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
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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
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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!

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 30

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 30"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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Another fantastic shop in Chinatown. There are so many wonderful shophouses in this area, in really beautiful shades of cherry red. 

Life is crazy right now. The AWA luncheon is next week, which will be showcasing 10 local AWA artists. It is exciting, but definitely made life pretty wild. The program for the luncheon itself looks spectacular, I know all the ladies involved have put in tons of effort to have it be an amazing experience.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 17

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 17"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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Happy Monday! This is another re-work. It's been brightened and tightened. Kind of sounds like a bad advertisement for plastic surgery, doesn't it? Ha. In any case, this was the original version...

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 24

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 24"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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Well, it has been one hell of a week. TGIF, right? Have you ever had one of those weeks where everything just seems to not go right? Well, rather than act like Eeyore (I really have felt like I keep losing my dang tail this week), I'm going to count 5 good things that I can think of that happened this week:

1. It is Friday

2. It is 5 o'clock somwhere HERE! (I have a margarite in front of me as I type....)

3. I met a new artist this week! He's another DPW artist - Tilen Tin

4. I found out that I've been mailing things wrong. There is a MUCH cheaper way to do it. That means exciting news I'll announce in another couple of weeks.

5. I sold my first print this week! Go check out my Etsy store!

6. I got two days in the studio this week.

Okay, so I found 6 good things. Normally, I'd be frustrated I only got two days in the studio. But, I get to paint full time. How lucky am I? And being in the studio for a full day today really put me in a much better place. So, I'm not going to dwell on the time I didn't get t spend in the studio, I'm just going to be thankful for the time I did get.

Life. Is. Good. HAPPY FRIDAY!

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 26

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"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 26"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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This was another re-work of one of my older pieces from the spring show. I think the colors are much brighter now. I had a lot of fun with these blues. Happy ceruleans and cobalts mixed with lovely warm tones. Happy Shelby.

Safari Dawn

"Safari Dawn"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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This was from one of our mornings on our safari in Sri Lanka. It was such a beautiful country, with the most spectacular sunrises and sunsets. I've never really seen a place that had so much red in their dusk and dawn. We loved doing the safari, but getting up at 5:30 every morning was not easy! Luckily, we were rewarded with some really neat animals, like monitor lizards, foxes, mongeese, and peacocks. Lots and lots of peacocks.

In other news, I have a BIG announcement! I've started selling prints of my shophouses in my Etsy store. My lovely sister-in-law is helping me with shipping in the US, so the shipping rates are reasonable. The reason why I hadn't done something like this earlier was because 1) I didn't have the resources to print archival prints and 2) shipping one print to the US with a tracking number (very necessary with international mail) cost like $50!!!! It was more than the painting or print itself almost! (Click the photo to visit my Etsy store)

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 100

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"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 100"
6x16 Oil on Panel
SOLD
Click Here to see other available artwork

Ahhh... the end feels so sweet. This, my friends, is the last of my 100 shophouses. Like I mentioned earlier, one of my favorite collectors has already purchased this guy. She got the first one and the last one, which makes me super happy. I've had so much fun with this series, and I will continue, but not quite the same way. Firstly, I'm still re-working some of my favorites from earlier in the series. Not all of them could be saved, but some of them are coming out really awesome, which makes me very excited. As for completely new shophouses - I still want to keep pushing the cropping and perspective angles that I've been working with. But as for the title - well, it's a little cumbersome. Can I just mention how tired I am of typing "Singapore Heritage Shophouse?" :)

Plus, one of my other collector's had a fantastic request. He wanted to know where the shophouses were, so from now on, the title will more or less be the address of the house. Maybe if I really know the right address I can even tag it in PaintMap or Blogger Location settings. It'll be a nice little chronicle of Singapore and how things change over time.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 33

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"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 33"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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This is honestly one of my favorite shophouses that I've done, and it's a re-work of an older one. The first version I thought was "subtle" but after letting it sit for a while, I thought that subtle was closer to "dirty" as far as the color went. Now I just love the purples and greens together. The white trim was tough to do, but I think it turned out pretty well. For some reason, doing shadows on purple objects is really tough. I don't know why. And I always have hard times with the whites. But this came out quite nicely, I think!

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 8

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 8"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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This is another re-work, from the Little India area. Really a night and day difference. I can't believe how much I've learned over the past year. 

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 4

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"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 4"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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Whew. It has been a wonderful two weeks having my parents in town. So much for getting any painting done, though! I'm warming back up with some of my former shophouses that I've refreshed and re-painted. I realized that many of them were drawn perfectly fine, the shadow and composition was fine, the color was not fine. They needed some cleanup.

For example, here is what this one used to look like:

Much, much better. See, you too can save some old paintings!

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 99

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"Singapore Shophouse No. 99"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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Whew, busy busy week. I got to do some "research" on Tuesday at the Raffles Billiards room. I'm working on a commission for a client of the Billiards Room, which is where they have these fantastic (and super expensive) weekend brunches. Raffles Hotel is the one of the oldest hotels in Singapore, and is really where you can find the strongest traces of old British Colonial style. It has as much history as you can get in Singapore, and is home of the Singapore Sling. It has some fantastic food, which I very much enoyed while taking some photos for this painting.

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 98

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"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 98"
6x12 Oil on Panel
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This is another night scene from Emerald Hill, this time I was playing around with a slightly different cropping. I just love this house. One painting I really want to do (when I have time!) is of several of these Emerald Hill houses as one long painting. I think it would be really cool. Someday!

Today I am heading out to do some research - at Raffles Hotel. One of my commissions is of the Billiards room, which serves a fantastic weekend brunch and weekday lunch. I will be participating in the lunch today - all in the name of research, of course!

Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 97

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"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 97"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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Happy Monday! It has been a hell of a roller coaster so far this year. Tank, our pup back home, got out of surgery and is going to be fine, thank goodness. I finally pulled off all the bandages from my various falls over the past couple weeks and they are healing pretty well - minus one nasty scar on my shin. But the story behind that one will only get better with time, right? In 5 years it will be from exploring some hidden ruins and involve crazy ambulance chases through the Sri Lankan countryside. My parents come into town this weekend, so I'm trying to get a ton of painting done and the house pulled together in time for their arrival. Once they get here we are going to play Tomb Raider in Vietnam and Cambodia. So exciting!

I figured I would lead the week with this sunny little shophouse from Little India. I've painted this house before, but I wanted another crack at it - and I must say that I am super happy with the results.