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At this time of the year, bonen-kai is very popular all over Japan.  Let's have a party to forget all the troubles and worries of the past year -- that's the meaning of bonen-kai, a year-end gathering of friends and co-workers.

I look back this past year and remember all my friends and collectors from all over the world, who have been very supportive, thoughtful, encouraging and inspirational.  You have made it possible for me to continue doing what I love despite all the troubles and worries, and I thank you.  I will have a toast to the wonderful 2009 and look foward to a new exciting year!

Sevilla Bar I

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 21 x 14 inches
Mat/Frame: No
Purchase: Sold



  Sevilla Bar II

Sevilla Bar II

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 21 x 14 inches
Mat/Frame: No
Purchase: Sold

"We all know what light is; but it is not easy to tell what it is."  - Samuel Johnson


"Light is a thing that cannot be reproduced, but must be represented by something else - by color."  - Paul Cezanne

Riverside Mission Inn III

A larger image of this painting is available on request.
Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 11.5 x 8.25 in. (on 12 x 9 in. paper)
Mat/Frame: No

San Diego 100 (#96) - Hotel del Coronado

It's cold outside and there seems to be holiday frenzy everywhere.  At a time like this, what could be better than relaxing on a cozy sofa in a warm, quiet room?  It'd be fun if we were with good friends.  It could be equally enjoyable without company.

Inside the Del, as this historic hotel is locally known, there is a small space with old Victorian decor where we can do just that.

In this painting, an old lady in bright red sweater and lighted Christmas garlands fill the room with the holiday spirit.  The true luxury must be a few moments spent in an atmosphere such as this.

   
The Del at Christmas


San Diego 100 (#96) - Hotel del Coronado

A larger image of this painting is available on request.
Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 8.25 x 11.5 in. (on 9 x 12 in. paper)
Mat/Frame: No
Purchase: Please send me an email for more information.

Click here to see paintings in my San Diego 100 series.

Vigilucci's Bar III

I was invited to see the interiors of a newly opened Italian restaurant in the resort town of Coronado (San Diego, California), Vigilucci's.  The owner, who hails from Milan, Italy, recently added several original works of mine to his art collection.  I am honored that some of them are now on the walls inside his restaurant.

This painting shows a bar area of Vigilucci's.  I was there before the restaurant was open for the day, but I could easily imagine the coziness of the place from exquisite lighting fixtures imported from Italy, draperies and furniture coverings in soft, warm neutral colors, and glasses all polished and readied by a friendly bartender.


Vigilucci's Bar III

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 11.5 x 8.25 in. (on 12 x 9 in. paper)
Purchase: Sold

Paris Café IX (La Rotonde)

Last year I started painting a series of Parisian cafe scenes (Paris Cafe Collection) as a tribute to someone very close who was a big influence in my life -- my love for Paris in particular.  I didn't think how many pieces I would eventually create; Rather, I started this series as a long-term project.  I knew I was passionate about the City of Lights but I never knew my emotion could go so deep.  I love Paris more and more as I finish every single painting!

I am very thankful that this series has been very well collected.  I have just taken down three paintings (from earlier in this series) that decorated a wall in my house, Paris Cafe IX, Paris Cafe VII, and Paris Cafe XX (images shown below).  They are not on my website but available now for purchase.  If you'd like to bid on any of them, please email me (Bidding closes at midnight September 6/7.  Minimum bid $90).  Prices will go back to regular retail after September 7.


Paris Café IX

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 7.5 x 9.5 in.
Mat Size: 11 x 14 in. (mat color: off-white)
Purchase: Available



  Paris Café VII

Paris Café VII

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 7.5 x 9.5 in.
Mat Size: 11 x 14 in. (mat color: off-white)
Purchase: Sold


 Paris Café XX

Paris Cafe XX

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 9.5 x 7.5 in.
Mat Size: 14 x 11 in. (mat color: off-white)
Purchase: Sold

Lausanne Train Station, Switzerland I

It was almost the end of a day and the last rays of sunlight were gradually coming into tracks at the Lausanne central station.  The station serves as a hub, so trains come and go at all times.

Normally it's a very busy place, but at this particular moment, there was eerie quietness with only one train at the next track and a handful of quiet passengers around me.  Soon another train arrived from Geneva and two more followed, each time accompanied by an announcement in several different languages.  The station was busy again.


Lausanne Train Station, Switzerland

A larger image of this painting is available on request.

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 8.25 x 11.5 in. (on 9 x 12 in. paper)
Purchase: Please send me an email for availability.

For somebody who does mainly landscapes and cityscapes, painting an indoor scene is "a whole different animal," you might say.  It presents a different set of challenges and problems to be solved.  But I like it especially when the light, whether it is natural light from windows or indoor lighting, creates a strong contrast of light and dark.

