch but I think it looks more like an alien for me so I did not post it. I will keep trying and hopefully I will improve, at least good enough not to make Iris look like an alien baby. The black ink was done with Micron pen, the other are colorpencils drawing.

Sculpture naming

Well after that special busy daywork, I went to a sculpture show. The works belong to my sculpture teacher and his parents. That is right; my teacher grows up in a sculpture artist family, just like Andrew Wyeth in the US. modern art circle. My teacher's father Chumreung Vichienket received the Thai national artist in sculpture sometime ago. My teacher's mother was also an art professor in sculpture. My teacher is Yanpol Vichienket, one of the Thai modern sculptors. My school had commissiond him and his dad to do a sculpture installed in front of our faculty lawn. So five years ago I took a short sculpture workshop on the weekend at his home studio. I enjoyed it so much but later I was busy teaching on the weekend and ended up did not get to continue work in sculpture.

However, my teacher had asked me to name several of his works in English and also sometimes in Thai. The first big piece I named was a big horse sculpture called "Auspicious" as seen in the pic. My teacher liked that English name so much that he used it to name his modern horse series works. He told me that the name I gave him help him make good sales. I think having read lots of English magazines and books when I was young, loving art, knowing the Thai people, and spending quite some years in the US.; so those all help me to come up with the good English sculpture names for Thai buyers. A lot of his art clients are the Thai high-profile people. The following year I named another piece of his master piece,"Soulmate", which was a work of a unity of a spoon and fork. This year his mother had asked me to name a mother-child sculptures for her. She knows that I have already have a child on my own. So I will understand her works. Some of the names I gave was "Endless Love", "Dilemma of Life", "My Tender Heart", "You are the love of my life", "Devotion", "Mommy Mommy". So that night I was thrilled to get invite to see all the works that I named. I also reunited with one of my workshop friend. She did the cat sculpture in one of the pic. Later that night, though unprepared I had to help my teacher to do an ad-hoc charity sculpture auction at the show. He asked me to translate the scripts into English for prospective English speaking buyers. The proceed of this auction went to Breast Cancer foundation of Chula Hospital. I was having fun that night and felt so good to unexpectedly help Breast Cancer cause.

So eventhough I might not get to be a professional artist at least I can say that I am a professional sculpture naming expert.

All in a day's work.

Well, I am working as an assistant professor in computer science at one of state universities in Bangkok. Six months ago I was nominated by my colleagues to become the BSc.(Computer Science -- English Program) Chairperson. So now my day job besides teaching, I also have to run the BSc. program which has about 300 young Thai teenager students. It is not so easy. I do love to work my heart out to make sure the students have good learning experiences, graduate well, and get great job in Thai IT sector. However, I am not a manager type person; I am more of an artist, passionate and very emotional (at times). It is a challenging job for me to try to motivate the students. I told them many time "Motivation is not available for sales; you have to find it yourself". Some students are highly motivated but a lot of them also low-motivates and sometimes get in trouble of failing a class or the worst, on the verge of probation. There are a lot of good moments in my career. Following pictures show one of my artificial intelligence class, which they make computer games and compete with other groups in class. We all do have fun for that day. I also let the class critiques each group graphic user interface. So they gets the feedback from their peers about their design. I also get to use my art skills to comments on their game user interface design too, as you shall see in one of the pic.

The same day we had game competition, in the afternoon, I invited our successful alumnis to give a career prep. talk to the current students. But that very same day, at half day I got a STUPID letter from other lecturer of other school sending to my dean commenting on how bad of the "dress-code" that some of my CS students had violate.... Yes, "dress-code"!!! Excuse me !!! I am trying to make sure they are motivated to learn and graduate well; and someone actually pettition a formal letter to my dean to subotage my program for a few students dress-code violation... This really hurt my feeling. However, thanks goodness that at the end of the day, I could get over this annoying letter with the help of talking to my good students. What a day !!

Happy b-day...art girl

Well tomorrow is my b-day. In one way I am getting so close to 40. I have a few years to spare. In another way, this year I feel great, with the exception of minor minor bugs on my wrist and eyes but other than that I feel super and I am well. Unlike the past two years, which I had always been sick like a dog on my previous b-days. So therefore, this year I feel "SUPER" despite a little bigger number. I pray the Lord let me live happily and healthy to do tons more paintings.

Well I got myself a TREK 4300 Lady mountainbike yesterday as my b-day gift. Tone was there at Probike too to help me listen to the instruction how to lock and unlock the wheels and etc. If one said that you should think through a couple of months before making a big purchase, then I must be too conservative about this purchase. I had waited for 7 years to get it. I bought the helmet, the gloves, the lady contour seat, the bike tools, the MTB (Mountainbike) resource book the last month before I packed my stuff back to Thailand from the US after my graduation in Dec 2001. I did not buy the bike and ship it back to Thailand then because I did not know how. I was afraid it will get damaged during shipping. And once I was back to Thailand, I was too busy working and did not have time to go biking. Well I am still busy but my knee doctor used to say that biking is good for you. No joint pressure. So I will use it as often as I can, at least around our neighborhood.


