Citylights 1

"Citylights 1"
8x10 Oil on Panel
Click Here to Purchase

This is a scene from Koh Samui, Thailand in the fisherman's village of Bophut. I just loved Koh Samui, and this little village was really cool. It faced west, so the sunsets were just spectacular. It was also not the main town on the island, so we were spared from all the Cancun-like antics of Chaweng beach (which is beautiful, to be honest, I just didn't miss all the drunk tourists crashing their mopeds). After dark a market of sorts was set up along the main road (really the only road) and you could just walk along and enjoy the wares for sale. This was a painting of the main drag, just at sunset.

Well, after a full week of looking, I bit the bullet and bought a new camera. Totally hurt my soul, but I have to be able to take photos to work on paintings. Kind of part of the job description, no? I'm not going to be painting much the rest of the month, unfortunately. The holidays take precedence! Lots of administrative, end of the year stuff to take care of. But, as a gift to myself, I purchased a 12x24'' frame and I am going to do a painting for ME. I can't wait. If somebody is interested in buying it, that would be fantastic, but I haven't painted something to go on my walls in forever, so that is what I'm doing. That'll be my project for the next week or two. I might even have it done and ready to hang by the Christmas party next week!

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 89"

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 89"
6x12 Oil on Panel
Click Here to Purchase

Whew, this has been a whirlwind week. I'm just flat out exhausted, to tell you the truth. Last week was another week for The Fair at Goodwood Park Hotel. It went well, made some great sales, met some new friends and collectors again. It just turns into long, long days. 

I'm a little dispirited because somehow in setting up all the Christmas decorations and getting ready for guests on Monday, my camera has gone missing. My best guess is that it somehow wound up in a bag of trash from decorations and was accidentally thrown out. Because I have literally torn this house apart looking for it. But every time I think it is lost, I remember the family legend about my grandmother "losing" a family ring that was so well hidden (in case of thieves) she didn't find it for years! Unfortunately, I don't have years to wait to find this camera. The worst part (besides having to buy a new camera) is that all of the pictures I've taken in the past month are lost along with the camera, including a commission I was working on and all the photos I took while I was in Vietnam for a week. Luckily, I've been backing up my memory card every month, but unluckily, it had been a month since I backed it up. Sigh.

Beachin'

"Beachin'"
6x12 Oil on Panel
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I've taken a little break this week from the shophouses, and expanded into the rest of Southeast Asia. It is definitely a challenge, and the paintings are taking much longer than the little shophouse ones, but I also think that the quality is coming out very nicely. This is a fond memory from Koh Samui, an little tiny island in the middle of the South China Sea, off the east coast of Thailand. 

Also, Blogger seems to have eaten one of my posts, about which I apologize. I posted number 68, but then it never appeared on the blog or on my list of entries. It has disappeared somewhere, probably the same place that socks go when only one of a pair comes out of the dryer. Those gremlins are awful!

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 68

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 68"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Click Here to purchase

This is a little scene of several shophouses together in Chinatown. The is one of the main drags going through the area. I just love how different the architecture and facades are on all of them, but they still seem to coordinate color wise!

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 53

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 53"
6x6 Oil on Panel
$110 Available Here

I really loved this little shophouse.  It was on an overcast day, so all of the local color was close to the actual colors you saw, such a rare occurrence in life.  This made such an interesting abstracted little composition.

Pardon my not posting for almost three weeks.  I was in NYC for Karin Jurick's workshop (which was awesome, and I'll go into later).  I had full intentions to continue posting through the workshop and the week after when I was home with family, but it was just crazy.  I'm finally back in Singapore and unpacked, and trying to wrap my head around everything I learned and experienced.  Just trying to (literally) take inventory of everything and get organized enough to continue on.  This is going to be a super-hectic summer.  Phew!

Final-ly Done!

I am finally finished with my semester.  Time to start packing for the US! This was a scene from Florence, right after the sun was setting.  The sky was a phenomenal electric blue, against the orange of the tower.  Just spectacular.

This project was a doozy.  I think I've learned a lot about myself in the past couple of months, especially when doing this project.  This is 24x36 inches, the largest I have worked so far.  I think I much prefer smaller paintings.  I really love being able to knock out one, if not more, paintings in one sitting.  Doing a larger one, maybe 18x24 every now and then is a nice change up, but I don't think I'm going to make any kind of habit out of it.  Plus, it is much more difficult to ship larger paintings from Asia.  :)

Tuscan Hillside and Dumpster Diving

"Tuscan Hillside"
9x12 Oil on Panel
Click Here to Purchase

This was a nice little side painting to do for class.  I've been getting a bit weary of the shophouses.  Sometimes you need a break when doing the same subject over and over again.  In any case, this was the view from the villa we visited in Tuscany on our wine and cooking class tour.  My husband learned how to "swirl" wine properly and make a mean ravioli from scratch.  Mmmmm. Yum.