This painting was posted previously on my blog and is being introduced today for the first time at Daily Painters Gallery.  Please click here to see how I painted the interiors of a small diner in the small town of Julian, California.

Members of Daily Painters Gallery are all hard-working artists who have developed their unique style and I am honored to be a part of the group.  For beautiful interiors, I enjoy works of these daily painters in particular: Robin Cheers, Edward B. Gordon, Vicki Shuck, Olha Pryymak.  Check out their website or blog - I'm sure you'll be just as inspired as I am looking at their works.


San Diego 100 (#20) - Julian Diner

Click here for a larger image of this painting.

Media: original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 11.5 x 8.25 in. (on a 12 x 9 in paper)
Mat/Frame: No
Purchase: Sold

Italian Café (SD100-56)

It's been a while since nationwide coffee chains started popping up in every neighborhood and have become major social gathering places.

There seems to be a coffee shop virtually at every corner of streets of San Diego.  But specialty coffee houses like this have their unique character that is clearly different from that of big chain shops.
 
Through a large window of an Italian cafe in downtown San Diego, I saw two young ladies.  One had a laptop open on the table but didn't seem to be looking at it.  The other had a stack of books with her coffee on top.  Were they engaged in a political discussion?  Were they gossiping?  I would never know.


San Diego 100 (#56) - Italian Café

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 13.5 x 9.5  in.
Mat/Frame: Yes/No
Mat Size: 20 x 16 in.
Purchase: Sold

One of the oldest and most famous cafés in Lisbon, Portugal, Brasileira was a travel destination in and of itself.  During a stay in Lisbon, I wanted to head for this café first.  I could feel anticipation building high as I looked for this place.

The minute I walked in, I was dazzled.  The Old World atmosphere of this historic café made me want to paint it right away.  The interiors were filled with charm of Art Deco style - decorative chandeliers, mirrors on the walls, a long dark oak bar, checkered floor tiles, etc.

I was intrigued to see how lights coming from the ceiling and the back of the café bounce off the floor and the mirrors to illuminate other furnishings and people inside.

I would have been quite a nuisance if I had tried to paint right there so I took several photos.  Most of them turned out a bit too blurry but the mood of the place was captured.  The first sight of this scene made such an unforgettable impression on my mind.  So my memory also aided me a great deal when I was painting it.

The painting process of Lisbon Cafe VI was largely emotion-driven rather than based on careful planning.  Working mostly in wet-in-wet, I let the paints run into each other and had fun letting shapes emerge.










This painting recently received the second place award in the 34th Annual Western Federation of Watercolor Societies Exhibition.  It is currently on display in the exhibition which is hosted by the San Diego Watercolor Society this year.  The show runs from May 1 through May 31.  Juror was Robert Burridge (Click here to see award-winning paintings).


Lisbon Café VI

Click here for a larger image of "Lisbon Café VI" painting.

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 21 x 14 in.
Mat/Frame: Yes
Frame Size: 28 x 22 in.
Purchase: Sold


 I did this preliminary painting before I made Lisbon Café VI.

  Lisbon Café V

Lisbon Café V

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 18.5 x 6.5 in.
Mat/Frame: Yes/No
Mat Size: 24 x 11.5 in (color: off-white)
Purchase: Sold

First, Bar du Marche's red and white awnings caught my attention.  I peeked in as I walked past.  It was full mainly with young people that day, and they looked like students from nearby schools and universities.

I didn't have time to check out this place, so, later, I googled its name.  Fodor's describes this cafe as "a local legend, despite its pocket size and relative lack of decorative charm... No Left Bank reveller can afford not to know it."  This alone is enough to intrigue my inquisitive mind.

If I have a chance to go there again, I hope to see what makes this cafe a legend.  But, being rather quiet myself, I think I'd better take a seat away from "Left Bank revellers"...


Paris Café XXVI (Bar du Marché)

Click here for a larger image of "Paris Café XXVI" painting.

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 8.25 x 11.5 in.
Mat/Frame: Yes/No
Mat Size: 14 x 18  in.
Purchase: Sold

For my San Diego 100 (#20), I tried the interiors.  This is a bit of a departure from the previous 19 scenes, which are all landscapes.

I liked the way light hits inside this small diner and the cozy atmosphere people come to enjoy, not to mention all kinds of comfort food they serve.  This is also my favorite spot to have lunch sometimes, so I have decided to make a new painting of the place.

I take a little different approach when it comes to painting interiors.  In my landscape painting, I often build up tonal values from light to dark with several glazes.  However, in interiors, I have found working in alla prima works.  Instead of dividing the entire painting session into several sittings, I try to do it in one.  This means, to me, having a good "pre-game" plan and working quickly, especially in the beginning stage of painting.  So it is very important to observe light before I start and understand tonal values in the scene.

