Ai Arts

A kind neighbor

2012-01-02T21:26:00.003+07:00

Nothing is as beautiful as a simple act of kindness, just like what happened to us today when our neighbor just cut her beautiful flowers and hand them to my baby Lily during our morning bike ride.

2012 New Year Resolution

2012-01-01T22:16:00.003+07:00

I have been using mind-maps (computer generated ones) lately in my class to teach. Today I feel that combining Scavenger Hunt#251 life sketching with my personal mind-map should be a good play. So here it is. I wish you a great 2012 year and you achieve what you have been waiting for.

Ending 2011 with a great sketching day

2011-12-31T21:02:00.003+07:00

What could be a better way to end the year with going out sketching with your buddies. Today I and four other friends of BangkokSketchers met up at Bangkok downtown and sketch the scene of the Chinese shrine. The Thai believe that 2012 will be a dragon year, people here believe that this year is auspicious to have babies. !!! So it is good that I get to sketch a few dragons on the roof of the shrine. I hope you get the idea where it is in the sketch. ;-) Happy New Year 2012 to you all.

Ending 2011 with a great meal.

2011-12-30T21:42:00.002+07:00

I can't imagine ending a year without a good eat celebration. Today, I went in downtown Bangkok for an authentic Japanese meal at the first Japanese restaurant in Bangkok. I did the sketch there while wait for the food. The gentleman (pink shirt) on my left side, was happy to see I included him in the sketch. Have a great Happy New Year 2012, everyone.

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-22T23:02:00.004+07:00

Dear friends, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Best wishes and thanks for stopping by so often. I have been sketching almost daily but my recent schedule and the young kids just overwhelming for me. So I am glad I get to did this holidays sketch.

A good sketch day after the flood

2011-11-22T00:16:00.002+07:00

Finally, a sketch to make myself smile. This is a part of Wetcanvas Scavenger Hunt#246.

Back home after flood evacuation.

2011-11-21T23:54:00.003+07:00

Hi friends, thanks for your good vibe. We went away for almost 3 weeks for Bangkok flood evacuation. We came home to a still dry home. Thank to the Lord, the flood water missed our house by four miles. There are still some parts of Bangkok that are still under heavy flood. I pray for those people to have their home back to normal soon. During evacuation, we went to Hua Hin, a sea-side town, 2 hour south-west of Bangkok. I sketched some and hope to post soon. Thanks to the flood, I now know what I cherish most, ... my family. Preparing the house to be ready for the flood was not easy as all hardware stores were out of supply such as silicone sealant, duct tape, sand bags, bricks, cement mix. Two of my neighbors are engineers and both of their house were surround by the newly paved bricks to block water from entering the house. Tone and I cannot buy any brick and cements; the best we did do was put waterproof plastic garbage bag around our doors, which were glue shut by silicone sealant. The house looked stupid and Tone and I felt exhausted and stupid too. We did not know if what we did would actually effectively prevent water from coming in the house. At that time, we felt that was the best we can do. Later Tone and I were under heavy stress and can no longer preparing the house for the flood any more, right before we left for the evacuation. We thought F*** the flood, and we left home. We knew that if the flood came, we could have lost our beloved grand piano (which we just have bought three months ago) and have to spend so much money to fix the house. But we were so stress and did not want to be at the house anymore despite we still had some valuable things in it. We just wanted to feel safe from the flood chaos ... so we packed and left home for 3 weeks for good.

We were right cause it must have been hard to take care of a 6 yr old and a 1.5 yr old through flood chaos in Bangkok, which included 2 days of no clean pipe water, as dirty flood water contaminated Bangkok city's water source and the serious shortage of food and drinking water supply in Bangkok due to people got panic and started hoarding everything from all the shelf in the stores.

Anyway, we get through it and upon returning to Bangkok we did donate some money to flood help program. Any physical help from us is impossible at the moment due to we have to tend to baby Lily. Thank God that we all still here safe and dry.

Bangkok flood evacuation

2011-10-23T11:17:00.003+07:00

Hello friends, Tone and I decide to take our young kids and head 120 miles south of Bangkok, to the town we know Hua Hin as our evacuation measure of looming near Bangkok flood. Before I leave the house today, I play "Hungarian Dance #5" on my upstair piano as a good bye to the house. The Ironic is that the song is gypsy feel, and now we are leaving our humble home.... We hope that things get back to normal soon and everyone here is safe. Thanks for your good vibe for us.

Seascape memoir still-life

2011-10-11T14:09:00.000+07:00

This is a sketch of things I got from several of beach trips.

Fruit & Veggie Medley

2011-10-10T20:56:00.000+07:00

I love to sketch stuffs from the kitchen. I find going to the market and buying these models home an absolute art-life-rewarding. The sketches contain, two peppers, a tomato, an orange, and a pink dragon fruit.

Pretty in pink

2011-09-20T10:28:00.000+07:00

This is a part of Wetcanvas Scavenger Hunt#238. I have borrowed a buttfly ring from Iris to sketch.

The eighteen month baby.

2011-09-18T22:39:00.000+07:00

Well, I try to record Miss Lily. She will turn eighteen month in a few days. She is a big baby, husky like a Ukranian weight lifter, and can be very loud and ruthless. Luckily today she was having a nap that I can sneak in a sketch of her mighty legs.

My favorite thing

2011-09-17T00:06:00.002+07:00

It is... tadah... my DH, Tone. He is done in a digital with TwistedBrush freeware.Sorry folk for being gone quite some time; we are experiencing waves of family sickness.

Day 2 -- 75 Day Sketch Challenge

2011-08-18T15:55:00.002+07:00

Did this while wait at the Univ. health center. Sorry for the poorly drawn anatomy model. Hope to do better next time. The bag contain x-ray gowns.

