Telok Ayer Prism

"Telok Ayer Prism"
6x16 Oil on Gessoboard
$395 Unframed
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Wow, I had gotten so good about posting and painting. But then we were thrown a wonderful and fantastic curveball. My husband has accepted a new job here in Singapore. This will be a fantastic move for him and us, it just means that I have to have the house packed and moved by next Friday! So, instead of getting another 2 weeks to paint before going to the US, I have about 1 painting day left. And who even knows if we will have our permanent housing situation figured out by the time I get back. It's going to be a wild ride for a bit. I'm definitely packing my tabletop easel and my paints for the temporary housing!

Cloud Study I

"Cloud Study I"
4"x4" Oil on Gessoboard
$35 Unframed
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I've had these little 4x4 panels for forever - almost a year. I think I bought 80 of them the last time I was in the US, and they have been primed and painted and ready to go since. For some reason in the last week, as I've been a little restless to experiment, I decided to pull them out and start sifting through all my reference photos for things to paint that I haven't really tried before. Clouds are totally under this list. I've painted very few before, so this is a great chance to try my hand at them. This little scene is from last year after my mother picked me up from the airport. The sky was just beautiful. All the way from Savannah to HHI, it was blue, blue sky and big puffy clouds. This scene was as we were on the bridge over the intracoastal waterway to Hilton Head. The clouds reflecting in the water, I'll always love that view. Makes me miss home.

Zebra Crossing

"Zebra Crossing"
4"x4" Oil on Gessoboard
$35 Unframed
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This was a scene I saw while I was exploring around the Wall Street area. Two people were crossing the crosswalk, and I noticed the really cool shadows they were casting on the ground. The title of the painting is a little east meets west, because over here they call cross walks zebra crossing. Don't worry, the only actual zebras here are at the zoo!

Paper Trained

"Paper Trained"
4"x4" Oil on Gessoboard
$35 Unframed
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I saw this guy when I was walking around Chelsea taking photos. He just looked too happy carrying his master's paper around. It made me smile. Happy Friday!

Reflected Glow

"Reflected Glow"
7"x5" Oil on Gessoboard
$45 Unframed
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This painting is of one of the first nights I got into New York. I was wandering around the Times Square area, and I saw the sun setting behind the buildings. The sky was neat - it always is at sunset, right? But more so than the sky, I was really intrigued by the way the sky was kind of reflecting off of the cars and the street. It was just glowing, more so than the bright lights of the theaters on Broadway. Kind of crazy, isn't it?

Also, I thought I would end the week with another crazy Asia story. So I'm painting this morning, and I go into the kitchen to make my lunch. The kitchen is flooded, and there's water dripping out of the ceiling. Well, that's a bad sign. I was thinking broken pipe and worried about damage to the apartment.

So I call the owner's handyman. He is like, "No, no. You must call the aircon people, it is not my problem." This is a pretty typical scenario here. You ask anyone to take responsibility and solve a problem and their first response is "No, cannot lahhh." But to be fair, the last time I checked, you rarely get water pouring out of the ceiling because of the airconditioner. That usually means plumbing.

In any case, I'm telling him there is no way this is the aircon. It is on the other side of the house from the aircon. He doesn't believe me. Tells me to call the aircon people again. Back and forth, back and forth. Finally, I convince him that I'm not just some nervous nelly and complaining about the doorknob not working (that's another story - the day the doorknob quit working and fell off, thereby trapping me inside the apartment until my husband came home. Oh, by the way, this is when I didn't have a cell phone either.) Anyways, so he comes over, takes one look in the kitchen, and is like "Ohhh, that is a leak. Very bad. I look."

Sigh. Long story short, hopefully we will have a new hot water heater soon. :)

Heading to the East Side

"Heading to the East Side"
7"x5" Oil on Gessoboard
$45 Unframed
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I swear, I walked just about all of Manhattan several times over while I was there! It is amazing how you can start at one location and continue on, for hours. There is always something else to look at "just four more blocks away" until you are completely and utterly exhausted (but in a good way). This was during one of my marathon walking days, I saw the light hitting the buildings on East 50th Street as I walked down Madison Avenue towards downtown. Ijust couldn't resist!

96 Amoy

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"96 Amoy Street"
6x16 Oil on Gessoboard
$300 Unframed
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This is a lovely pale yellow shophouse on Amoy Street, which is right near Chinatown. I loved the colors, as well as the reflections of the trees in the windows. The details in the crown molding were definitely tough, but I think I'm getting a lot better at doing them.

On a side note, my husband and I decided that this week is going to be a great week. No reason, we just decided it. So far KU won their game and are moving on in March Madness, so everything is looking good, right? Happy Monday!

Arches in Blue

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"Arches in Blue"
5"x7" Oil on Panel
$45 Unframed
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This painting is another one from my too-short time in NYC. This was during the day that I got to visit the New York Public Library - what a splendid building. The architecture was so neat, and the people watching was spectacular. I really enjoyed spending time there. This was during one of the days that was very overcast, so I tried to go to place that were inside to find good lighting.

And to continue my discussion from yesterday about exotic food that we had at the wedding, take for example, shark fin soup. (Here is my obligatory link to something about banning shark finning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_finning.) They did serve shark fin soup, which Singapore has finally banned from restaurants. I did try it because 1) the soup had already been made and 2) I didn't want to offend the people that had invited us by staging a moral protest. The soup was okay - basically the part I thought was an onion-y mushroom wound up being the bits of fin. It basically tasted like some mushrooms and onions in a chicken based broth. Not bad, but not exactly something I'd want to spend $100 per bowl on (and yes, that is the price in restaurants for a bowl of shark fin soup!). If we are going to eat something expensive and exotic, Bird's Nest Soup (explanation here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird%27s_nest_soup) is much tastier. And yes, the bird's nest basically consists of bird spit and twigs.

