12/31/2011

Ending 2011 with a great sketching day


What could be a better way to end the year with going out sketching with your buddies. Today I and four other friends of BangkokSketchers met up at Bangkok downtown and sketch the scene of the Chinese shrine. The Thai believe that 2012 will be a dragon year, people here believe that this year is auspicious to have babies. !!! So it is good that I get to sketch a few dragons on the roof of the shrine. I hope you get the idea where it is in the sketch. ;-) Happy New Year 2012 to you all.

12/30/2011

Ending 2011 with a great meal.


I can't imagine ending a year without a good eat celebration. Today, I went in downtown Bangkok for an authentic Japanese meal at the first Japanese restaurant in Bangkok. I did the sketch there while wait for the food. The gentleman (pink shirt) on my left side, was happy to see I included him in the sketch. Have a great Happy New Year 2012, everyone.

12/22/2011

Merry Christmas 2011



Dear friends, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Best wishes and thanks for stopping by so often. I have been sketching almost daily but my recent schedule and the young kids just overwhelming for me. So I am glad I get to did this holidays sketch.

11/22/2011

A good sketch day after the flood


Finally, a sketch to make myself smile. This is a part of Wetcanvas Scavenger Hunt#246.

11/21/2011

Back home after flood evacuation.




Hi friends, thanks for your good vibe. We went away for almost 3 weeks for Bangkok flood evacuation. We came home to a still dry home. Thank to the Lord, the flood water missed our house by four miles. There are still some parts of Bangkok that are still under heavy flood. I pray for those people to have their home back to normal soon. During evacuation, we went to Hua Hin, a sea-side town, 2 hour south-west of Bangkok. I sketched some and hope to post soon. Thanks to the flood, I now know what I cherish most, ... my family. Preparing the house to be ready for the flood was not easy as all hardware stores were out of supply such as silicone sealant, duct tape, sand bags, bricks, cement mix. Two of my neighbors are engineers and both of their house were surround by the newly paved bricks to block water from entering the house. Tone and I cannot buy any brick and cements; the best we did do was put waterproof plastic garbage bag around our doors, which were glue shut by silicone sealant. The house looked stupid and Tone and I felt exhausted and stupid too. We did not know if what we did would actually effectively prevent water from coming in the house. At that time, we felt that was the best we can do. Later Tone and I were under heavy stress and can no longer preparing the house for the flood any more, right before we left for the evacuation. We knew that if the flood came, we could have lost our beloved grand piano (which we just have bought three months ago) and have to spend so much money to fix the house. But we were so stress and did not want to be at the house anymore despite we still had some valuable things in it. We just wanted to feel safe from the flood chaos ... so we packed and left home for 3 weeks for good.

We were right cause it must have been hard to take care of a 6 yr old and a 1.5 yr old through flood chaos in Bangkok, which included 2 days of no clean pipe water, as dirty flood water contaminated Bangkok city's water source and the serious shortage of food and drinking water supply in Bangkok due to people got panic and started hoarding everything from all the shelf in the stores.

Anyway, we get through it and upon returning to Bangkok we did donate some money to flood help program. Any physical help from us is impossible at the moment due to we have to tend to baby Lily. Thank God that we all still here safe and dry.

10/23/2011

Bangkok flood evacuation

Hello friends, Tone and I decide to take our young kids and head 120 miles south of Bangkok, to the town we know Hua Hin as our evacuation measure of looming near Bangkok flood. Before I leave the house today, I play "Hungarian Dance #5" on my upstair piano as a good bye to the house. The Ironic is that the song is gypsy feel, and now we are leaving our humble home.... We hope that things get back to normal soon and everyone here is safe. Thanks for your good vibe for us.

10/11/2011

Seascape memoir still-life

This is a sketch of things I got from several of beach trips.

10/10/2011

Fruit & Veggie Medley

I love to sketch stuffs from the kitchen. I find going to the market and buying these models home an absolute art-life-rewarding. The sketches contain, two peppers, a tomato, an orange, and a pink dragon fruit.

9/20/2011

Pretty in pink

This is a part of Wetcanvas Scavenger Hunt#238. I have borrowed a buttfly ring from Iris to sketch.

9/18/2011

The eighteen month baby.

Well, I try to record Miss Lily. She will turn eighteen month in a few days. She is a big baby, husky like a Ukranian weight lifter, and can be very loud and ruthless. Luckily today she was having a nap that I can sneak in a sketch of her mighty legs.

9/17/2011

My favorite thing

It is... tadah... my DH, Tone. He is done in a digital with TwistedBrush freeware. Sorry folk for being gone quite some time; we are experiencing waves of family sickness.

8/18/2011

Day 2 -- 75 Day Sketch Challenge



Did this while wait at the Univ. health center. Sorry for the poorly drawn anatomy model. Hope to do better next time. The bag contain x-ray gowns.

8/16/2011

Day1 -- 75 Day Sketch Challenge





A BangkokSketcher friend, P'Wan, recommended me to a web-site of 75 day sketch challenge by Brenda Swenson. I think I will try it and here is my first day result. I have to sketch every day using pen & ink, no pencil & no eraser, and If I miss a day, I should make two sketches for the missing day. Let's see if I can keep it rolling for 75 days.

7/23/2011

Three Musketeers



A still-life of Thai fruits. Two tiny pineapples from northern Thailand, and a pink dragon fruit. I did these as a part of my humble World-Wide SketchCrawl#32 that I don't feel well to go out to sketch. So I sketching in these fruits using my FB acrylic inks and Sumi ink on my large Fabriano Vanezea sketchbook.

7/16/2011

My latest baby...