Day1 -- 75 Day Sketch Challenge

2011-08-16T07:28:00.004+07:00

A BangkokSketcher friend, P'Wan, recommended me to a web-site of 75 day sketch challenge by Brenda Swenson. I think I will try it and here is my first day result. I have to sketch every day using pen & ink, no pencil & no eraser, and If I miss a day, I should make two sketches for the missing day. Let's see if I can keep it rolling for 75 days.

Three Musketeers

2011-07-23T23:07:00.003+07:00

A still-life of Thai fruits. Two tiny pineapples from northern Thailand, and a pink dragon fruit. I did these as a part of my humble World-Wide SketchCrawl#32 that I don't feel well to go out to sketch. So I sketching in these fruits using my FB acrylic inks and Sumi ink on my large Fabriano Vanezea sketchbook.

My latest baby...

2011-07-16T22:50:00.003+07:00

My latest baby is the grand piano we just bought today. Iris turned six years old yesterday too. What a fun-pack weekend. I am getting back at sketching after the long cycle of sickness in the house since late May. Any day without sickness, is so much more blessing. I will get a small console piano in my studio too in a few days. I can't wait for it.

From Korea

2011-06-14T10:01:00.004+07:00

This is a 30 min. digital sketch using TwistedBrush freeware of a soup spoon & chopsticks souvenir from Korea given to me by my colleague.

Robot sketches

2011-06-12T11:30:00.004+07:00

A few days ago, our Univ. hosting an event of behind the scene of our humanoid robotic team talk, expecting to enter the WorldRobocup 2011 very soon. So I can't help sketching them while I was in the conference room.

Chao-Praya river views

2011-06-08T21:16:00.004+07:00

Well this weekend, after we drop the kids to grandparents, Tone and I have a chance to have a quiet lunch overlooking Chao-Praya river opposite Thammasat University. So here are my sketches from the lunch table.

Open & Closed

2011-06-05T08:03:00.003+07:00

This is a wc sketch with a touch of cp (cp from Iris's dentist art corner), done while we were waiting for Iris's dentist appointment. The dentist clinic have a cozy art table for little kids to enjoy... I guess I was their big art kid yesterday... ha ha.

Eclectic still-life

2011-06-04T19:58:00.005+07:00

This is meant to be a big format sketch still-life (11x14 inch) but I feel that I took it too far toward an elaborated painting. Nevertheless, I am happy with the result because I hardly do any big format painting these days after baby Lily was born. So this is nice that I can complete it. I mostly use watercolor with little dab of color pencils, and ink.

In my purse

2011-06-03T23:50:00.002+07:00

A quick digital sketch using a freeware called TwistedBrush, done with my mouse. I just sadly find out today that the pen tablet that I bought several months ago will not install with my computer. So I have to continue to sketch uncomfortably with my mouse.

Baby time

2011-06-02T22:27:00.005+07:00

Nope.... not another baby...I am getting too old to chase a new one, never mind running after Miss Lily, a fourteen month old. I am talking about my freshly done sketches of kido stuffs. My kind colleague just gave Lily a nice sweet pair of shoewear from England. They are a bit too small for her so I am returning them to my colleague but I can't help myself sketching them in gouache on my homemade brown paper bag sketchbook. Enjoy.

Lily's Bathtub Toy

2011-05-18T23:00:00.003+07:00

After a very long day, I did a digital sketch to end my night with a light note. Done with TwistedBrush freeware. I only have a computer mouse to work with, I'm still too busy to try to install a tablet to my computer. Chao !!!

Iris Patch on Tanglewood Road

2011-05-17T08:48:00.004+07:00

Late April, Tone dropped me to this house to do a quick sketch of their blooming iris. I had my eyes on their iris garden for years. I am glad I finally get my closure this year. This sketch is done in a two-page spread inside a Moleskine 5x8 inch wc book using Daniel Smith watercolors.

Nature

2011-05-14T10:19:00.003+07:00

These are tropical flowers, mostly variety of plumeria flowers that I have picked up from the ground during my morning biking. Done in my Tiger storebrand 5x8 inch sketchbook in two-page spread with Cotman watercolor & ink.

#31 World-Wide SketchCrawl

2011-04-17T05:32:00.004+07:00

Today, I went SketchCrawl at Birmingham Botanical garden. They have an amazing Japanese garden there. These are done in a 2-page spread inside my Moleskin watercolor sketchbook with Daniel Smith watercolors & ink.

#1 The main gate of the Japanese garden

#2 The Black bamboo forest

2612 Southminster Road

2011-04-14T10:46:00.002+07:00

This is a 11x14 inch watercolor done plein aire at a neighborhood of my mother-in-law in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. I use Daniel Smith wc on this one.

Before Mahler Symphony

2011-04-13T03:26:00.003+07:00

This is a sketch done for the pre-show of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra by the local high school percussion band. They were awesome and I find it amazing how kids these day achieve so much in their school. It is good to know that there are a lot of kids and a lot of schools out there that will never expect anything less of each other.

The Japanese garden at Birmingham Botanical

2011-04-09T03:36:00.003+07:00

What a lovely day to get to go sketch this garden at Birmingham Botanical garden. This is done in 1 hour in my Moleskine book.

The Old Mill at Mountain Brook

2011-04-09T03:29:00.004+07:00

This is a 30 min. sketch in my Moleskin wc book. I was sketching the mill from the rustic sidewalk. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful place. It seems like someone is actually live in it. What a fantastic life to live there.

Meeting up with Joan.

2011-04-07T08:59:00.006+07:00

Yesterday, Joan drove up from New York to see me while I was visiting my host family in Connecticut. We exchanged gifts, saw each other sketchbooks, sketch the horses alongside at the host family's stable. What a wonderful day that was to me, after all she inspired me to put up this art blog. We have been exchanging so many art cards after all these years. Thank you WetCanvas.com and the wonderful world of art that lead me to know one more special friend.