   After pencil drawing, I immediately start laying down colors in a more direct manner.  I put the dark values where I want them using thick paints as seen in the left side and upper right of the painting.  I use a wet-in-wet technique mainly in places where I want light-to-mid values.  I also connect all the shapes at this stage, so dark and lighter values nicely merge without making objects look like cutouts.


   

While the paper is still moist, I keep putting in more pigments and pushing colors around where I don't want to create hard edges, such as under the counter and by the ceiling light.  The rest of the painting surface can wait now as I can go back to it even after the area gets dry.  When I work on it, I add another glaze or two to warm/cool the dry surface.  The last step includes defining important shapes and adding in little details.    


  Finished.
San Diego 100 (#20) - Julian


San Diego 100 (#20) - Julian

Click here for a larger image of this painting.

Media: original watercolor
Image Size: 8.25 x 11.5 in. (on 9 x 12 in. paper)
Mat/Frame: No
Purchase: Sold

Julian Diner I

In a small town of Julian, there is an old-fashioned diner on the corner of a busy intersection.  If you go there, order a milk shake on the counter and relish all kinds of Americana decorating the walls, and you'll feel like you've gone back in time.  This painting shows a girl and her little brother, sitting inside the diner, before a lunch crowd arrives - he's with a stuffed puppy by his side and is having fun on a swivel bar stool.

Even though I mainly paint landscapes, I love painting interiors and enjoy the different kind of learning experience or challenge I get from the process.

In painting an interior scene, I'm always intrigued by this strong sense of intimacy or closeness among people and objects in an enclosed space.  People, whether they are aware or not, form a sense of companionship because they share a time and a space (It's a somewhat similar kind of feeling you get after a long flight).  The relationship between light and dark is also interesting.  Light coming from a window or a ceiling bounces off everything in a room.  And if the room is cluttered, the way light can get reflected and refracted could be very complicated and may cause a visual chaos.  But it's a great place to learn how to see things in terms of tonal values and how to simplify and connect shapes.

Julian Diner I

A larger image of this painting is available on request.

Media: original watercolorImage

Size: 14 x 21 in (36 x 53 cm)
Mat/Frame: No

Purchase: Please send me an email for more information.

Kids would rather be outdoors playing or at home playing Nintendo than sitting at a cafe with their parents, right?  For kids, a cafe is not such an exciting place to be, and its historical background or decor, if any, probably doesn't matter too much.

But there was something different about this boy who caught my attention at an outdoor Montmartre cafe in Paris.  His father ordered un cafe; the boy wanted a tall glass of orange juice.  When a waiter served it on the tiny round table, the boy reached high to stick a straw inside and started drinking it.  He was very well-mannered and proud as if to say, "Hey, I'm old enough to sit in a cafe!"

Paris Café XXVII

Click here for a larger image of "Paris Café XXVII" painting.

Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 7 x 7 in (17.8 x 17.8 cm)
Mat Size: 12 x 12 in (white)
Purchase: Sold

Lisbon Cafe, Portugal V (Brasileira)

Original watercolor on paper

Image size: 18 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches (47 x 17 cm)

Visit my website to see more paintings in my Spanish/Portuguese Landscapes Collection.

Please join the San Diego Watercolor Society this Friday, October 3, 5:00-8:00pm for the opening reception of the 28th International Exhibition, juried by Linda Doll, AWS, NWS.  She selected 90 watercolors out of 568 entries by artists from 33 states and 4 countries.  Show runs from October 1 through 31, 2008.  The galley is located at 2825 Dewey Road, Suite 105, San Diego, CA 92106, (619) 876-4550.  Open daily (in October) 11:00am-5:00pm.

-- Journey Home VII from my Japanese Landscapes Collection will be in the Exhibition.

Journey Home VII

Media: original watercolor on paper

Image Size: 14.25 x 21.5 inches

Purchase: Sold

Paris Café X (La Rotonde)

I rarely paint portraits or still lifes or animals.  As you see, my large body of work consists of streetscapes and that’s undeniably my favorite subject.  My creativity gets inspired when I am in a place where I feel the energy of its city life, the weight of its rich history or a sense of belonging.  I especially find beauty in what would be very ordinary in people’s daily lives.

In Paris, cafés are practically everywhere and have been an important part of people's lives for decades.  Shown here in "Paris Café X" is La Rotonde, one of the historic cafés in the Montparnasse neighborhood.

Paris Café is a series of mainly small-sized paintings that I started this year.  I would like to invite my viewers to (vicariously, of course) sit outside, order un café, and relax while watching the world go by, so you will be saying as my collector who purchased one from this series, “it makes me want to be there!”

This series continues as long as my passion keeps me going…  Please visit my Paris Cafe Collection to see more paintings.

Paris Café X (La Rotonde)

Media: original watercolor on paper

Image Size: 10.25 x 13.5 inches

Purchase: Sold