Watercolor Sketch Wong Tai Sin Temple, Hong Kong

This watercolor sketch is of one of the roof ornaments at the Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong.  Wong Tai Sin is one the largest and most famoustemples in Hong Kong. A Taoist temple named after Wong Chuping, itis known for it’s fortune telling.  Supposedly the fortune sticks here are very accurate.  Worshippers kneel before the altar shaking a bamboo container holding slender sticks of wood, similar to those coffee stirring sticks at Starbucks only a bit bigger. There can be as many as 50 or more worshippers doing this at once and there can be quite a  commotion from all the shaking and chanting. When one falls out, the stick is exchanged for a piece of paper by the sooth sayer at the temple, bearing the same number as the stick.  The sooth sayer then interprets the fortune for the worshiper.  Some temples like this one have many stalls, with fortune tellers or sooth sayers which are open for consultation for anyone seeking guidance.

 Roof Detail at Wong Tai Sin

Worshippers at Wong Tai Sin

Wong Tai Sin's Chinese Temple Architecture

The temple has extensive gardens in the back including a replica of the Nine Dragons Wall from the Forbidden City in Beijing.  What is really odd is the juxtaposition of the temple and gardens surrounded by the towering Hong Kong apartment buildings.

Detail of Apartment Buildings Surrounding Wong Tai Sin

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Watercolor Sketch: Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

The Watercolor Sketch Travelogue Series,  continues leaving Thailand going back to Hong Kong.  This one was done at the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Sha Tin in the New Territories of Hong Kong.  The monastery was completed in 1957, but it took an additional 10 years to complete and add the 13,000 Buddha statues on the main temple walls.  Incidentally even though the name is 10, 000 Buddhas Monastery, there are 13,000.  In Cantonese, 10,000 denotes a large number of something.

This sketch was done at the bottom of the hill and is of a more Thai influenced statue with 4 faces.

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Watercolor Sketch and Painting, Chinese Shoes

There is a street near the Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road in Hong Kong called Cat Street.  Although it’s touted as a street to find antiques, and some of the actual shops do sell antiques.  The stalls along the street are mostly things made for tourists that appear to be antiques.  That being said it is still fun to wander, and look and shop because there is a lot of cool stuff there.  But remember, if you do buy anything bargaining for the best price, or what you are willing to pay is imperative!  Sometimes what you are willing to pay is still a big profit for the sellers!  But, you walk away happy with your treasure and the seller is happy they made a sale.

One seller has a bunch of embroidered shoes.  Since I love textiles andthe beautiful colors of these shoes,  I went one day to do a plein air sketch of some of them lying in a basket.  As I was doing the sketch I knew I wanted to develop this idea further.  I took photos and used them, and my sketch as reference for a larger painting.

Chinese Shoes, Watercolor on Archival Paper, 15" x 11", 38 cm x 28 cm

This is the larger painting, Chinese Shoes,  that was exhibited in a summer exhibition at Brushstrokes Gallery, in Hong Kong from an invitation from artist, and my good friend, Isabelle Lim.

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Friday Feature Interview

I wanted to share with you today a link to an interview I did for another guest blog post on watercolorist, Carrie Waller’s blog.  Every Friday she features another artist on her blog.  The interview is quite extensive and I really enjoyed doing it.  There is more information there than what I currently have on my bio!  If you are interested in learning a bit more about me and my artistic journey, and my time at Walt Disney Imagineering,  click here to read the interview for Carrie’s Friday Feature that features yours truly. :-)

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Watercolor Sketching

I dabbled with watercolor sketching, but really fell in love with it when I lived in Hong Kong.  I had so much wonderful subject matter around me andI wanted to try plein air painting, so I started going out on location and painting in my watercolor sketch book.  The major thing I learned after I started doing itwas, it took away the intimidation of doing a painting in watercolor.  Sometimes I would sit in the studio and look at a big piece of white paper and wonder if I was going to pulloff something I was going to be happy with.  Even though artists shouldn’t get caught up in that way of thinking, that everything we do has to be a winner because it always isn’t!  After all it’s just paper and paint, but I think deep down we always want to be happy with what we create at the end of the day.