B & B

2011-03-08T20:53:00.004+07:00

B -Flat and Beautiful marbles, sketches done from life for Wetcanvas, Scavenger Hunt project. All done with watercolor & 6B pencil.

Pianoforte

2011-02-19T21:57:00.002+07:00

Another quick life sketch of our piano for the Scavenger Hunt on Wetcanvas. Cheers !!!

Salut D Amour

2011-02-11T00:15:00.003+07:00

Well after the relentless waves of sickness to our family from January, now things are in recovery mode. So today Tone & I left the kids with our dear nanny and we went for a charity chamber music concert at the Neilson Hayes Library, Bangkok. The money from the violin-piano duo will help toward restoration of this unique and possibly the only American neoclassic building in Bangkok established in 1944. What make it even more special, is that the pianist, Eri Nagakawa, is the teacher of my piano teacher. So I am meeting my piano teacher's teacher...I briefly introduce meself to her during the intermission, this is so fun.

We had a great time, Tone and I did have a great little meal in the gallery cafe wing of the library before the performance.

May your Valentine day be a sweet one. !!!

ScavengerHunt#206

2011-01-12T10:43:00.003+07:00

It is great to get to record how my kids have grown. Today I got a chance to do some life sketches and also recorded her playing on the floor with our nanny.

A mother's love

2010-12-10T21:11:00.001+07:00

This was a scene at the tree restaurant where a mother was cradling her young baby at her outdoor dining table. I had to put this down in my sketchbook today.

Daily pet

2010-11-29T11:30:00.003+07:00

I just bought a second hand kid art instruction book, called "How to draw pets". So I try to follow a few examples. I can't wait till the day I can have a real dog.

Copenhagen view

2010-10-31T17:29:00.002+07:00

This is from my hotel window.

Damark & Sweden trip

2010-10-29T11:56:00.003+07:00

I am in Gothenburg, Sweden now. We landed in Copenhagen, Danmark this morning as a part of our Univ. research trip. We will be here for 5 more night before heading back to Bangkok.

Six month milestone.

2010-09-26T06:26:00.002+07:00

Lily just turned six months a few days ago. She is adorable, chubby, and fun to hang out with. She is fluent to body rolling at this stage. She can not sit or crawl by herself yet. Though my life has slowed down somewhat due to her caring, I am a happy mama.

Cook and Sketch

2010-09-11T22:36:00.004+07:00

Today I have some time to play with my culinary muse. So I made my first ever Bangkok clam chowder from scratch, using local clams with a recipe from the Internet. Yes, the south of Bangkok is border with the gulf of Thailand and has plenty of seafood. We just don't have a sandy beach... it is more of a muddy sea mangrove shore.

I cooked up a big pot of clam chowder and decide to sketch it in my brown bag sketchbook with gouache. It was quite muddy earlier in clam shells area but I went in later with some pastel pencils to recover it. The pink bits you see were bacons.

Scavenger Hunt#191

2010-09-10T12:07:00.005+07:00

T
his is a group of sketches from life subjects for Wetcanvas Scavenger Hunt.

Career & Art & Motherhood & Music

2010-08-30T21:21:00.005+07:00

Well all I can say is that I am a bit of a slow juggler at the moment: career, art, music, and motherhood. Luckily career-wise, I havent yet gone back to full steam teaching. For now I am more toward consulting with student projects and pushing out research publications. I also try to practice piano 20-30 min. a day. There were days that I could not do that like when just finishing with baby stuff took me beyond 10 pm. and I was so out of steam. Art has also slowed down, not much big format painting at all, more of sketches. Luckily, I have managed to go out with my sketch group once a month. Motherly-wise, Lily has just turned 5 months; Iris just turned 5 years. They both keep us busy and joyful and occasionally frustrated. However, they are our big gifts from God that enrich our lives. I just wish I have more energy and more than 24 hours in a day though.

Push and Sketch

2010-08-29T20:16:00.004+07:00

My life is a challenge, juggling work, art, music, and pushing my 5 month old around on top of arguing with my 5 yr old. I am taking it day by day and with my own colors.

Play and Sketch

2010-08-16T08:54:00.004+07:00

Well we took Iris to the kid play zone at the neighborhood mall. So I got an ink sketch of the coin-operated horse. Later I scanned the drawing in and add some colors digitally using TwistedBrush freeware software. It was fun, and I will definitely try this again. So Iris got to play and I got to sketch...

Thai Mother Day

2010-08-15T12:59:00.003+07:00

We have a wonderful 4-day long holiday weekend. The Thai mother day is on August 12 of every year. This year, I was extremely tired from both going back to work and caring for a 4.5 month baby, Lily. So my mother and my sister bought us great lunch box food and visited us at our house. Everyone was so happy. The photo shows my mother, and our family. The other photo is of Iris on her school Mother day event, in which Iris brought me a small paper jasmine basket while we were on the school stage with her classmates mothers.

Sketch and Play

2010-08-08T12:23:00.003+07:00

This morning Iris and I sketched together. I was trying to sketch her. and here are the works of mine on left and Iris's on the right (She got some the block style going). Iris came back to create some marks framing my sketch of her. We use water soluable crayon and do it on a giant kido sketchbook.

I later added some blue shadow with Coran D'che watercolor pencil.

Anthurium

2010-07-27T22:38:00.001+07:00

A 10x14 inch watercolor on 140 lb Coldpress Lanaquarelle block as a part of Wetcanvas.com Weekend Drawing Event.