My latest baby is the grand piano we just bought today. Iris turned six years old yesterday too. What a fun-pack weekend. I am getting back at sketching after the long cycle of sickness in the house since late May. Any day without sickness, is so much more blessing. I will get a small console piano in my studio too in a few days. I can't wait for it.

6/14/2011

From Korea



This is a 30 min. digital sketch using TwistedBrush freeware of a soup spoon & chopsticks souvenir from Korea given to me by my colleague.

6/12/2011

Robot sketches








A few days ago, our Univ. hosting an event of behind the scene of our humanoid robotic team talk, expecting to enter the WorldRobocup 2011 very soon. So I can't help sketching them while I was in the conference room.

6/08/2011

Chao-Praya river views






Well this weekend, after we drop the kids to grandparents, Tone and I have a chance to have a quiet lunch overlooking Chao-Praya river opposite Thammasat University. So here are my sketches from the lunch table.

6/05/2011

Open & Closed



This is a wc sketch with a touch of cp (cp from Iris's dentist art corner), done while we were waiting for Iris's dentist appointment. The dentist clinic have a cozy art table for little kids to enjoy... I guess I was their big art kid yesterday... ha ha.

6/04/2011

Eclectic still-life





This is meant to be a big format sketch still-life (11x14 inch) but I feel that I took it too far toward an elaborated painting. Nevertheless, I am happy with the result because I hardly do any big format painting these days after baby Lily was born. So this is nice that I can complete it. I mostly use watercolor with little dab of color pencils, and ink.

6/03/2011

In my purse



A quick digital sketch using a freeware called TwistedBrush, done with my mouse. I just sadly find out today that the pen tablet that I bought several months ago will not install with my computer. So I have to continue to sketch uncomfortably with my mouse.

6/02/2011

Baby time






Nope.... not another baby...I am getting too old to chase a new one, never mind running after Miss Lily, a fourteen month old. I am talking about my freshly done sketches of kido stuffs. My kind colleague just gave Lily a nice sweet pair of shoewear from England. They are a bit too small for her so I am returning them to my colleague but I can't help myself sketching them in gouache on my homemade brown paper bag sketchbook. Enjoy.

5/18/2011

Lily's Bathtub Toy



After a very long day, I did a digital sketch to end my night with a light note. Done with TwistedBrush freeware. I only have a computer mouse to work with, I'm still too busy to try to install a tablet to my computer. Chao !!!

5/17/2011

Iris Patch on Tanglewood Road



Late April, Tone dropped me to this house to do a quick sketch of their blooming iris. I had my eyes on their iris garden for years. I am glad I finally get my closure this year. This sketch is done in a two-page spread inside a Moleskine 5x8 inch wc book using Daniel Smith watercolors.

5/14/2011

Nature




These are tropical flowers, mostly variety of plumeria flowers that I have picked up from the ground during my morning biking. Done in my Tiger storebrand 5x8 inch sketchbook in two-page spread with Cotman watercolor & ink.

4/17/2011

#31 World-Wide SketchCrawl

Today, I went SketchCrawl at Birmingham Botanical garden. They have an amazing Japanese garden there. These are done in a 2-page spread inside my Moleskin watercolor sketchbook with Daniel Smith watercolors & ink.

#1 The main gate of the Japanese garden

#2 The Black bamboo forest

4/14/2011

2612 Southminster Road



This is a 11x14 inch watercolor done plein aire at a neighborhood of my mother-in-law in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. I use Daniel Smith wc on this one.

4/13/2011

Before Mahler Symphony



This is a sketch done for the pre-show of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra by the local high school percussion band. They were awesome and I find it amazing how kids these day achieve so much in their school. It is good to know that there are a lot of kids and a lot of schools out there that will never expect anything less of each other.

4/09/2011

The Japanese garden at Birmingham Botanical



What a lovely day to get to go sketch this garden at Birmingham Botanical garden. This is done in 1 hour in my Moleskine book.

The Old Mill at Mountain Brook



This is a 30 min. sketch in my Moleskin wc book. I was sketching the mill from the rustic sidewalk. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful place. It seems like someone is actually live in it. What a fantastic life to live there.

4/07/2011

Meeting up with Joan.












Yesterday, Joan drove up from New York to see me while I was visiting my host family in Connecticut. We exchanged gifts, saw each other sketchbooks, sketch the horses alongside at the host family's stable. What a wonderful day that was to me, after all she inspired me to put up this art blog. We have been exchanging so many art cards after all these years. Thank you WetCanvas.com and the wonderful world of art that lead me to know one more special friend.

3/08/2011

B & B



B -Flat and Beautiful marbles, sketches done from life for Wetcanvas, Scavenger Hunt project. All done with watercolor & 6B pencil.

2/19/2011

Pianoforte



Another quick life sketch of our piano for the Scavenger Hunt on Wetcanvas. Cheers !!!

2/11/2011

Salut D Amour









Well after the relentless waves of sickness to our family from January, now things are in recovery mode. So today Tone & I left the kids with our dear nanny and we went for a charity chamber music concert at the Neilson Hayes Library, Bangkok. The money from the violin-piano duo will help toward restoration of this unique and possibly the only American neoclassic building in Bangkok established in 1944. What make it even more special, is that the pianist, Eri Nagakawa, is the teacher of my piano teacher. So I am meeting my piano teacher's teacher...I briefly introduce meself to her during the intermission, this is so fun.

We had a great time, Tone and I did have a great little meal in the gallery cafe wing of the library before the performance.

May your Valentine day be a sweet one. !!!

1/12/2011

ScavengerHunt#206









It is great to get to record how my kids have grown. Today I got a chance to do some life sketches and also recorded her playing on the floor with our nanny.