Angkor in Arizona??

The title is a bit mixed-up, isn't it? Angkor Wat in Arizona?
Reason is that I loved the red, orange and yellow sunset hues of the Arizona desert, but to paint sad-looking measely cactus seems a bit pathetic. So I "imported" some Angkor temples into my Arizona sunset. Heheheh. This was just recently completed in August 2010.
What should I call this piece?

Red Sunset
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Size = 2 pieces of ___ cm x ___ cm

My camera skills need a whole lot of improvement.... donno why the colours of the two paintings differ... must be the LIGHTING as one is hung in the East of the wall, and the other - the West! Nope. They are not together as seen here.

The Chinese T-Shirt!

Earlier this year, I had bought a Christie's Auction book on Chinese Imperial Costumes at a bazaar. I had found the colourful and intricate embroderies beautiful, and decided that I should paint one. When my boys saw my painting, they exclaimed "Hey! Mom's painted a Chinese T-Shirt", so this is what I have decided to call this piece. If I am not mistaken, painting was completed sometime in June 2010.

The Chinese T-Shirt
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Size = TBA

I should have used a bigger piece of canvas, but was too lazy to go all the way to the Art Supply shop... GOSH! The traffic jam is enough to put me off from painting!

My Boys

After completing The Hunk, I was gonna paint another gorgeous half-naked body of a hunk. But thought "What would my boys think??" ...so I had a change of mind and decided to paint my boys instead.

This is finished....YET NOT really finished. Though I can see my children, somehow, my S1 looks older here than he should. But I really don't know what else to do to improve the painting.... so temporary first lah...

My Boys
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Size = 50 cm x 50 cm

The Hunk

Noticed that I haven't posted since December 2009. It's not that I have stopped painting. It's just that I've been lazy posting. If I am not mistaken, I finished this piece in early February 2010. Don't you think he is soooooooooooooooooooo gorgeous?

The Hunk
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Size = 50 cm x 50 cm

When I was painting this, my boys were afraid that their dad would be jealous that I painted a man other than their dad, and thus was critisizing the painting like no tomorrow. When I told my H about his boys, H proceeded to pose like The Hunk above and said "told you that you should use me as the model instead!" . Hahhahahahahah

BTW, this is a Bollywood star. Can't remember his name though.

"Ang Ang Tai Kiat"

This piece of painting started off with being ALL RED. As in I painted the background first.....which is NOT the norm. Usually, the background is the LAST to go on. I wanted something RED. Thus the title of the painting. Hokkiens will understand what it means. Basically, the English translation loosely means "Red Red Prosperous" (I think).The Chinese lady was an after-thought. :-)

"Ang Ang Tai Kiat"
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Size = 80 cm x 120 cm

I managed to complete this last Monday, despite of my aching arm... Actually, I totally forgot that my arm was aching whilst painting. I was totally immersed in the task!

Doors to a New Day...

The subject in this painting was also kinda ad-hoc. I had just finished The Kiss, and had brought a odd-sized canvas to my painting class. Again, I had NO IDEA what to paint, and my odd-sized canvas did NOT help. A classmate had 'left' one of her new canvas and since she did not attend class that day, I HIJACKED her canvas. Hahahhahaha
Even then, I still didn't know what to paint. As I had my GREEK ISLANDS calendar (the source of Santorini is from here), my classmates chose this for me....

I know the title sounds abit weird/lame... but how to word it? I know the morning sun is shining on those doors....

Doors to a New Day

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Size = 70 cm x 90 cm

This painting was completed in quite a short time... all in all perhaps about 5 hours. My art teacher says my style is more impression/expression....as I am not really a detail detail person. Plus he says I am more at ease with this style... And I agree.

The Kiss

When I came back to 'reality' after our family vacation in Europe, I was at a loss as to what to paint. My mind was as blank as the canvas before me. As before, my classmate came to the rescue. She is into the habit of cutting out newspaper clippings whenever she sees something that could be a potential art subject (She was the one that gave me the newspaper clipping on the Balinese Dancers).