Karen hill-tribe lady

2010-07-24T06:37:00.002+07:00

This is a 10x14 inch watercolor on 140 lb Lanaquarell coldpress block of Karen hill-tribe lady, who lives in either Thailand and Burma mountain. The ref. photo is kindly provided by Patty on Wetcanvas.com.

Happy 4th of July !!!

2010-07-05T21:00:00.005+07:00

This year we celebrated 4th of July plus two family birthdays: Grandma, and Iris. I cooked up a big lunch meal at my home and let Iris, Grandma and Tone blew the candles together. Tone represented Uncle Sam did all cake cutting, especially the part that he had to cut into the American flag. We all have a good laugh. Grandpa got to see baby Lily too.

Unofficial Piano Recital

2010-06-29T23:12:00.003+07:00

Well, Thailand is full of surprises... and lately they have come in many great stories. The past three months I have taken maternity leave from university teaching. One day Tone told me that while I was gone, the Univ. main library has done extensive renovation to one of their wings and add more R&R space for Univ. people. One of the addition is adding a grand piano in the main hallway. I was so thrilled and also did not fully believe that story until this past Saturday, Tone and I stopped by the library. We both gave our unofficial recitals to passersby. This is my first time playing in public so I totally shaken. I did attempt to play two songs: Canon in D major and Ballade pour Adeline. I felt so good to play it I hope they keep that piano for as long as possible and I hope to practice more and come back to play it more often.

After Tone and I was about to leave, another young Thai mathematics major student sat down and played Beethoven Sonata No.8. He blew us away. It is like you will never imagine in a million years that a young man in a t-shirt and jeans will be able to give a concert hall quality classical music. I am sure that this piano will bring many great stories to the campus.

The Wild Pair

2010-06-28T22:50:00.004+07:00

Here is what I did today for the WDE on Wetcanvas, a 10x14 inch acrylic inks on background and the watercolor on the swans. I have not used acrylic inks for almost two years, and the last time I used it on a tiny ATC card. So this time I find it difficult to handling the acrylic ink background as wet-on-wet since the ink dried up super fast. Anyway, I am happy with the result. Photo ref. is from http://morguefile.com/archive/display/92960

The High Life

2010-06-22T20:18:00.005+07:00

This is a 5x7 inch watercolor (Holbein) & India ink on the back of 140 lb. coldpress Lanaquarelle block. Ref. photo by TheDesignspace.net.

The Nutcracker

2010-06-13T22:25:00.004+07:00

I have been very busy these days due to my 10 Wk old baby. I have not had a chance to do a big painting yet. I am glad to be able to do small sketching or drawing here and there. Here is my pen & wash experiment, which is a quick 30 min. pen & wash size 3x4 inch in my Thai 80 grams. sketchbook. I use Faber-Castell 0.1 Ecco pen and Holbein watercolors. The ref. photo is provided by ArtbyJune on WDE of Wetcanvas.

I found the book "How to Keep a Sketchbook Journal" by Claudia Nice very informative for me to get start in pen and wash.

Wat-Arun and Wat-Pho

2010-06-08T21:36:00.005+07:00

These are life sketching done as a part of our Bangkok Sketchers group outing on May 30th. We had three artists from Penang, Malaysia to join our trip. Wat-Arun (shown in the first two sketches) is also known as Temple of the Dawn on the west side of ChaoPhraYa river and Wat-Pho is CheTuPon Temple on the opposite east side of the river. Wat-Arun is famous for its tall stupa, which makes its grand statement against the morning sky of Bangkok. On the other hand, Wat-Pho is famous for the reclining buddha, and the first place to teach Thai traditional medicine and Thai massage. We had fun that day and it had been quite a turn out with so many Thai sketchers.

Family sketches

2010-05-27T08:31:00.006+07:00

The first one is Miss Lily napping and the other one is when the whole family hang out on sofa watching TV. Done with Faber-Castell pen and Winsor & Newton watercolor in my family sketchbook.

Monterey splash

2010-05-25T22:16:00.003+07:00

This is about 10x10.5 inch watercolor done on 140lb Canson cold press. It is a part of this weekend drawing event on Wetcanvas. Monterey aquarium is an amazing place. I visited there once in 1994, while they had their renovation. Nowadays, it must be even more awesome. I hope to get to take my kids there down the road.

27th Worldwide SketchCrawl

2010-05-23T17:29:00.006+07:00

Well, I have been very busy lately for caring for my 2 month old baby. So I feel good that I got to do some sketching for the SketchCrawl. Even though our previous planned outing Crawl with Bangkok Sketchers group had to be canceled on that day due to Thai political protest in Bangkok, which later turned sadly chaos. I am glad I did these sketches from our local shopping mall near my home.

Lily's portrait

2010-04-23T10:36:00.001+07:00

Lily at 1 month and 1 day... done using Rembrandt soft pastel in my 8x10 inch Thai sketchbook, about 25 minutes.

Snoozing

2010-03-31T21:39:00.003+07:00

This is a sketch of my DH, Tone and our nine day old baby, Lily, done from life. I did this with a brown Stabilo pen and W&N watercolor in my 6x8 inch Thai sketchbook.

Baby Lily was born ...

2010-03-26T23:02:00.004+07:00

Well, a big bunch of joy has arrived to our family. On Monday March 22, I was on the regular check-up of my 37-week pregnancy, then the doctor told me that I had already started contraction and I had to be admitted immediately. Thanks goodness that Tone was with me and giving me support when they wheeled me to the delivery room. So the same night around 9:24 pm., baby Lily was born. She was 3.9 Kg. or around 8.5 pound and 53 cm. long. We are both feeling fine now and enjoying our first night together at home.

The Hills Are Alive ...

