Landscape: The Oaks of the Williams' Home, Alva, FL

Yesterday evening, I called Shawn, asking if I could go to their farm to paint today. He said no problem and would tell his parents not to let the two old mean dogs out unleashed today. Therefore, I felt pretty at ease today. The two dogs did bark a while, but they were soon tired of doing that and simply left me alone. The oak woods over the house were so big and hung low that the shade under the foliage was very dark. I kept reminding myself that was the feeling I tried to express with the painting. The Williams don't live in the house but use it for storage. I happened to be out of 9 x 12 size panels, so I had to use a 8 x 11panel. If I had had a choice, I would have used 9 x 18 non-standard size to emphasize the darkness of the woods. The old house already had a spooky atmosphere with junk in disarray outside. You almost don't need any decorations tonight for the Halloween.



Mourning (Ink Wash)

This is actually a homework assigned for my drawing class. It is required to be a drawing of "two figures -- full major composition". Like the previous assignment "Needlework", I often try to include a degree of drama in it. That is my personal agenda, especially when there are two figures in the picture. It is not a work about patriotism. No, it is not. If asked about the meaning, I'd rather say it is an expression of sorrows over the loss of young lives, the lives of "have nots" and criticism of those who have  made indiscreet decisions on war and other people's lives while they themselves had their fathers' big pockets to hide in when they were called to go to war.



Landscape: Board Walk

This is a scene I painted facing the sun, so I had to use my umbrella. However, it was very windy this morning. The umbrella was clamped onto my easel but the wind was so strong that it almost blew over the whole thing. So I had to unclamp and close the umbrella. Then it blew off my palette. Now I have learned my lesson -- always keeping a large clip in my easel. This is the board walk where I went fishing last week. Hope you like the picture.



Name Sake

I am an artist. Even though it is a self-styled title, I am proud of it and have been working hard trying to make it worhy of its name. However, when people add the prefix con- to it and refer it to the kind of swindlers who try to cheat money out of innocent people, I am very unhappy. It seems as if either we artists are also involved in stealing money from people or those swindlers's craftiness is part of what we call art. I don't mind if people call them con-politicians, con-bankers, con-business people, but the last thing I would relate to them is artists like myself.

When I became an American around 30 years, I heard people talk about creepy business people like car salespeople, especially used car salespeople. Of course, there are good ones in the business and I hope I didn't overgeneralize it. However, my personal experiences with them are not very encouraging. I bought my first brandnew car almost at its stick price and used the bank recommended by the dealer for a loan. Later, I learned that people like car salespeople love new immigrants because they are suckers who don't know the tricks of capitalist business. That was true that before I bid China farewell, every commodity there had only one price nationwide. If people asked about the price, they were only considering whether they could afford it but never doubt otherwise. Since then I learned and rememberd my lesson. When Ford Company sent me a questionnaire on my second car-purchasing experiences, I was very nasty. I responded by saying, "I am not sure whether your salespeople have a highschool diploma or not, but just tell those cockroaches not to play mathematical tricks with customers, especially watch out for Asian customers."

Unfortunately, I suspect, in around 30 years, the experiences have come back to me now: when people notice your name sounds too anglo-sexon like mine, they take it for granted that you are a gullable bird for a good dish. It may have something to do with bad economy, but basically it is human nature, I think. Yesterday, I received a mail form Hong Kong or Singpore. And I took the time to seriously responded as follows:

Re: Urgent reply Needed

TO: 1 More1 recipient

CC: 1 recipientYou 1 More

BCC: recipientYou

Hide Details

FROM:

• weimin mo

TO:

• peterwongtungshun828@yahoo.com.hk

CC:

• disaster@leo.gov

Message flagged

Thursday, October 25, 2012 7:53 AM

Dear Dr. Wong or Thomas or Whatever:

Thank you for your business proposal and you estimation of my IQ, but it is kind of too low for a preson with a Ph.D. I understand, when economy is bad, it is not easy to do any business. It takes great creativity to be a successful con-artist. Chances are people like you who try to be a copycat of stale tricks end up in jail. What is the next thing you want to ask from me, screw loose? My bank account number or social security number?

I am a retire loafer but not retarded. I have some time on hand, so it really amuses me an ignoramus like you to make this kind of proposal to me after a dentist who tried to charge me for a service I never got and a realtor who rent my house and put a sign outside in an attempt to sell my house.

Work harder and come back again.