This weekend I had another twilight zone experience.  As I was walking up the back road to the studio, I saw this dumpster:

Only in Singapore is everything so perfectly manicured that even the dumpsters are overflowing with flowers, right?  Ha! Well what happened is that when a new business opens, moves locations, etc, (especially if it is run by important people or is influential), lots of clients and vendors and other business owners will send a professionally arranged bouquet as congratulations.  These bouquets are usually HUGE.  They're usually on these big stands that make the bouquet as tall as a person, and two to three feet wide.  Well, this wedding coordinator had its grand opening, and what you see in the picture is just what they couldn't fit on the sidewalk in front of their front door.

Being my mother's daughter and loving flowers, I decided to go dumpster diving.  Yes, yes I did.  If I do say so myself, the results were pretty fantastic.  It hurt my soul to see such beautiful fresh flowers just thrown away so callously.

Best. Dumpster dive.  Ever. :)  I think my mother would be proud.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 49

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 49"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Available at Chan Hampe Gallery

I thought this house was really interesting.  Also nestled right outside of Little India, this is about three houses down from the incredibly ornate Rococo houses.  I really loved this one because against the bright blue sky, it almost looked a bit like something out of the southwest.  Sort of like a mesa rising out of the jungle - ha!  The really interesting part is that the bottom 2/3 of the house (which aren't in the painting) are just as elaborate as the rest of the street.  This guys is having a bit of an identity crisis!

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 48

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 48"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Available at Chan Hampe Gallery

I'm still just totally drained and having a hard time painting.  Thank goodness I have already completed some of these for the show.  Every time I step in front of the canvas and try to touch paint to it, I seem to just mess it up.  Running a brilliant streak of wipe-offs, if I do say so myself.  Part of that is that I've been trying to give myself a break from the shophouses recently.  I'm a bit burnt out on them, to tell you the truth.  I've finished 79, another 21 to go in my 100 series, but since my daily painting journal is only on No. 48, I have a bit of backlog left. :)  Here's to hoping that I can get in a good rhythm soon.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 47

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 47"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Available at Chan Hampe Gallery

This is another really neat Rococo shophouse just outside of Little India.  It is actually probably 5-6 shophouses, but they all have the exact same design motif and coloring.  This is one of the more unique ones that I have found here.  I think the round windows are really cool and different.  The color scheme on the house is also a very interesting one.  It is a combination of a light sea green and a raw sienna kind of color.  Very Art Nouveau in coloring.

As an aside, I had something totally weird and random happen to me this morning.  I was out on my morning run, just drenched in sweat, in workout clothes and clearly huffing and puffing (I was on my walking interval), when a local guy runs up and sort of walks slightly ahead but next to me.  He stops all of a sudden, kind of turns around and asks me something.  I have my headphones on, so I can't hear.

Now, the first weird thing about this is that locals just don't randomly talk to expats on the street.  It's very much like NYC that way.  Not so aggressive, but if you try to say hi or talk to them, you get very strange looks most of the time.  It's very much a self-contained society where you keep to yourself and don't talk to strangers.  Once you have a common ground of some kind, (like in my art studio) people are super friendly and talkative, but on the street - not so much.

In any case, I can't really hear him, I figure he's asking for directions.  He's kind of nervous and mumbling and holding his cell phone like a security blanket.  So I take out the other earphone and ask him to repeat what he just said.  "Oh um, can we exchange contact info, like phone numbers, so that we can be friends?"

"What?"

"Exchange phone numbers for friends."

At this point, I'm so weirded out by the fact that someone actually stopped me on the street to talk to me, much less ask for my number in a very 6th grade kind of way, that I think I just mumbled no and ran (it was time for my running interval) off.  It was just very strange.  Best my husband and I could figure is he was maybe dared by some friends or something.  Guys just don't go up and approach women here, much less foreigners.  In any case, I thought you might enjoy one of the strange daily occurrences that happen when you live abroad.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 46

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 46"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Available at Chan Hampe Gallery

This is a lovely little "wedding cake" house in Joo Chiat.  Lots of white on white moulding, creating a very sublime, mellow palette.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 45

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 45"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Available at Chan Hampe Gallery

Another wonderful scene from Chinatown.  The light hitting the green and cream colored house was a really interesting combination with a warm/cool pattern of light.  Plus, it was fun to see the lanterns stretching across the house.  That is always a fun little touch.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 44

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 44"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Available at Chan Hampe Gallery

This is a shophouse from the outskirts of Little India.  Just on the outskirts, kind of in little hidden areas, you can find some really neat houses on the side streets.  There are a couple that are just incredible examples of the Rococo style of shophouse.  They are incredibly ornate and have tons of molding on them, columns, paint, etc.  They are dressed to the nines and ready for a night out on the town.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 43

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 43"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Available at Chan Hampe Gallery

Phew!  Thank you so much to everyone that came to the show last night.  I really appreciated all the kind words and support.  We had a lot of fun - several glasses of wine, good conversations, great friends.  All in all, a spectacular night.  Now if the laundry I have fallen behind in doing would just fold itself....  And as soon as I can grab the memory card from Tony's camera (one of the other artists at the studio who was awesome about taking pictures for me) I will post some pictures!  Thank you again, for everything.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 41

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 41"
6x8 Oil on Panel
Available at Chan Hampe Gallery

'Twas the night before opening, and all through the gallery, not a creature was stirring, not even a... Um yeah.  So, forgive me for not being a poet.  All of my paintings are hung, over 70 of them!  It has taken so much work to get this finished and ready for a show.  I painted about 79 shophouses, framed 72 of them, have scanned, emailed, hung, etc, etc, etc... Keep your fingers crossed for a good turnout tomorrow night!