2010-03-20T23:14:00.002+07:00

This is a tulip farm in British Columbia, Canada. The Ref. photo was from Sharrm on Wetcanvas. This is a 8x11 inch watercolor on 200 grams Thai local paper using W&N paints. Happy spring time everyone, wherever you are !!!

Tropical Wonder

2010-03-07T21:22:00.002+07:00

Yeah... I did it, weeks after weeks of saving reference photos from Wetcanvas, Weekend Drawing Event I have always ran out of steam to do a painting but today I did this.
Thanks AlainJ for wonderful ref. photo. This one was done in W&N watercolor on 11x14 inch Bockingford 140 lb block.

Belly update ...

2010-03-06T14:51:00.004+07:00

Well now I am into my 35th week pregnancy. We have to dig up baby stuffs from storage and prepare a few new things if they were loan to us last time. I feel like someone glue a big basketball to my tummy..... About 4 more weeks to go till the baby time.

I am slowing down on my blog, art exchange projects, weekend drawing/painting event but at work I have to grading exams and make sure I turn things in time before I take a maternity leave. I still enjoy my Scavenger Hunt sketching, and my piano lesson. I hope the new baby like the music I have been playing. Iris is in good spirit for the new baby.

Scavenger Hunt#166

2010-03-03T14:16:00.006+07:00

I did these in my new sketchbook 8x10 inch 80 grams paper. It might not suit the watermedia (got some buckles) but it is fun to try it out. Mostly done with a brown Stabilo pen with Koi-travel set watercolor.

#1 cheap -- clip
#2 precious -- our wedding photo, taken at the park
#3 brush
#4 wood -- wooden comb
#5 trip

#6 office supply -- glue stick
#7 accessory -- Iris-s hair clips
#8 something hanging -- ear rings
#9 cosmetic -- a lipstick
#10 belong to other -- Tone-s tie

#11 Sturdy -- a giant tree at the park, pencil 2B
#12 made of paper -- jig-saw puzzles
#13 something I rarely use -- oil paint

#14 Ear -- two views of 2 students ears while I proctor the exam
#15 Hand gesture -- of another student while she was doing the exam.

#16 Closed -- the exhibition hall at the University of Fine Arts, Bangkok. It is closed today. My SketchCrawl friend from Germany, Karin, and I stayed around and sketch from the outside.

#17 long -- the Reclining Buddha, approx. 150 ft. long and 48 ft. high in the head part. I also include the actual image.

Scavenger Hunt#165

2010-03-03T14:09:00.002+07:00

This sketch was done while our family were at a shopping mall and Iris was trying out some "Cogo", a cheapo version of Lego, at the toy department.

Scavenger Hunt#164

2010-02-06T22:56:00.003+07:00

Here are life-sketches of things around me. The first group is done with pencils, the medium I rarely used. The second group is done with Indian-ink and watercolor, they are Thai vegetables and fruits.

Happy Birthday To me -- Request your 40 yr old wisdom

2010-01-21T10:57:00.005+07:00

Well I just turned forty year old today. I am now in the last stretch of pregnancy so I did not celebrate any thing much, just bought myself a small bunch of orchids, my DH bought me a Winslow Homer watercolor book. One of my buddy called and my mother also called. I can always counting on her to remember my b-day... ha ha.

In a way, I don't feel old but I feel a bit kind of strange feeling of missing my best 30's but I think I am doing great as is: decent family, friends, finance, career, art, health, and other passion. I hope I get to stay healthy longer on this earth to explore more life adventure and the awaiting unfulfilled personal wishes, which include several painting trips abroad.

Any thought on turning into 40's, pls. kindly leave me your words. Thanks a lot.

PS. My photo, courtesy of K.Kwin Krisadapong

Wang-Trakrai Waterfall

2010-01-17T21:52:00.008+07:00

We just came back from a one night camping trip to Wang-Tra-Krai waterfall park, 100 miles northeast of Bangkok. It is one of the nearest mountain we can go from Bangkok. We stayed in a simple but decent cabin with a simple equipped kitchen. So Tone and I got to cook our own breakfast this morning and I got to sketch them. I did bring along a big sketchbook for Iris for her to draw as you shall see one of her drawing.

#1 trees -- a plein air of the stream and the mountain backdrop in the evening last light, watercolor

#2 treat -- When we arrived to our cabin, they put a simple glass bowl with wild yellow flowers in the room to greet us, watercolor & Stabilo brown pen

#3 breakfast -- This was what we cooked. Poor Tone had to wait a few minutes for me to sketch before he could eat, color pencils

#4 public space -- Done by Iris to depict our rental cabin with our car parked near by, the right most were Tone and I busy cooking. The middle green face was Iris. Color pencils.

Here are some highlights of the trip:

Fruit bowl still-life

2010-01-11T22:18:00.002+07:00

I am trying some digital with my fruit bowl still-life set up using TwistedBrush freeware (combination of oil-paint strokes and blending tool). This is quite fun. The best part of the session is that I ate my fruit models afterward.

Paint out -- Klong Bang Luang

2010-01-11T09:38:00.004+07:00

Y esterday I went out for 3 hours with my plein air group to another Bangkok canal community, called Klong-Bang-Luang. So here are the two plein airs were done using Holbein watercolor paints on 9x11 inch Bockingford 140lb CP block.

Aj.Chumpol is the owner of the canal-side gallery/cafe that let us hang out to paint. He has put a tremendous effort to rally the local people think of how the preserve the old Thai way of life along the canal but yet sustainable for the modern economy. Some of the nowadays passing by long-tail boats are bringing foreign tourists to see the canal-traditional life. Sometimes, these boats stop at Aj.Chumpol's gallery and buy his paintings or postcards, to give him sustainable income. Some houses also are converted to a charming canal cafe, which sell Thai handy crafts. Now all the houses can also be accessed from the road on the back, so to keep the community to actively use waterway and boats are quite an effort of sustainable preservation of traditional Thai life.

