Roses and Bicycle IV - A tribute to time

Mixed Media with acrylic, ink and crayon on hardbord, 9x12

The greying sky,

Like the remnant of a fire,

Lingers on.

The space is empty 

Of your presence,

 

And soon will be filled with the drizzling rain,
Like tears of laughter.

Tequila and Bougainvillea

A student of mine, Marian, brought over a bunch of bougainvillea and a Tequila bottle which I'd never see before to paint. The setting was beautiful. Marian started it very well. But it tempted me to give it a try after the class. The bottle was clear and the bougainvillea's got "a hundred" blossoms on one stem, and they wilted very fast. To avoid the blah, light background and a clear bottle, I added blue for a more painterly effect. As for the busy flowers, I concentrated on a few with light pink to dress up the petals.

 In a still life, especially, we don't really have to paint what we see but what we feel.

If you would like to purchase my paintings, please

email me or go to Paypal through my web site.

Roses and Bicycle ll

Mixed Media with Acrylic, Ink and Oil, 9x12

***  

If you would like to purchase my paintings, please

email me or go to Paypal through my web site.

Please also check out

 Qiang Huang's workshop in 2013 on the right.

Leave a comment if you can. Have a great week!

Roses and Bicycle

Mixed Media with Ink and Acrylic on Telati board, 9x12

All of a sudden I feel like it's time to take a break from traditional painting and do some abstracts. The figurative's been on my mind, and a bicycle seemed like fun because of its various geometric shapes and my fun memories of it in my childhood. A bicycle to me implies freedom, youth, movement in nature, balancing and innocence. What does it mean to you? 

If you would like to purchase my paintings, please

email me or go to Paypal through my web site.

Iris in the Wild

Oil on Board, 9x12

Starting with the thought of painting it abstractly, I painted this one fairly quickly and it turned out not that abstract, but I like it. I'm beginning to feel comfortable stretching the values a bit more; using the very dark and the very light, from about 2 to 9 in the value scale. Soft edges can make peace for the meeting of the two extremes.

Please go to my website if you're interested in purchasing this painting. I've been trying to get the Paypal Buy Now button to work elsewhere, but am having a hard time. The one on my website seems to work fine.

Two Bottles

                                                       Oil, 12x9 

There are quite a lot of things I learned from painting this:

 There can't be light without the dark; 

The translucent light alongside the bottle could be done straight from the tube of the right value and color (which I didn't have, I had a hell of a time making it look even close. I mixed white with light green and cobalt blue but only made it opaque or dull looking); 

Green pepper is not that complicated to paint, it just takes a little patience; 

Background is fun to paint, just don't paint what you see; 

Don't put too many cherries on the table. 

*****

I'm taking reservation for a four day workshop for Qiang Huang in July, 2013 in Scottsdale, AZ. If you're interested please email me. The space will be filled up fairly quickly, so please act fast. Here's the flyer for more detail:

Lily In a Glass Vase

Oil, 14x11

After a while, I thought I must have been nuts to paint such delicate flowers. Sunflowers are a lot easier; with many little petals, a few quick brush strokes with different shades of yellow will do the job. But a lily has only 5 petals and each has very delicate colors and design. Painting them made me feel humbled. 

I have also learned a lot about painting a plate. The edge of the plate going from the dark side to the light side is one continuous line. The transition from dark to light is a little tricky as it takes a lot of patience and steady hand to get it right. The temperature change is delicate and you need to clean the brush often. Because I didn't, it made me a bit frustrated. And so I learned.

***

Please email me if you have questions, or visit my website 

to see other paintings. 

To purchase this painting please click here. 

Thank you for visiting!

Morning In Yarnell

oil on canvas, 14x18

This is painted from one of the pictures I took a year ago. For some reason I liked the composition even though it's somewhat unconventional. The perspective is good here.

I feel that, for landscape, the most important aspect is the composition. Whether there is a focal point or not is not as important, unlike a still life or a portrait where the source of light tells you everything.

Yarnell is a beautiful town about two hours of drive north of Phoenix. On highway 89 to and fro you can see cottonwood trees gather here and there along the creeks and mountains rising and falling in the distance and near. I love it's openness, crispy air and quietude. It's truly picturesque in every way.

***** 

Please email me if you have questions or visit my website 

to see other paintings.