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 40

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 40"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Available at Chan Hampe Gallery

Happy Easter!  I am definitely feeling homesick this morning.  Easter is still a big holiday in my family.  We usually gather at my grandmother's house, and as all of us cousins have grown up, the tradition has evolved.  Even though there is one in the new generation, my grandmother still has all of her grandchildren (the great grand is only 1.5 now) hunt for eggs.  Now that some of us are 30, it has turned into more of a full-contact flag football game than egg hunting.  In any case, my brother said that he hip-checked one of my particularly competitive cousins to get to the winning egg, and dedicated it to me.  Awwww.  I hope everyone had a wonderful day with family and friends.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 39

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 39"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Available at Chan Hampe Gallery

I just loved this blue house.  Couldn't resist it.  It is this bright, sky blue with crisp white trim.  Plus, there were all kinds of fun shadows happening with the shutters.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 36 - SOLD

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse Series No. 36"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Available through Chan Hampe Gallery

I'm really starting to enjoy these night scenes.  A fair portion of the shophouses are white or cream colored. So often during the day, the sun is strong (or its super hazy), the houses are white, and there is very little shadow.  In other words, it's a pretty uninteresting scene, except for the fact that the shophouses have really interesting architecture.  But then, once the signs light up at night, new colors and shapes show up, and an otherwise drab scene becomes quite beautiful.

This weekend two of the other artists in the studio made me try Stinky Tofu.  I'm a pretty adventurous eater, but usually for my general meals, I do tend to eat western food.  It's easier to pack a sandwich than to try and make something local.  And eating from the hawker's isn't the healthiest option (a lot of it is fried rice and noodle varieties - not good for a girlish figure).  So they seem to think I don't eat enough local fare, even though I do eat a fair share.  In any case, they made me try stinky tofu.  It smelled like a combination of dirty socks and body odor, but the first bite I tried wasn't so bad.  Kind of just tasted like tofu.  So then I made my mistake.  I tried the second bite.  As I was eating that second bite, it was much more pungent and somehow the taste very much tasted like the first bite smelled.  It tasted like I was eating dirty socks.  And then after I finished, the taste/smell seemed to get stuck in my mouth and nose. I couldn't get rid of it.  Ungh.  Not my thing, I can tell you that.  But the tea boiled eggs weren't too bad, and there was another dessert kind of thing that tasted a bit like apple crumble.  So if anyone offers you stinky tofu, it is, in fact, stinky.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 35 - SOLD

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 35"
6x6 Oil on Panel
Available at Chan Hamp Gallery

After the debacle yesterday, I talked to my husband.  He reminded me that I had been in the studio for 10 days straight and hadn't taken a day off.  I'd been feeling creatively drained and like I couldn't paint myself out of a box for the last couple days, so I did what he suggested.  And it was glorious.  I do kind of wish today would be my last day of painting for this show, but now I'm much more refreshed and focused.  I think if I had gone into the studio yesterday, I would have been fighting a nasty uphill battle.

Sometimes you just need a day off.  Happy Friday!

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 34

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 34"
6x6 Oil on Canvas
Available at Chan Hampe Gallery

This is a cozy little hostel in Little India.  I don't really think of Singapore as having hostels, but there are a few available and they are quite nice from what I hear.

I am completely chagrinned.  The contact form for my website was somehow winding up in my spam folder of my email (fixed that issue).  A very lovely lady over here had contacted me about purchasing three paintings.  Unfortunately, because the email wound up in my spam folder, I didn't see it for two weeks.  I go to call her back.  Cell phone is dead.  Great.  Put phone in charger, write an email apologizing profusely for gmail and my website not playing well together.  Hit send.  Since this is clearly an important email, I want to move it from the spam folder into my inbox.  Well, right next to "move to inbox" is the "DELETE FOREVER" button.  Guess which one I accidentally clicked?  And since it is the spam folder, there aren't any little pop-up boxes asking if you are sure you want to delete it.  Thank goodness I had at least written down her email address, so I was able to write another email explaining again what an idiot I felt like and that I had lost her phone number with the email.  Hopefully she will forgive such silliness and get back to me.  I am just mortified about it, but I thought you all might appreciate a laugh on your Thursday afternoon/evening (or Friday am if you are here in the Sling).

I think this is a sign that I need a day off.