After -- Winslow Homer

2010-01-06T23:42:00.005+07:00

Well, I guess, a new year deserves a new endeavor. So I am attempting to copy the Master, Winslow Homer. I was in awe last weekend when we went to the best bookstore in Bangkok and they displayed a book of Winslow Homer watercolor works. So that is my inspiration that I hope to continue throughout the year (... we'll see how I do with my art after the baby comes out in late March). All I can say is that it was a tough 2 hours for me painting this small one, I wish I could have a time-machine to ride back to observe Homer live during his session.

Here is my take today, a 9x12 inch watercolor on Canson Monval 140lb:

And here is the original on the cover of the book Tone just bought me as an early gift of my B-day in a few weeks.

Scavenger Hunt#160 -- Part2

2010-01-03T20:53:00.006+07:00

I continue with Scavenger Hunt's challenge: trying to use the medium I am not familiar with. So I did these from life using a 2B pencil.
#8 leaf -- our butterfly plant
#9 series -- of terracotta planters
#10 berries -- blackberry & mulberry
#11 soft -- gladiolus petals
#12 crunchy -- Japanese rice cracker
#13 hat

Scavenger Hunt#160

2010-01-02T23:24:00.003+07:00

This new year, one of my artistic resolution is to do more life-sketching in pencils or other mediums that I am not familiar with. So here are some sketches in an HB in my 8x10 inch Japanese sketchbook.
#4 brush
#5 file -- my thumb drive
#6 light
#7 heavy

Plein air ending 2009

2009-12-31T21:55:00.005+07:00

Dec 31st, and Jan 1st are national holiday in Thailand. So today my plein air/sketching friends got together and we roamed another area along Chao Praya River to celebrating our end of year 2009 sketching. We had a great fun, this time there were seven people in our group in the morning with two new friends: an eye doctor & a furniture designer. One more member joined later in the afternoon. I was very lucky today as one of the young friend, Khun Nest, an architecture student had helped carried my painting bag. He kindly told me that he know I have already been carrying a six-month baby. So my outdoor painting trip, which involved quite some walking had went much more comfortable than I expected. I truly thankful for his kindness.

We gathered around 8:30 and had some breakfast at Taksin bridge along Chao Praya river, then we started our day at Bang-Rak Chinese Shrine I got one painting done before one of senior shrine care taker arrived with a negative message to our painting group.... May be only in Thailand.. that location care takers do not welcome painters. A similar thing had happened to our group before at the other Chinese shrine. Around 10:30 we walked along Charoenkrung road to the near by Yannawa Thai temple. This time things went smoothly and around 12:30 we had a group lunch at the near by chicken-rice food shop. It is simple but great, especially, I never have any painting friends who would go paint out with me in Thailand for years until this year that I got to know them. I love my Wetcanvas friends but the face-to-face interaction with other artist friends do enrich my painting experience tremendously. Later in the after noon, we got in the express boat for a short hop to Kalawar church to end the painting day at around 3:30 pm. I had a great fun and could not think of a better way to spend the last day of 2009.

Happy New Year 2010 -- May 2010 be a better painting year for you !!!.

Boat & Buoy#2 -- for Rose

2009-12-27T16:25:00.003+07:00

This is a watercolor ATC size 2.5 x 3.5 inch done for Wetcanvas Fall/Winter project. The Ref. photo was from Flickr. I apologize for not remembering the photographer name.

Boat & Buoy#1 -- for Joan

2009-12-27T16:21:00.002+07:00

This is a watercolor ATC size 2.5x3.5 inch done for Wetcanvas Fall/Winter exchange. The ref. image was from Flickr. I apologize for not remember the photographer name.

World-Wide Sketchcrawl#25

2009-12-27T16:05:00.007+07:00

Well pardon me for the late blogging of this article. The event took place in late November but as a mother-of-the-2nd-child-to-be I was too overwhelmed to keep up with blogging. But finally, today I have some more energy to get around to do this so here goes:

This time, our Bangkok friends are mostly busy with their business, so I set out to do a solo crawl in the morning and later I met two other Bangkok sketchers in the evening. In addition, my babysitter could not make it, so my DH and my 4 year old daughter, Iris, joined along with me from 8:00 am - 4:30 pm. I was afraid that my daughter would feel boring and uncomfortable to have to tag along mommy sketching. Luckily, we got cool weather, and we minimized walking and only using Tuk-Tuk or Taxi to hop from one spot (cafe) to other spot (cafe). Things went well and we all have fun. It is too bad that Iris did some sketching of the sculptures at the sculpture garden but she later destroyed it unintentionally. She did it her way, the stick-figure style but she quickly scribbled many colors over it before I can take a photo of it.

Here are the summary shot of my locations:

#0 Warm up, my neighbor walking her dog.

#1 In the morning, I had to pick up my baby health check report from Siriraj hospital, the biggest state hospital in Thailand. Before I left the place, I stopped at the hospital plaza where Thai people went to pay respect to The King's father monument, who also the father of Thai medicine, and Thai people also gathered to write well-wish messages to our beloved King who resides at the hospital at the moment.

#2 We crossed Chao Phraya River to Tha-Chang pier, heading to the sculpture garden of Univ. of Fine Arts. Iris, did some sketches of the sculptures with me here. In the middle of sketching, one bug landed on my sketchbook, so I sketched him in my left corner of my sketchbook, that is why you see the big bug on the left top side of the building.... not that the bug is that huge.

#3 We walk 100 yards, down to a cafe opposite the entrance of the Grand Palace, we call this gate "Wiset-Chai-Sri-Gate".

