Back to Art
Fine Art Training
I started my classical fine art training by Jonathan Hardesty in 2006. Jon never let me continue the next artwork unless I achieved one-hundred-percent accuracy of proportion, value, edges and colors.
Jon's restrict instructions disciplined me to be a critical painter. This charcoal life drawing was the final project before I moved on to oil painting.
Oil Painting from Life
I was trained to paint only from life, either a still life in the studio or plein air painting. "Paint what you see, not what you think." was such a valuable guideline of realistic painting. The realistic quality of this nautilus shell was the result of the training.
Seascape Plein Air Painting
I am a big fan of minimalism. My first seascape plein air oil painting was an eye-opening experience to me. Although this one was just a rough painting, I got to taste a little bit of the magical power and excitement of painting with simple and bold strokes.
My plein air painting mentor Frank Serrano is a master plein air painter. I was so impressed by the precision of the value, shape, and colors on his work while he was demonstrating in the class at the Long Beach in 2016.
My Ultimate Destiny
Life often has a way of distracting one from their dreams, but after my soulmate's persistent persuading over several years, I finally picked up my paint brush and went back to art...my ultimate destiny.
One day, when I was painting the emperor penguins based on the pictures of my third Antarctica expedition, I discovered my true calling: to reveal the extreme beauty of Antarctica!
The beauty of that completely isolated white planet is not just about the dramatic icebergs, ice waves or ice caves...
Mostly, it is about the ultimate devotion and duration of the emperor penguin families.
Antarctica
Extreme Contrast
Antarctica is all about extremes. The high contrast between the extreme cold climate and the extreme warm loving bond of emperor penguins is what I desire to express on my paintings.
I feel like the reason why God created such extreme beauty in Antarctica was to protect it from human destruction. I was so blessed to be able to witness it in person three times in two years.
Elysium
Dream Land
Perhaps the memories of all the extraordinary and exotic places that I have visited have been engraved in my heart ... It seems very natural to me when it comes to creating imaginative landscape, an elysium.
I felt like an eagle soaring in the sky while freely painted from my imagination.
Elysium
Love Bond
In addition to painting Antarctica and penguins, I was very drawn to express my admiration of lifelong love bonds on canvas, like this painting of my parents. They weathered the storms in life together for over 70 years. The way they carried each other and the misty and unknown ahead of them were so poetic.