Lemon and Carnation

Available at Silvana gallery.

Lemons

Available at Silvana gallery.
Lemons from our lemon tree, very fresh :)

Fishing - SOLD

Sketches

Available at Silvana gallery.

I planed to do one finished portrait painting per year, here is the one for this year, spent me about 5 days on it. the best result was on the second day, but I did not stop, back and forward a few times and used all the techniques I can imagine on the painting. I don't really like the finished result, and I almost teared the painting by the end of day five but didn't do it, I know I am getting old now :) I will do a better one next year.

Still learned a lot during the process, I feel much more comfortable when I work on next big painting, I will share the painting later when it's finished, I like it a lot.

Portrait Demo 2 - SOLD

I had lecture about color today, and did this small demo in my class.

By the way, I am working on bigger paintings for my solo, it's take me at least a few days to finish one painting, also I don't want to post all my big paintings here before my solo, so people can see some of my new paintings in the opening of my show, but if I have small piece like this, I will share with you here :)

Figure for my solo

Available at Silvana Gallery.

I have replaced the image :)

Last month I did 3 big nude figure paintings for my solo at Silvana gallery this May, here is two of them.
I am not good at take picture for the big painting, but I can tell you that the original paintings looks way better than the images here, please join me for the show at Silvana gallery if you want to see the original piece. I will have the detail information later on my blog.

Portrait Demo 1

Available at Waterhouse Gallery.

I never done monochrome painting before, here is the first one I did for my portrait painting class last week. Feel good to back to the same class room when I was student.

Seaside

Available at Silvana gallery.

Children always my favorite subject to paint. Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, don't forget the lucky money (压岁钱) for them tonight :)

Small still life

I did this small still life with my artist friends last week, they did the beautiful set up, I like it.

Black knight - SOLD

Quiet creek

Available at Silvana gallery.

Merry Christmas

Available at Silvana gallery.

After the cold and foggy weather, I may need some sun shine for my life.

Merry Christmas!

Foggy Standford 2

Available at New Masters Gallery.


One more landscape from Standford, please email me if you are interested to purchase these two small beauties.

Foggy Standford 1

Not for sell.

Just finished a small landscape, this is first time I painted on an Oil Primed Linen Panel, not bad :) Please email me if you are interested.

Sketches - SOLD

by New Masters Gallery.

Small Still Life (persimmons) - SOLD

A small painting I did tonight with two of my artist friends, it was fun to paint with friends. This is a pretty small painting for me, but please email me if you are interested.

Natural Light - SOLD

by Silvana Gallery.

I enjoyed to paint from both cool and warm lights.

Tomorrow I am going to down to the Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara for the opening of "Great American Figurative Artists Exhibition", hope to see you there :)

Girl with a jar

Available at New Masters Gallery.

Figurative Series (Mary in the studio)

Available at New Masters Gallery.

Mary is a good artist, and she is so lovely, I am glad that she modeled for me, maybe I will do more paintings from her.

By the way, one of my last year's summer head study (#8) has been selected to Oil Painters of America's Western Regional Exhibition at Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson, Wyoming, the show will start from October 9 through November 10.

I am also going to have a group show "Great impressions - Masters of Fine Art" at Silvana Gallery Oct 23th, I have 7 paintings for the show, I will try to be there. You can find more information about the show and me at "American Art Collector" October 2010 issue.

Figurative Series (Before the performance 2) - SOLD

by Silvana Gallery.

Figurative Series (Before the performance)

Available at Silvana Gallery.

Figurative Series (learn from master)

Available at Silvana Gallery.

This was a moment from my museum trip to DC, the girl was learning form a Rembrandt's self portrait, really catched my eyes.

The awards banquet

A little behind, I came back from my trip to DC and NYC a few weeks ago, here is a picture of the winners on the stage of the 12^th Annual International Portrait Competition hosted by the Portrait Society of America. The trip was great, met a lot of great artists and saw a lot of great paintings.
I am a little busy with my family recently, but I will keep post my new works here as soon as I get chance to paint.

Landscape Series (Provence, France) - SOLD

I am going to have a Fine Arts museum trip to New York and Washington DC with my friends later this month. I want to see some paintings from Fechin, Rembrandt and Sargent, any suggestion about good museums in that area?

Figurative Series (03-28-10)

Available at Silvana Gallery.

I have a good news here, my painting "A quiet moment" (January 8th's post) has been selected to the top 30 of 12th Annual International Portrait Competition by Portrait Society of America.
I expected something better, but I am still very happy this time because I only did one finished portrait painting last year.

Figurative Series

#1 24" x 30" Available at Silvana Gallery.

#2 24" x 30" Available at Silvana Gallery.

Figurative Series (Make a friend 2)

Available at Silvana Gallery.

I painted a few kids paintings recently. This is a new subject for me, but I really enjoyed to paint it. I think I will paint more if I have the chance later.

Small Still Life 03-02-10

If there is no light, we are not able to see any shape, value or color. So, no matter what the subject is, we just painting the light.
I put the still life under the "portrait light", than painted it as a portrait painting, and if I put them under the nature light, I think I can paint it as a landscape painting (I will do it later once I get a stabled nature light). So I think the subject should not be a matter for an artist, the matter is how to see the subject in the light environment.
Please email me if you are interested in this one.

Figurative Series (Make a friend)

Available at Silvana Gallery.