#4 After our lunch, our family moved on to sketch in a cozy cafe, "Passport Cafe", in the vintage district of Bangkok. This is the spot where I later met with two SketchCrawler, P'Asnee, and K.Nate. We had some talks and sketched some scenes in side the cafe. I ended my SketchCrawl there, but P'Asnee and K.Nate were meeting up with two more Thai sketchers to cover more of Bangkok vintage landmarks.

2009 Scavenger Hunt Sketches -- Part1

2009-12-27T15:49:00.008+07:00

Well, this year I have been more active in sketching things around me with the help and encouragement of my art friends on Wetcanvas Scavenger Hunt forum. Every nine days or so, we will get a new list of things around us to do a life-sketch. Some weren't that good but all of them really allowed me to enjoy my little art moment, one item at a time. So here are a few highlights. Among items below, I think I like the "non-art-brush (the toilet brush)" the most. It seemed to stir up quite some nice words from my art friends.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T20:55:00.005+07:00

Dear friends, I hope you have a great Christmas and a great year. We are very happy and humble to have a great simple life that we have. Our second baby is about 3 months to due date. I have not painted big format as often as usual but more of sketching and small format works. Even then, I am fortunate to know several new plein air painting friends and some of the works that we went out to paint old architectures along Chaopraya River together in July got in architecture group shows at Siam Center mall and recent venue at Bangkok Art and Cultural Center. I am very proud that someone see the value in our preservation effort. Besides, I also get reconnect to music: taking piano lesson again since April 24th. Life is sure more hectic with adding music practice on top of art, career, and family but I would not drop any of this. I get to take a lesson with a wonderful piano teacher. That sure makes my year a very blessing year. Iris is also doing great with a new school, a more relaxed kindergarten very close to our home so we have a much simple and relaxed day comparing to the previous school. Tone also has a great year: visiting his family in the US. and back to see the US. Thunderbird air show at Don Muang Airport, the first Thunderbird he ever saw in his life.

For many of you who I have not yet meet face to face, I hope one day I get to do that, in the mean while I am sending you my holiday spirit vibe your way via this message. Merry Christmas 2009.

"Holiday spirit", 8x10 inch watercolor&ink, from a public photo on Flickr by DigitalImageFan. It is done as a part of Wetcanvas Xmas card 2009 pen & ink forum exchange.

Welcome

2009-11-19T21:36:00.002+07:00

Today I did an acrylics still-life on 10x12 inch canvas as a part of Wetcanvas.com Scavenger Hunt#154. I am not quite familiar with this medium but it was fun. This took about 1 hour.

Art show -- Siam Center Mall

2009-11-11T14:18:00.006+07:00

I had been busy taking my five plein air paintings to frame since last week and dropped them to the event organizer on Saturday. Tone and I went to the Siam Center, the downtown mall in Bangkok to see them in the show yesterday. They were a part of architecture show meant to record and preserve old beautiful buildings along Chao Praya river. My 'sketchcrawl' friends and I had previously done plein air of old temples, mosque, houses in the same area as well. So the organizer put our art works as a part of preservation effort by free-style plein air artists like us. I am very happy. They did a big poster of the preservation area with our Bangkok Sketchcrawl art group details on it and had our blog addresses printed on the wall of the exhibition too. The proceed of paintings and postcards will go toward activities to raise public awareness of old building preservation. I feel so happy to see them hung in real space. The show will be on display during Nov 9-13 at Atrium#2, first floor Siam Center and then during Nov 14-22 at ASA Center, the fifth floor, Siam Discovery.

Two years ago I was supposed to hang two of my works with the Thai watercolor society but somehow with the management problem, the society canceled the show in the last minutes. So from then on, I will not believe that my works will be included in the art show until I'll see them hang in real space. I'd like to thank Tone, my No#1 art patron, my friends in Bangkok Sketchcrawl group, and Wetcanvas friends for art encouragement and inspiration.

The first top three photos are taken from the real event and the bottom photo was taken at home with Miss Iris.

Shoes I rarely wear

2009-10-18T22:25:00.005+07:00

This is about 11x12 inch charcoal life-sketching on newsprint paper. Can you believe?... I shipped this pair of shoes back with my other 40 boxes of stuffs from the USA in 2001. I totally forgot where they were until a couple days ago that I opened one of my last box and found them.

Masai Woman#2

2009-10-15T16:44:00.001+07:00

This is a watercolor 7.5x11 inch done on Bockingford 140 lb block using Holbein paint. The ref image is from Creative Commons on Flickr by Marc_from_Borft.

Life Drawing Class#4

2009-10-09T08:48:00.005+07:00

These drawings are from my recent life-drawing class on newsprint size paper using Chinese ink. The earlier short poses are meant to be gesture drawing, with one stroke of brush to represent a leg, another stroke to represent an arm, another stroke for the torso, etc.... I did not do that well with this earlier part of the class. But later, we had a couple of longer poses (20 minutes) and a few of 30 minutes that I get to play more with multiple brush strokes and negative painting. I think I feel more comfortable at this stage. It was a good learning experience.

Bangmod canal

2009-10-08T21:53:00.003+07:00

This is a life sketch. Ink was done at the scene, the back row of my village overlooking the rustic corner of Bangmod canal, the area once famous for a special kind of tangerine and coconut orchards. I later added watercolor at my home. We are very lucky to get to live in the area that is so green. More home/land development is coming in the area so the green quiet orchard will soon be forever gone. I am glad I get to sketch part of this charming community.

Life Drawing Class#3

2009-10-08T10:09:00.005+07:00

These are from my 3rd life drawing class. All done with charcoal & the last two with Conte crayon. I really had fun in the class. Today the instructor, Brian Curtin, want us to establish the scale of the model with the reference chair. I found that a bit tough at the beginning to pair both of them together nicely. During the short warm up, I did not do as good as I want but once the class progressed to the longer poses I felt more comfortable with it. The model today was David. He was very good at posing in interesting angles. He said that he used to pose during his time at U. of Toronto for eight years.