Weimin Mo

From: Dr Peter WONG Tung Shun <thomas_lkt@singnet.com.sg>
To: info@hsbltd.com
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2012 6:31 AM
Subject: Urgent reply Needed

Hello

I am Dr Peter WONG Tung Shun, A Chinese, I have a Mutual business proposal I'm proposing to you.
that I would want you to handle from your country, I will like to seek your consent first.

This project involves a huge specific amount which I can't mention here for security reasons.
It involve a transaction from my bank in Hong Kong, Am a Chinese man
and we are bound by laws here and this transaction requires a foreigner.

If you feel you can have this handled, please let me know by contacting me in my private email:peterwongtungshun828@yahoo.com.hk,
so that I send you an attached comprehensive details of this transaction.

Sincerely,
--
Dr Mr Peter WONG Tung Shun
Member of the executive Directors
(Hang Seng Bank Limited HK)

Life Drawing: Model Kate

This is a life drawing work done in the drawing class for two sessions. I did it pretty fast and, in fact, when Carl asked me to stop and not to overdo it, there were still two sittings, that is, around 40 minutes to go. I think I agreed with him. The drawing would have looked more beautiful if I hadn't gone on with her legs. The upper part of her body would be much more graceful by itself. Maybe I misunderstood in the first place and thought everyone had to draw the full-length. I sort of sensed it in the process but was indecisive. I should have followed my instict.



Alzheimer Patient and Edison Mall Sketches

Originally I planned to paint this morning Shawn's old house. When I opened my window, I noticed it was drizzling, maybe because Hurricane Sandy was nearing to our coast. Therefore, I E-mailed the manager of Alzheimer Unit at the Winkler Court  Nursing Home, Kirsten, saying I was going to paint her patients. Quickly I received her response, "Perfect." At first Kirsten made arrangement for another resident to pose for me, but by the time I set up everything and was ready to paint, Edward looked pretty comfortable in that chair. Seeing that, especially Ed was dressed up to the nneths in his light turquoise suit, Kirsten asked me to paint him instead.

Ed was a nice guy and he was happy to pose for me. The only problem was he dozed off from time to time. Kirsten had to remind him a couple of times. I have, in fact, pretty much used to situations like that. Usually I got the outline to the paper as quickly as possible and tried to adjust later for their shiftings. I never expected my models at Winkler to stay too long in the same pose. So in spite of his fidgetiness, I finished the acrylic portrait in two hours. Hope you like it.

Since I had to go to the Leaf Asian Supermarket to get some Tofu before I went back home, I stopped by at the Edison Mall with my sketchbook. This was the first time that I went there in a year and I noticed the cho cho train was gone. Therefore, I went to the Food Court and grabbed some sketches. See the following.

Taste-Offering Clerk

 

At Cell Phone Booth (1)

 

At Cell Phone Both (2)

 

Horse-Back Riding

 

At Food Court

 

Tired Shoppers ( The woman in the middle looks very skinny and sick)

 

 

 







One Pose, Four Different Media

't

 

This drawing is actually an assignment for the drawing class. We have to darw the same pose in four different media and better in mixed media. I used Conte crayon, Conte crayon mixed with sofe pastel, line over ink wash, and watercolor with graphite. I enjoyed it very much. When you experiment with media, there is always some unexpected effect. I forgot to use salt shaker with the ink wash. it is said to have a very interesting effect. One of my artist friends even mixed ink with coffee or tea. He said, "If it doesn't look good, don't use it. That's all." Truly, Artsits have been constently inventing new techniques or tools.



Today's catch

 

Hi, there:

See what I've got today? In two hours and a half, I caught seven catfish in the brackish water of the Carloosahachee River. Altoghether they weighed 9 pounds. I love catfish but it'll take me quite some time to gut and clean them. Thay make good soup. I left my Size 9 slipper for comparison.



Landscape: Morning at the Dock

This morning I couldn't help mself but decided to go to Owl Creek Boat Works again. Compared with some strange places with which to try my luck, I'd rather go to the boat works since I was sure there were alot of scenes and even people to paint, especially with such a rich variety of lines, shapes, and colors. Besides, it is available to me only on weekend. There would be so much going on with huge boats, machines, people that I would be in their way on the site. When I got there, I was immediately fascinated by the shadows cast over the boat and the giant lift towering over it.I knew it would soon get cloudy, so first thing first, I tried to catch the most changable items -- the shadows on boat, the storage cover in the background, and the color of water. When the sky turned overcast, the color of the water would become very different. Before long the clouds came climbing up and suddenly all the shadows disappeared. Fortunately I was quick enough to finish these things. The good thing was that in about a half hour the sky cleared up. I double checked the shadows. The dark water and the blue sky on the left side sort of balance out the dark blue lift on the right. Hope you like the picture.

