Happy New Year 2009

Dear my art friends and blog visitors, I hope you have a great year in 2008 and a better, more productive, fun, and balance year in 2009. We are heading into 2009 in a few minutes. Thanks for being here and giving your kind words that have warmed my heart and inspired my work. They mean so much to me. Thank you.

Fun things I did in 2008

Well, there were so many fun things I did in 2008. Starting this year, I went out and got my mountain bike on my January birthday. I had a bike accident on my first bike trip, getting bruise thigh for two weeks but I am OK and still loving my bike. I should have done it more often. Later in late March and April, we went to visit our family in the US. I got to paint a lot and mailed my art friends my art cards, getting to know so many nice people. I did a world wide drawing day once in June and got so many good comments on my bird painting. Later in September, I joined a sketch-from-life group in WetCanvas Scavenger Hunt forum, I enjoy sketching so much. I never thought that I could draw... I still have a lot to learn but certainly joining the sketching group help me getting into fun routine of sketching much easier. I also did the World-wide sketchcrawl one time in October. It was fun to venture out to Bangkok and sketch my beloved city and shared the works for the world to see. I also joined BlogingDaily movement in November and got exhausted but had fun and learned a lot. I did another day out sketching on my own on the Thai father day holiday, Dec 5 and got a few fun sketches as seen above. In late December, our family took a vacation at Hua Hin, a beach town 2 hour from Bangkok, and I got to sketch some more. I hope you have a great fun creative year in 2009. Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

I finally finish the Christmas card of this year. I had tried to paint some cards before but I hardly like any of those paintings that I make. So this one finally come along just two hours shy of Thai Christmas day. It is 5.5x7 inch watercolor. The red thing was supposed to be a ribbon... Ha !!! Any way I had fun painting it and I wish you all the time and all the joy of painting or sketching. Oh.. and if you are not a painter or a sketcher yet, start to be one of them then. I am sure you will do great.... "Merry Christmas" to you. May your life is filled with love, joy, peace, inspiration, and time to do art. Thanks for all my art friends and blog visitors, your kind comments mean a world to me.

Persimmon still life

This is a still-life of a persimmon and the little Thai fruits called Chompu. It is about 4.5 x 10 inch in watercolor. I am trying to paint and post every day on "painting daily" thread on Wetcanvas. Let's see how long I can keep up.

Dutch chickens

This is about 11 x15 inch using Conte crayon, done as a part of WDE project on Wetcanvas hosted by Connie. I feel a great satisfaction after finishing this one, especially after I did the bottom chicken, I felt "I get it" in doing hard pastel/Conte work. It felt free and fun and I let it loose.


I'd been painting and sketching by the storm (after the two depressive weeks in late Nov.) but some of the small paintings are for art exchanges so I cannot post them yet here until they arrive at desination. Now I am glad to be back to my creative self.

I wish everyone have a great holiday celebration.

Venetian masks

This is about 6.5x10.5 inch using Conte crayon on rough watercolor paper, done as a part of WDE project on Wetcanvas hosted by Connie.

Moo Moo -- Dutch cow

This is about 6.5x10.5 inch using gouache done as a part of WDE project on Wetcanvas hosted by Connie.

Dry dock

This is done as a part of Wetcanvas Weekend Drawing Event (WDE) on Dec 12, 2008. It is about 6x10 inch using gouache.

Dancer#1

This is about 5x5 inch using gouache. I just felt so free in the morning and found a good public domain photo on Flickr by Stinkie_Pinkie to try. It is fun to see this Brazillian lady coming to life.

Tropical gazebo

This is done from a WDE gazebo reference photo by Khun Dewi on Wetcanvas. I did this one in 1hr 30 min. as a 6x9 inch using gouache. As I am a garden person, to get to paint something like this is like all my senses are bubling with joy. I goof off a bit on the poles but I still like the feel of it.