Wahkor Aquarium

2009-10-03T16:53:00.004+07:00

Our semester has ended. So we left Bangkok yesterday morning, drove thru HuaHin, our usual spot further down two more hours to BanKrut beach. It is very very quiet but also very nature. We like it. We found out that there is an aquarium 40 Km. away. So we planned to take Iris there. And Walla... !!!

This is about 7x9 inch watercolor sketch, done life in front of the giant tank at Wahkor Aquarium, Prachuab Kirikhan. It took me about 35 minutes at the tank and I did the blue background at the resort. The remaining pics are us on the beach at the resort in the calm morning. We love you all and miss you and sending you our peaceful positive vibe.

Mushroom

2009-10-01T14:36:00.004+07:00

This is about 11x14 inch watercolor from recent Wetcanvas WDE event. I normally don't do WC this way but it is fun to try to play more with brush stroke sometimes.

Baby in bloom...

2009-09-27T20:44:00.002+07:00

Well... to embrace my new coming baby, this is a 5x7 inch Derwent pastel pencils on my brown sketchbook. The photo ref. is from Wetcanvas WDE in mid September.

Life Drawing Class#2

2009-09-17T04:11:00.004+07:00

Three minute poses...

Five minute poses...

Ten minute poses...

Twenty minute poses...

Thirty minute poses...

Yesterday, we learn about shading. The instructor asked us to used no lines. I was having fun with the class again. I started the first few with pencils then switched to Conte crayons later. All done in newsprint size paper.

Life Drawing Class#1

2009-09-13T21:41:00.007+07:00

I just went to my first life drawing class a few days ago. It was fun and exciting. The model, Rex, is very good at posing nice angles and the instructor, Brian Curtin, let us feel our way and explore with pencil line only, no shading, no measuring yet. The early poses are series of 2-3 minutes. Then some of 5 minutes. And later a few of 15 minutes. Some of later images were a bit too light to scan well because he asked me to draw with a very light-pressure lines. I can see my progress from can fit only part of the body to the paper at the beginning toward the end of the session in which I was able to put the whole body in the same size paper. Brian, also assigned me to do more advanced drawing. He asked me to draw the model for a few minutes.. then, went to the back of the studio to draw some more but this time from my memory... what a challenge this drill was to me. The session was so fun. I did a tons of sketch but some samples are shown below:

Beginning ... with pencil

End .. with some Conte crayons

Mahachai -- Paint out

2009-09-10T22:58:00.007+07:00

All of the sketches are about 7x9 inch watercolor, some combine with ink. The first sketch of a man with a bike on the train was done with watercolor pencils and ink.

Our small sketch group went out by a train from Wong-Wien-Yai station last Saturday, heading 1 hour south to a famous fishing industry town, Mahachai. We were amazed even as we get off the train.. of how close the Mahachai merchants people live their life close to the train track. The train end right at the heart of Mahachai market, a place where an active mixed of vegetables, fruits, seafood, and fishing supplies. I could stop and paint right out from the train track but the space might be the problem because the market was so dense. So I took some photos, and we all walk about 300 meters along Tha-Chine river to a riverside restaurant and settle there to paint from 10:00 am til noon. We ended up with a great seafood lunch and the restaurant owner seemed happy to see our sketch results. My two river scenes are the result of this place. Then around 1 pm, K.Piboon, one of our sketcher who used to live there, took us in his car surveying the opposite island called, Tha-Chalom, seeing more boats, and life along the river which is a few miles away from the Gulf of Thailand. Then K.Piboon took us to the heart of the "Ka-Za-Khao" fishing village, a few hundred yards by the sea. The fishing village was a small community on the little waterway just off from the Gulf of Thailand. My last two works show the fish boats and fisherman shack that harbor in a small water way a little few yards from the ocean. It was a fun pack paint out day.

Tango

2009-08-31T23:03:00.002+07:00

It takes two to tango. This is about 10x14 inch watercolor from a ref. photo on Flickr by Stefano Bussolon.

Clay pots

2009-08-31T23:00:00.002+07:00

This is about 6x8.5 inch watercolor from Wetcanvas's Weekend Drawing Event on Aug 28th. It feels so good to paint again after almost a month of absence. So many things are going on in my life.

It is official.

2009-08-23T20:39:00.003+07:00

Well not that I no longer do arts. I still sketch here and there but I have been busy with works and some work related travel on weekends and some allergy attacks. Anyway, we just got an official confirmation from my doctor that Iris will get to be a big sister. The new kid on the block is now 7 weeks old. So Tone and I have to re-prioritize our lifestyle a bit. I have to delay my future big painting trips for a few years but I can still do local painting trip and sketches. In the mean while, I can do a lot more of baby portrait. So here is the fetus's first appearance.

Paint out -- Klong Suan Market

2009-07-30T22:30:00.006+07:00

Well today is my lucky day to get to join a few painter friends at KlongSuan Old time market. It locate about 60 Km. south east of where I live. The market is the 100 year old community along the Klong, or Thai canal. The canal, the shops, and also the food are awesome. I did the noodle shop ink sketch after we finished our delicious lunch there.

A rose a day

2009-07-29T20:29:00.004+07:00

A rose a day makes happiness stay. Watercolor from a still-life set up using Holbein artist paints on 11x14 inch Bockingford block. Recently, one art shop in Bangkok put Holbein WC professional paints on sale for 40% off. I can't help stocking them up... despite I still have a ton of Winsor&Newton to play with. Oh well, more reasons to paint more ;-).