When I arrived at the Boat Works, my friend Mark was working on his fishing boat. He said in a few weeks we might sail to either the Gulf or the Okeechobee Lake to fish if he could find a motor for the boat. However, he added that there were quite a few fish at their docks and they even jumped out of water. So tomorrow I will take a break and put a sign on my door "Gone Fishing!"

Landscape: Pumpkin Sale

Yesterday on my way home from FGCU, I saw a large number of pumpkins were piled on the lawn at the Congregational Church. The orange color looked so pretty that I decided to paint it today. Just a usual practice. Hope you like it.



Landscape: Shawn's Shack, Alva, FL

He promised me yesterday that he would be home today, so I went to paint Shawn's shack this morning. Anyone who is familiar with Florida country knows what he could find in a farmer's shack. Shawn's is very typical with stuff like boat, truck, truck top, tyres and some plastic tanks and farm spray equipment. The small coop-like thing on the right side of the picture is actually his dog house. Today when I got there, the first thing I did was to make sure his dogs were not a threat to me. They were out today and treated me nicely. Two of them came to sniff my pants, making me a little nervous. After that they didn't bother me at all. Eventually they just lay down next to me on the dirt road sleeping. Of course, I was more than happy to let sleeping dogs lie there. Hope you like the picture.

Landscape: A Century-Old Farmhouse off Highway 78

 

 

Originally, I planned today to paint horses at my friends Jack and Sue's farm. Unfrtunately, by the time I got there, Sue was about to be on her way to Memorial Hospital. She told me Jack had been hispialized for three weeks. At first the doctor told them it took only two days to do the surgery. However, right after the surgery, the doctor told her the cancer had spread to other parts of the body. I felt so sorry for Jack. Sue said she was going to get him back home. Of course, it was not a good day to paint on their farm. On my way home, I saw a guy was talking on the phone by the dilapidated old house with a tractor shack, where sometime ago I wanted to paint but two fierce dogs came to chase me. I had to give up. So today I stopped by and introduced myself. The guy's name was Sean Williams. He told me to paint his house tomorrow when I would be home and the two dogs would be chained. I was so happy that finally I got to know him and got permission to paint his house. But I didn't want to call it a day and go home empty-handed. I saw another old farmhouse behind the orange groves, so I took Cemetary Road (doesn't sound so good, isn't it) and turned right into its yard. An Amigo worked for the owner of the farm said no problem if I wanted to paint the house. So that's it. Hope you like it.



Needlework (Soft Pastel)

This is actually an assignment required by the drawing class: a full-toned soft-pastel figure on tinted paper. I didn't use soft pastel very often. I had a prejudice against pastels no matter it is soft or oil because I felt I was unable to mix colors with pastel and I believed that the patel colors were always raw in picture. This time I found myself really liked it. It is challenging, for sure, and often difficult to get the exact color you see in reality. However, I have realized now that there is plenty room for your creativity. There are alot of opportunities for you to take risks. I used to stay away from black color in my painting for fear of killing other colors. This time I realized black could be used to increase color value if you add a layer of other color on top and it could still blend in the whole-picture tone. I enjoyed exploring the uncharted sea. Hope you like the picture.



Retiree Frank

The protrait is an alla prima. I did it outdoors in the open. Originally I planned to make it as a submission to the Faces and Figures National Show at Punta Gorda. It was an interesting experience. I did it at Frank's fron yard and people curiously stopped to watch me paint. A motorbider drove back and forth three times and finally he stopped his motorcycle and yelled to me,"Your phone number." So I went over and gave his my card. Since Frank had so much stuff in his front yard that quite a few people stopped by thinking it was a garage sale. People wowed and ahed. It seemed everyone liked it including Frank. The only one who didn't like it was myself. I know people like it because of likeness. Honestly, likeness is not my concern. The reason I don't like it is because in the whole process of painting, I didn't do enough abstraction. A great number of masters have mentioned that as an artist, you have to go through the stage of abstraction, that is, to think how you can go beyond reality, to sublimate the image and/or the environment to make the view more powerfully touching than reality. I knew I didn't do enough on that stage. I may not submit it for the show, not because I am concerned that it would not be accepted or I would not win the award. No, winning award is an encouragement, but that is not the driving force in my art pursuit. It is simple because it is not my best.