*

To purchase this painting, please click here

Thanks for visiting!

"Desert Mountain"

Oil, 12x9

I painted this Alla Prima today from a picture, courtesy of my workshop instructor, Linda Glover Gooch, a wonderful painter and teacher. I liked the blue mountain and the warm/cool relationship with the foreground. So distinct in the "Kodak Moment", I almost wanted to do an abstract study. But I got into painting it this way. 

I believe this is the Superstition Mountain.

Painting quickly works better for me because often times I would paint a painting to "death" by over doing it:) It's really better just keep painting - paint the next one!

****

 Please email me if you have questions or visit my website 

to see other paintings. Thanks for visiting!

A Desert Trail

Oil on Canvas, 9x12

Desert is pretty. It is nonchalant and carefree.

In an effort to be more disciplined, I bought a pad of real canvas and decided to paint a painting a day. So here it is one of the three I've done. I hope I'll come up with more worthy ones to post here, and often. With a picture in hand or something in front of me to paint, it is so much easier than to paint the abstract. So, this is a welcomed change for me.

I painted this from a picture I took two years ago at the Red Rock Crossing, Sedona.

It was probably in February and there were a lot of trees without leaves. A little desolate. But come to think of it, it has always looked like this no matter when I visited it. There are green trees along the creek during the summer and later, as I remember. Perhaps it's time to go back, again.

***

 Please email me if you have questions or visit my website .

to see other paintings. Thanks for visiting!

"Reflection in Red" by Li Hua Mahalik

Mixed Media, 24x24

This is one of the three paintings still in progress. I feel like I need to define the forms, big and small, a little better with lines and saturated colors. But an abstract like this is a work define by when the artist decides it's done. Before then, the image on the canvas can come and go like clouds in the sky. The more you can preserve, the closer you can call it finished. 

***

I'm showing 21 paintings of mine in the Grinder's Coffee Shop at Central and Dunlap in Phoenix. These are a mixture of traditional and abstract paintings;

they are great gifts for any occasions and priced reasonably

. 

So, please come visit and enjoy a great cup of coffee and sandwiches. The show will last till 6/6/12. 

My friends, painters, Gloria Cuadraz, Vanya Allison and Sven Helle will be showing their work separately in July, september and December. I'll keep you posted.

Please also visit my blog and website. Thanks!

Issak Levitan's Artwork

Issak Levitan, oil on canvas

Issak Levitan, oil on canvas

Isaac Ilyich Levitan (Russian: Исаа́к Ильи́ч Левита́н; August 30, 1860 – August 4, 1900) was a classical Lithuanian-Russian landscape painter who advanced the genre of the "mood landscape". (Courtesy from Wikipedia landscape search)

Today, while trying to find out where my favorite Russian painting site was, I bumped into Issak Levitan's many wonderful paintings. I felt very ignorant not having even heard of his name before. I thought I'd share them with you. His many other paintings are shown here:

http://www.adolphmenzel.org/artist-Levitan,%20Isaak-01.htm

Enjoy it!

Li Hua

p.s. 21 of my paintings are being shown and for sale at the Grinder's Coffee Shop at Central and Dunlap in Phoenix. Priced reasonably, they are great gift for any occasions! Thanks for your support!

"Untitled T1"

Oil on wrapped Canvas, 24x24

Recently, I was led to an amazing and interesting online tutoring website, www.kahnacademy.org. In it, it has all kinds of subject matters that you've probably known or have take in high school or college. I wanted to see how much of the Calculus I remembered. Subsequently, it led me to the creation of a triptych, and this is the first of the three.

Cy Twombly is one of my favorite abstractionists. I love his scribbles. Looking at his work, it inspired me. I forgot how to talk gibberish, mathematic equations as scribbles seem natural, that is, if you don’t think too much.

More to come, later,

Li Hua 

Email, Website

Time moves on

Qiang Huang, Artist

A busy week. My Austin, Texas friend and teacher Qiang Huang (pronounced Chong Wong) came to town to show his work in the Legacy Gallery. Qiang was part of the Richard Schmid's Putney Painters of Vermont exhibit. The art exhibits and workshops were all filled with new ideas. Please visit Qiang's website and read his daily blog. Qiang always has an interesting view on life.

Now I'm off to an abstract workshop that uses tissue wrapping paper as an element of surprise. Wish me luck.