Noir et Blanc

9"x12" canvas
Medium: acrylic

Elizabeth

26" x 22" Medium: Acrylic

It's been a year since I published an artwork. My husband and I have been so busy on a big project that it consumed all of  my time, even to paint. Finally I squeezed it in my schedule, and disregarded my household chores for almost a month. Thank goodness for laundromats, dine outs and my understanding husband who took over most chores and never complained about his wrinkled uniforms (I love you!).

I wanted to practice making portraits...was so amazed by other artists who can make portraiture so life-like and full of emotions. My self-portrait (the one I made a few years ago) looks like a dead fish next to theirs. Anyway, here's the finished product of my latest venture. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome, but I'd still grade myself with a big, fat NI (Needs Improvement). Maybe most painters are never fully satisfied with their works, that's why they never stop painting. Or maybe that's just me.

Can't wait to start on my next project. I still have a few blank canvases at home.

Tea Time of the Monarch

Here's my new project trying the trompe l'oeil technique. For all the amateurs (like me) out there, trompe l'ooeil is a french term for 'deceive the eye'.  It is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions (source: Wikipedia). This is the technique that most artists use for murals or frescoes to make their art appear life-like.

30" x 30" Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

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I don't know if this will be the style of all my succeeding works, but I'm pretty much leaning towards Realism (is this an actual art term?). I think I need a crash course on Basic Art 101. :P


Total duration of art project: 4 weeks

A Place in the Sun

Acrylic on Canvas ; Size: 32" x 40"

Again, this was taken during one of our summer trips in the beautiful island of Palawan. He's a worker at the resort, carting sacks of cement to and from the stock shed. It must be a huge bonus to view such landscape while working, not even CEOs have this kind of advantage, methinks.

Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk

I was on a Jeff Buckley mode last March. His song, Lover You Should Come Over and cover, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, was on loop on my player and in my head. His voice is as haunting as the proses of the songs he wrote. As I was googling his discography, I stumbled upon the title of his unfinished album, "Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk". This gave me inspiration for the theme of my next art project.

28.5" x 18.5"; Medium: Acrylic

I'm patting myself on the back for finishing this in less than a month. :)

Untitled

First painting for the year.

Decided to paint on a small canvass just to start my engine running. I really hope I could finish at least one artwork a month.

9x12" Medium: Acrylic

Vietnamese Waffle Vendor

Last April '09, my husband and I went to Vietnam for a much deserved break. As we were strolling along the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, we saw this vendor selling waffles and making it on the spot with her cast iron griddle and charcoal burner.

28.5 x 18.5" Medium: Acrylic

This is really a new feat for me: painting printed cloth and objects inside a plastic.

Might have to re-sign my name here. Having a hard time seeing it myself. :P

Hiyas, A Self Portrait

I painted this last December '09.

16" x 14", Medium: Acrylic

Chicken Vendor

Took a photo of this old lady selling chickens in the market of Baguio during our trip early last year.

I had no intention of using her as a subject for my next painting project, but after a few months of scrolling for pictures, I stumbled upon this photo one more time.


I've never used people as subject before. It disheartens me since I really don't know how to sketch a person let alone paint them. But this really challenged me, I've got nothing to lose anyway.

12" x 19", Medium: Acrylic

I think I made her hand a tad bit dark. :P

It took me about 6 months to finish this, but there was a lot of procrastination and self-intimidation in between.

The Courtship

12" x 18", Medium: Acrylic

During the breeding season of peafowls, a peacock exposes his magnificent feathers to seduce the peahen, the peacock with the best display gets the flock of peahens. A bit of trivia: peahens tend to mate with the peacock who has the most eye spots.

It never fails to amaze me whenever I get the chance to witness this courtship dance.

Meadow Anemone

Again, the subject was grabbed from the net.  I was completely enamored by the texture and how fibrous the leaves and the bud are. I painted this in 3 canvasses to make it a series.

Size: (3) 9x12 Medium: Acrylic

Calla Lily

Grabbed a photo of this flower from the internet...I think it was shot in macro.

Size: 12x18 Medium: Acrylic

Back To The Start...

After so many years of not holding brushes and mixing paints, my parents commissioned me back in '09 to make a series of paintings for a space that they bought. The theme was flora, the size of the canvasses 8x8 small. It was also the time that I shifted from oil to acrylic, because of my weak lungs and my concern for the environment. 

This is my favorite among the three

I didn't anticipate that acrylic paints dry faster than oil, had a hard time mixing and blending. So I did my research, and found out that you need a mister or water spray to keep the paints from drying. Oh well...