Frank wasn't very happy the day I was painting him because someone had stolen his lawnmower the previous day. He lives on my daily bike route. Each day when I went by, I always saw him sitting in his yard. I like the contrast between his complexion and his hair. Therefore, one day I stopped and offered to paint him. He agreed to pose for me in his front yard.

In the middle of my painting him, there was an interlude. A car pulled over in front of Frank's yard when a yang man hopped out  and rushed into the house. Shortly after he entered the house, I heard he was quarreling with Frank's wife inside. I asked Frank who the young man was. He said that was his grandson. Then, he shook his head sighing, "No respect, no respect at all." I noticed his eyes welled in tears. Later, the yong man came out of the house and kept yelling. I could not hold myself any more. I said loudly, "Young man, that is not the way to talk to your grandma. We don't do that to outsiders, to say nothing, she is your grandma, the loved one." To my surprise, he quieted down. I was happy I stepped in. Afterwards, I thought of my own culture. I remember that Ge Young, the author of Ugly Chinese once said, one of the weaknesses many Chinese share is the fact that they are very unwilling to admit when they have made a mistake or hurt people. It is difficult for them to apologize, more so among family members. There is even a false reasoning in Chinese culture. A popular old saying is "there is no fighting without love; there is no yelling without closeness." To me it is more like "familiarity breeds contempt." If that is the case, that means there is a problem which needs to be fixed and it should not be norm. Lev Tolstoy said,

“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.”

Landscape: Owl Creek Boat Works, Alva, FL

Yesterday afternoon when I was thinking where I should go to paint this weekend, I got a call from my friend Mark, a boat worker who used to work at Sweetwater Landing. The reason he called was because he wanted to let me know that he had moved to another work place and changed his phone number. I immediately asked about the new place, Owl Creek Works, and decided to paint it today.

Owl Creek Road is a small winding trail off Highway 78. If there is another vehicle coming  in the opposite direction, at least one of the vehicles has to get on the grass to make room for the other one. However, at the end of the road, the boat yard is really big. As soon as I arrived, I knew right away what I was going to paint. As you can tell from the picture, the view is so full of rhythm.  Line and shape provide a rich variety: straight lines, curves, geometric shapes and biomorphic shapes --all in one scene.

It was a bright sunshiny day but kind of windy. Fortunately I stood next to a huge canvas boat work tent which gave me shade from the sun as well as blocked the wind. Hope you like the picture.



Keep Smiling

These two self-protraits are requirements of the drawing class. The first I made was kind of too serious. Then I remember what one of my ex-colleagues's reminding words. Whenever I felt frustrated, he always urged me to keep smiling. So today when I began to make a second self-portrait, I told myself to make a smiling face. I think it is necessary to keep smiling if we try to be resilient and survive the turbulent world of today even though it does not always show that way.

There are two pictures of smiling images which I would never forget. One, of course, is Mona Lisa. It was so important to DaVinci that he took Mona Lisa wherever he went in his life. Art historians have been working hard to know why as well as the lady's mysterious smile. Some researchers concluded that Mona Lisa was actually a disguised image of Da Vinci himself. They even used X-ray to overlap their faces in order to prove what they thought they have discovered. I am not sure how much people are convinced of their finding.

The second picture is a photo. It was taken during WWII. In the picture an arrested French guerilla fighter is smiling bravely in the face of Nazi German firing squad. Standing in the rubble, the guerilla soldier's life might be ended right after the picture was taken, but he didn't care. The picture is so powerful that the smiling face has turned into my memory. We don't realize very often but it does take courage to keep smiling no matter what and, also, smiling does beget courage, too.





Eden Vineyard, Alva, FL

This morning, the climate was good. The weatherman said at least there was no rain before noon and the highest temperature was only 90 degrees. I drove along SR 80 (Palm Beach Blvd.) I tried a couple of small lanes but ddn't have much luck. Well, not exactly. At the dead end of a road named Herzog, there was a big house with a covered corridor surrounding it on all four sides. On the drive side there was a covered staircase leading to the second floor. Underneath there was a car and all kinds of stuff scattered around in disarray. There were even cables or ropes hanghing from second-floor railing. I noticed the different planes, which contrasted each other in lighting, were very paintable with reflections from many things such as the top of the car, the staircase, etc.. I almost wanted to move stuff from my trunk to set up when I didn't feel very safe and the disorderly mess at the dead end of road gave me a creepy feeling and reminded me of the fierce dogs I once ran into. So I stopped and drove back onto SR 80.