On that day, she had just cut out this snapshot from a modern ROMEO & JULIET play that was in town. I was rather hesitant but as I absolutely had NO IDEA what to do with my blank canvas, I thought I'll give it a go. I decided to do chop-off their bodies and do it in just BLACK and WHITE (and of course GREYs)...and in a Pop Arty kind of way. It turned out pretty good. Yah?

The Kiss

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Size = 40 cm x 40 cm

Water Lilies

This painting took awhile to finish.... Started around the 3rd quarter of 2008 and only finishing it in 2nd quarter of 2009.

Why????
Errr...because I tried to be a SMART ALEC and tried to paint with NO reference. I did have a few photographs of water lilies, but they did NOT really correlate. So when the time came to paint the lighting direction, the different shades, shadows; it was ALL a MESS!! So each time I tried to finish the painting, I was at a loss....... and each time I just GIVE-UP.

A Lesson Learnt.
DO NOT TRY TO BE SMART!

Water Lilies
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Size = 40 cm x 50 cm

I think Water Lilies are too pretty to be real. Their colours are so brilliant. So striking. The hues so so very bright. They are too perfect to be real. And yet...they are. I always marvel at these beauties.... and believe me, the colours in REAL Water Lilies are even brighter than in my painting.

Santorini

I had a set of BLUE sofa in my upstairs living.... and what better way to adorn the walls than the beautiful BLUEs from Santorini??

Santorini

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Size = 80 cm x 80 cm

Balinese Procession

Always wanted to paint one of those scenes depicting the terraced rice-fields. So what do you think of this?

Balinese Procession

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Size = 60 cm x 50 cm

I've promised my good friend here that I will give her this.... So that she will ALWAYS REMEMBER ME!!!!

Updated - This painting gifted to friend in mid-November 2009

Buddha Statue

Always wanted to paint a Buddha... This was actually sorta completed at the end of 2008...but as my H commented about the 'artificialness' of the shadow, I had to re-paint the shadows in January 2009.

Buddha Statue

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Size = 70 cm x 80 cm

Mom really likes this painting..... So, it will be hers. Just have to find a way to cart it back to KL. Should I frame it here or back in KL???

Very Old Paintings - Woman and Child

These paintings were done waaaaaaay in 2003. Actually, I didn't remember the year. I had to look at the date on the painting. These paintings were painted from postcards depicting the minority ethnic groups in Northern Thailand. Not sure if I did these while living in Bangkok or when we moved back to PJ.

Don't think I did many paintings in Bangkok... the others that I remember are

- A Lotus Flower ( ...which I had given to a friend as a gift when she launched her own law firm. Wonder if she still has it hung in her office??), and

- a Bird in Flight (which is still hung in my parents' bedroom).

Reason?

Because my S2 was still rather young (around 2 years old or maybe younger) , and I remember dragging him together with the maid all the way from our home in ChaengWattana to the Montien Hotel on Surawongse Road, where the painting classes were held. The maid will chase my little monster around the hotel until he got fed-up/tired. I usually had to leave when the little one starts his tantrums.

When we moved back to Malaysia, I joined the oil painting class over at BSC. I've been trying hard to recall what the artist name was but to no avail.. Memory is failing with idle minds!!! He was attached to Kidsports then, and he was still there (although now no longer Kidsports but some roller blading place) when we went back to KL last summer.

Anyway, these are my paintings down in the earlier years...

Woman and Child - 1

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Size = 30 cm x 40 cm

Woman and Child - 2

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Size = 30 cm x 40 cm

Think I did three other paintings (no photos here though) while living in Malaysia:

- a Snow Scene (which now hangs in my former 1119 English teacher's dining room, that is if she did not bring it down...have to go ask her :-P)

- Beach Scene depicting Malaysian fishing boats (this was given to my dear 'ole Si-Fu. My 'gifting' did not come out quite right... I said "This one. I don't quite like. I give this to you!" Hahahahah...but I promised him that I will paint him something he likes...and I'm working on it now.... my current WIP)

- Heliconias (which is now hung in my 4th Sis' house....When I was working on it, I tried to be smart and started with using KNIFE. The result??? Well, let's just say that the comment from my teacher was "Litt titt mm hai wahh!" (This is NOT art!). I guess he must be really appalled by my knife-painting abilities. Hahahhahaha)