Figurative Series (Fresh and Sweet)

Available at Silvana Gallery.

It's took me longer to finish a painting since this month and I don't know why, I hope it just temporarily because I know that I still have too many paintings need to be finished :)

Here is the one I would like to share with you today.

Happy Chinese New Year of Tiger - SOLD

This is a painting I posted before, and later I used it as an example for my graduate study class (a theory and writing class) a year ago, I post it here again to share a little bit of my thought with you.

Tomorrow is valentine's day and it is also the first day of the year of tiger in China, I wish everyone a good year ahead! 虎虎生風, 虎年行大運!

Below was my writing for the GS class:

"I want to use this painting to “mapping” some of my current concepts about painting.
Idea: My idea for the painting.
Sharp, value, color: The elements I always need to keep in mind when I paint.
Finished and Unfinished: finish the important part and the contrast with unfinished part will bring the viewer’s eyes to the focus of point, also make the unfinished part looks like finished. With out finished part, the unfinished part will looks like nothing.
Detail and No detail: less detail in the shadow part will make other part looks more detail.
Edge control and Brush works: Use the edge control to make the painting looks 3D; Use brush works to make the fur looks like real.
Chinese painting techniques: The techniques I want to add in to my oil painting (hybrid)."

Small Still life

I got a chance to paint this still life tonight with an artist friend. I have not paint any still life for many many years, except the one did for my homework when I was working on my MFA. But the still life is not some thing new for me, the time back to high school when I was in China, I painted still life 3 hours every night.
It was fun to paint this small painting, this subject is good for practice the skill and it is easy to set up. You will see more small still life from my blog, hopefully each one has a new idea.
Please email me if you are interested this painting.

Small Seascapes (Mendocino - the cliff beach) - SOLD

It was very interesting to paint this one. The value of the sea water, the beach and the cliff were very close, I used the local color to separate them; moving the rock around on the canvas was fun for the composition; the size and edge was the tool to create the space; the brushwork helped to express the different texture... I think this is the beauty of the oil painting, and this is why I love the oil painting.
Please email me if you are interested to purchase this small beauty.

Apple face - SOLD

Small Landscapes (Stanford Dish Series) - SOLD

Small Landscape 6

Small Landscape 5

Small Landscapes (Stanford Dish)

Small work 1, 8 x 10.

Small work 2, 8 x 10.

I am planning to do some small landscape paintings now and for the bigger painting later. Please email me if you are interested to purchase any of the small one.

BBQ for the festival

Available at Silvana Gallery.

Are you planning for a BBQ this year?

This is the first narrative painting I have done, it is not an easy subject to paint.

I was attracted by the kebab and wondered about how to paint it, this is the reason I started this painting, but I think the beauty of the painting is the hard working chefs.

Girl Protrait - SOLD

by Silvana Gallery.

Yes, I graduated. No more nude figure :) The reason I chose nude figure as my final project was that I wanted to use the hardest subject to practice my skills, and now is the time for me to paint some thing that I want to paint :)

Some friends asked me about what do I want to paint now? The answer is simple: anything touches me, the subject does not matter to me.

This is the only "finished" portrait painting I completed in this couple years. Although I call it portrait, but her face was not the first focus point I wanted to paint. I think some time the body language could expresses the emotion and feeling too. I don't have the title for this painting yet, so, please let me know if you have a good title for it.

Happy New Year from Fongwei

Final 6 - SOLD

by Waterhouse Gallery.

Both this painting and my "sleeping beauty" are not finished yet. I post them out because I don't know when I will finish them. My final is over :) I want to take a short break and then paint something else.

I really enjoyed in apply the different paint application on my painting, even work on a half dried painting. I find more rooms to play with color and express my idea and feeling.

Final 5 - the sleeping beauty

Available at New Masters Gallery.

I tried to push my self more about color on this painting, and I find that the higher key painting will be easier to apply the color on it, the lower key painting will be harder, like my last painting. And also when I focus more on drawing (likeness and value) I will lose the color, it's just like the impressionism painting and realism painting, but I think this is also the nature. So I believe that for an artist, as soon as he find the "balance point" of the drawing and the color, he will established his own style, and the "balance point" will be depend on the artist's "art taste".
Huihan pushed me more on the paint application, you can see a little bit from this painting. I will try more on my next painting. I feel I can get more rooms to do the "fine art" with varied paint applications.

An old story 2 - SOLD

by New Masters Gallery.

I painted this girl again a few weeks ago, it took me long time to finish it because the moving. I really like this subject, will paint it more after my final subject.

Figure drawing 4

Figure drawing 3

Figure drawing 2

Figure drawing 1

Head drawing

I have not done any drawing for years, I think I need to get used to my drawing tools.

Final 4

Available at New Master Gallery.

Hi, I am back. This was a very busy summer for me. I just moved to my new house, it took me a month to do the remodeling, and the good news is I got a bigger studio, I can imagining that I will produce a lot of great paintings in my new studio :-)

This will be my final semester for my MFA degree, I have followed my teacher Zhaoming Wu for two and half years, and I decided to do a one on one study with another master painter Huihan Liu as my last class, hope I can learn more from him.

I have another good news, New Masters Gallery started to carry my paintings. They put my painting in the window, and sold the first painting in two weeks. So after I finished my final project (nude figure – for sharping my skills) you will see more gallery paintings from my blog.