Before long I saw the Eden Winery sign and remembered that I had been longing to go there but never had a chance. Therefore, I exited SR 80 and turned in Little Lane. There was a winding country road inside with puddles of water here and there from last night rain. I was early and there was not a soul in this place. At the end of the road a sign says "Open Daily 11 AM -- 4 PM". It was only a little past 8 AM, not quite one hour after daybreak in Florida. I immediately saw there was a shed next to the winery retail store. I stopped my car and took my painting kit out of the trunk. Of course, Adam and Eve were not there and must be somewhere in the vineyard having fun. It was very bucolic and, when I was setting up, two cows came to be nosy and almost touched my palette with their nose. I told them that the paint I used was chemical and might be hazardous to their health, so eventually they went away. I was glad I caught the light of the morning sun on the shed and everything it touched upon. Hope you like the painting. 



Half Truth

Mitt Romney and President Obama have been accusing each other of being not truthful. In fact, they both told us only half truth for some issues.

In the most recent issue of Time magazine, Richard Stengel mentions at Editor's Desk that "[w]e are suffering from a national case of confirmation bias" and that according to scientific studies, "voters with more information are likely to be more biased than those who know less." I can't help but think of an old saying, whose author is unknown:

The trouble with half-truths is that people tend to believe the wrong half.

That may prove what one smart American said is right:

Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.
 — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Landscape: Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, Fort Myers, FL

Yesterday evening, I went to downtown Fort Myers to the Center for the reception of Carl Schwartz and Celeste Borah's art show. The couples' paintings are gorgeous in expression of color and light. Whe I walked out of the building, I realized the Art Center itself was kind of pretty paintable. Among all the buildings in downtwon Fort Myers, the Art Center is probably one of a few with an impressive architectural personality. So I decided to paint it this weekend. Since I knew there would always be cars parking in front of it, which is good because the rigid straight line of the curb could be broken. In case some dark cars came to park there, I drove my white Mazda there to occupy the space. This arrangement was out of the consideration that I didn't want an object with a large chuck of paint dark in value placed on lower part of the picture to knock it out of balance. Therefore, I put my own car in the picture. Overall, I like the composition and the morning atmosphere. Hope you like it, too.



Portrait: Ellie, New Resident at Winkler Court

This is a 9x12 portrait in Acrylic, which is the size and medium I regularly use whenever I go to Winkler Court to do portrait because it is the right size for the printer at UPS store where I make hard copies of portraits I made at Winkler Court. I always mail the copy to the nursing home in addition to an electronic photo I send by E-mail.

Ellie is a graceful and thoughtful old lady. She is also a new resident of the Alzheimer unit. She was a sweet talker. However, she had trouble keeping her memory straight. She easily forgot what I told her a minute ago. She kept asking me how many children I had and I had to repeat the same response numerous times. She was obviously a personable lady and kept calling me a nice guy and she asked if my children loved art and whether I taught art to them. I answered all her questions. She said she was sure my children loved me very much and she was happy for me.

In spite of the nice chat, Ellie might be the one at Winkler, who made me feel the saddest while painting. For one thing, she was so forgetful that she constantly forgot she was posing for me. She either moved her chair or simply was lost in her thoughts and rested her chin in her palm. When she looked at the portrait I made, she asked, "Is that me? I thought it was someone else." Evidently, while physically she might still look normal, all her social communications and confusions of mind told me that a meaningful life was already gone. I could not but feel sad for talking to her made me feel like walking into a house right after it was tossed over by a terrible tsunami.



Narrative Portrait: Old Cowboy Ray

In today's drawing class, we did a clothed medel, Old Cowboy Ray. We were told to look and think about the model before we started. When we drew, we should try to express how we felt about him or thought of him. Ray was pretty tall. However, he seemed to have trouble straightening his back. his bushy eyebrow, ponytail, unkempt beard, his Indian walking stick, and the way he held the cigar in the mouth, all reminded me of Dirty Henry, even Captain Hook or Popeye.  Then, he must be a sailor on horseback. Anyway, that was what I was thinking of him when I was drawing him. Hope you like it.



Break Dancer and Ballerina

Carried away by the effect of line over ink wash, I did another one today. Hope you like it.