On the way back to home from the bike shop, Tone and I decided to stop at the Secret Garden restaurant and cafe to pick up some cake to take home. Tone surprised me by asking me to stop there for lunch before getting the cake. It was such a nice place, my kind of place, happy garden style, a little bit too elegance for me but I can happily take it. I felt like sitting in a room, which come out of Laura Ashley catalog. As you will see in one of the picture below. Another picture shows me and my artwork 1 day before my 3? birthday. When I got home, my Grade1 friend called me to say Happy Birthday. We have been friends for 30 years now. So I could not ask God for more of my quiet but precious birthday celebration.

Happy wheel...

This is a postcard of Conte Crayon for Wetcanvas so Thankful for. Yesterday we drove by a new car-wash plus cafe establishment in our neighborhood. There is a giant white pin-wheel in front of the place, about 4 feet diameter and 15 feet tall. I had to stop and took several pictures of it. Today I got a chance to do this outside the house in our little garden. I did not want any chalk dust in the house. I must feel very happy when I paint so I add in several colors. Pardon my almost symmetrical composition, just move your eyes to the side a little and I hope it wont bother you too much.

Ella and her daughter

This is a 4x6 postcard I did for Wetcanvas Weekend Drawing Event (WDE) project. Marita went to the caribean vacation and gave us permission to use her pics as photo references of the project. I just love the original photo of beautiful people with beautiful light on their faces. I think I did not do the justice of painting them but it sure was a good learning experience. I unintentionally throw in extra blooms here and there.

A Walk In the Zoo#3 -- ATC

Well I got a permission from a kind Wetcanvas fellow "Just chaos" to use his flickr animal photos as reference pics. I am amazed of his collection of 7,000 fine photos and his effort to post them. God bless his art energy. So that inspires this mixed media ATC (2.5x3.5), watercolor, pen, watercolor pencils. I think I still have a lot to learn about how to do the water surface.

Art Angel -- Prelude...

This is a colorpencils ATC (2.5x3.5) dedicated to my art angels out there. It truly comes out of my immagination. I don't have that many just a few but definitely they are a few good one. Art angel does not use a wand rather she uses a paint brush. She turns the milky way into stream of color speckles. She makes everyone around her want to pick up a brush and paint. She brings the cheerful happiness to everywhere around her.

Roadside flowers ...

This is another journey into the land of the unknown, the "watersoluable - oil" ATC (2.5x3.5) on cardboard for "So thankful for" art exchange project at Wetcanvas.com. Three weeks ago we all gone to a short vacation at a national park 200 km northeast from Bangkok. We drove by a small road, in which one house, grows so many flowers on their fence. I was stunned and ask Tone to stop to take photos of it. A week later I got to express its beauty in an oil painting. I was nervous about it cause oil painting is my unknown territory but I think it is not bad.

Friends...

This is a watercolor ATC(2.5x3.5) as a part of "So thankful for" art exchange project on Wetcanvas. I remember my year as an exchanged student to Vermont, USA. I was sometimes lonely and had a tough time adjusting to American school. I remember one of my highschool friend, Melody, who told me that "It does not matter how many friends you have, as long as you have a few good ones". I couldn't agree more. So this painting is dedicated to all my friends out there, here and far away. I love you and miss you.

Happy marriage

This is a watercolor ATC (2.5x3.5) as a part of "So thankful for" art project on Wetcanvas.com. I have to dedicate my art journey to Tone. He sure is not just a wind-beneath-my-wing but rather a tornado-F5-beneath-my-wing to me. He appreciates art and appreciates me and so supports me to do art. I could not come this far in art without him. Thanks a bunch my dear Tone.

2008 -- new year resolution

Well, I make a pact with Rose, my art angel that in the lovely year 2008 we will first, show our work more consistently on our blog and secondly, we need to transform ourselves from art-material collectors to artists who use up their art-materials. I hope you join along by checking out my blog frequently. The picture below show how Iris gets excited with the colorful unwrapped balloon in our neighbor new year party. I think she got the excited-by-color gene from me. Who wouldn't?

2007 in retrospect... Part 3/3

I finish up the last project of the year with Christmas card 2007 project exchange on wetcanvas.com. I paint about 30 cards; 24 of them goes to the project, the rests go to my dear friends and family. I list a few of my favorite below. I envision that 2008 will be another great year for my art endeavor. I wish the same to you.

2007 in retrospect... Part 2/3

Following are some works exchanged in an ATC project in wetcanvas.com.

2007 in retrospect...Part 1/3

Well the past year has been great to my art. I did not set any specific goal. I did not paint big format this year and did not enter the group show of The Thai Watercolor Society. Despite my busy career and growing attention that my 2nd year old daughter needs, I manage to paint about 80 art cards varies from ATC size up to postcard size. These art cards are part of 3 art exchange projects I join on wetcanvas.com. I remember signing up one after another despite feeling a little bit tired toward the end. I guess when I finish one card I feel great. And that pushes me thru the years. I have fun trying many different medium too besides my usual watercolors. I am so thankful for these projects that not just hone my skills but allowing me to get to know many art friends. So here are some of them that I have not posted before.