Reflections on Neon

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"Reflections"
7"x5" Oil on Panel
$45 Unframed
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This painting is the beginning of a small series I'm starting of scenes from New York City. I went to NYC last year for Karin's workshop, and during my week there I took tons of reference photos. I'm only just now getting to paint them, almost a year later! This scene itself is from when I first got there. The weekend was beautiful, but then the first day I really got to explore the skies just opened up and poured all day long. But because it happened in a city with lots of lights and pavement, the effect was really beautiful.

In crazy Asia news, we went to a Chinese wedding in Malaysia this past weekend. I'm not the biggest fan of Southern Chinese cuisine (most of it seems to be kind of fatty and oily and consist of a lot of arbitrarily hacked up animal bits) but what they had at the wedding was very tasty. I tried all kinds of new things, like abalone. What, might you ask, is abalone? It's a mollusk, and I've always seen $100 cans that look like the one below around Chinese New Year, but I've never had it before. I mean, if you didn't know how to cook it, would you just buy a $100 canned item and try it? To be fair, a lot of the delicacies around here can be, um, exotic.

Club St. Chic

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"Club St. Chic"
6"x16" Oil on Panel
$395 Unframed
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This painting is from Club St. in the Chinatown area. I thought the architecture as well as the colors were just something that I couldn't pass up!

Old Fashioned

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"Old Fashioned"
6x6 Oil on Panel
$80 Unframed
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My husband and I stumbled upon (quite literally) this classic while in the town of Galle, in Sri Lanka. It was just begging to be painted.

In other news, the luncheon last week was a great success for me. I sold some great work, and might even have some commissions coming out of it. Pretty exciting! Not to mention the fact that I was able to meet some other fantastic artists here in Singapore. Getting to network with other artists is such a rare treat for me.

As I'm looking at the best way to reach my audience, I think I am going to hold off on any fairs until the fall. So, in the meantime, I'm re-focusing on my Etsy store (you can visit it here) so that I can continue selling to people in the US. I'm also going to look further afield for my inspiration. I've travelled so much in the past couple of years, I really want to make good on those experiences. So, look for some fantastic paintings from NYC, Italy, the Lowcountry, and even the rest of SE Asia. I'm so excited about branching out!

Boon Tat

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"Boon Tat"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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This was a view at dusk on Boon Tat street looking down into the CBD. One of my regular wanderings around the city, on this particular one I dragged my husband along. Luckily, there is a 7Eleven every other block, so he was able to 7Eleven hop and not get too bored. Now what, you might ask, is 7Eleven hopping? Only the best kept secret in Singapore. 7Eleven hopping is kind of like bar hopping. Singapore doesn't have an open container law (they just haven't figured out to make one yet, I think), and there is a 7Eleven on just about every corner. Plus, when a beer can cost you $12, it is pretty much the cheapest in town. Cheers and happy Friday!

Telok Ayer Street

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"Telok Ayer"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Click Here to Purchase

This shophouse is on Telok Ayer Street, which is an area I have only recently found. There are all kinds of awesome restaurants in this area, many of them much higher end. It is kind of behind Club Street, while parallel(ish) to it. So unless you know to go down into this area off of Club Street, it is pretty easy to never really know it is there. I recommend going exploring.

One thing that is kind of neat/frustrating over here about life is that there is no big box store. If you want a widget, then you can get that widget (maybe not brand specific), you just have to find the specific widget store. There is some guy, somewhere, that sells that widget. You just have to find him. In some instances, it leads to things like an entire 7 story shopping mall that sells various electronic doodads and such. Sometimes I think Best Buy and Radio Shack are more efficient, but when you walk into the little tiny cubby-hole where they can custom build you a rocketship (well, if rockets weren't illegal here), you walk out with a story. Just musing today...

Galle Lighthouse

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"Galle Lighthouse"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Click Here to Bid

This painting is from our trip to Sri Lanka. The Dutch town of Galle is on the southwestern coast. It is a little Dutch fort town that is really picturesque. In fact, it is so picturesque that I tripped down three stairs on Christmas Day while looking at something neat and had to go to the ER. In a third world country. On Christmas Day. Now I have a fantastic and amazing scar, not to mention the story to go with it ;)

Also, we were putting the finishing touches on the AWA luncheon for this Friday. If you are here in Singapore, it is going to be an absolutely fantastic event. Local dance troupes, a Chinese face changer (I get to learn what that is!), and of course, the lovely AWA artists! Hope to see you there!

Emerald Hill

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"Emerald Hill Study"
8x10 Oil on Panel
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This is still one of my favorite paintings. This little guy was a study that I did for the larger commission, and the lovely ladies here at the American Women's Association asked me if they could use it for the cover of their magazine this month. So exciting! I can now have a press tab on my website, ha!

It has been a bit of a rollercoaster of  week, I must say. I really can't believe it is Friday.We said goodbye to one of our closest friends this week. She is repatriating back to the US. Very bittersweet, but I know that we will see each other again, so I refused to say goodbye. You make friends so quickly when you get over here, and we made so many wonderful friends. But then what happens if you are the people that stay past your two year contract period after all your friends move back? I don't know, we're entering uncharted territory here.

In any case, Happy Friday! I hope your week was as good as mine!