Watercolor sketching is a wonderful thing to do for so many reasons:

• Sketching forces you to be quick and not over think things.
• It forces you to simplify what you are seeing in the environment and not get caught up in the details.
• It gave me a chance to feel more comfortable with the medium and took away the intimidation when I did do larger works in the studio.
• If you do it plein air, it’s great to be out in nature or really soak in the sights and sounds of a place, much better than a quick photo.
• Gives you a lasting memory of a moment in time when you were enjoying the act of painting.
• Sketches can be used to develop bigger paintings.
• Great way to meet people or connect with other artists if you go out together.
• My watercolor sketch books go with me when ever I travel.  Your sketch books becomesa treasure of meaningful memories.

In future posts I will talk about my materials and share some of my sketches.  I hope it inspires you to try it!

This sketch was done at the Lama Temple in Beijing.  I had a nice older chinese gentlemen sit down next to me on the bench while I worked on this sketch.  We talked about a variety of things.  I will never forget it!

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Lion Dance

When my family and I moved to Hong Kong, it was right after Christmas and right before the Chinese New Year Celebration, the year of the pig.  We had no idea the extent of this holiday and it was a real treat to experience it while living there.  There are so many fascinating traditions, celebrations, and spectacles that last fifteen days.  One of my favorite things to experience was the Lion Dance.  These can break out anywhere.  They were performed several times in our apartment complex, and whenever we heard the loud gong, cymbals and drums we would rush down to watch.    The dance is to provoke good luck, and is performed by two people usually trained in martial arts, one person performing the head and the other the body. They dance along the route to a gong, drums and cymbals.  Sometimes following a laughing Buddha, dressed in monks robes wearing a mask.  Above the doorways are placed heads of romaine lettuce or some type of greens.  The lion eats the lettuce and scatters the leaves on the ground for good luck.  There is mirror on the head of the lion so that evil spirits can be frightened away by their own reflections.

This painting Lion Dance depicts a lion head-piece from a performance that I saw.  I loved working on this painting, the bold color, the subject matter and the size really spoke to me.  I almost feel as if it painted itself!  I love it when that happens!   This is the largest painting I have done in watercolor it measures 36” x 36”.  I really enjoyed working big!

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Banana and Peanut Seller

Keeping with the banana theme, this time an oil.  This sweet older lady and her daughter sold only bananas and peanuts in the shell at a corner stall in the Soho area of Hong Kong.  She weighed your bananas on an old fashioned counter weight scale. One of my favorite past times while living in Hong Kong was wondering the many outdoor markets. The colors and all the fantastic asian fruits and vegetables were such an inspiration.  However, the seafood and meat sections were not for the squeamish!

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Hong Kong Gatekeeper

While living in Hong Kong I was so intrigued by the Chinese temples and visited quite a few of them in the area.  I was doing a sketch in the Man Mo temple on Hong Kong Island one day and the incense from the huge incense coils made my eyes burn and by the time I left I reeked of smoke.  One thing that was ubiquitous was the ornate lion head brass door pulls on the entrances to the temples.  Because I'm usually honing in on the details, I have quite a few photos of these and did many sketches of them on site.

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Acceptance into 2013 Georgia Watercolor Society National Exhibition

Hong Kong Happy Hour

$175.00

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Limited Edition Archival Print Giclée Signed and Numbered, Edition of 300

Original Painting is SOLD.

Image Size:  12” x 18,” (30.5 cm x 46 cm)

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Just found out today my painting Hong Kong Happy Hour was accepted into the 2013 Georgia Watercolor Society National Exhibition!  Show opens April 5 and goes to May 17, Blue Ridge Art Association Gallery, Blue Ridge Georgia.

Here is the story behind this painting.  This window was part of a facade in the Soho District on Hong Kong Island.  There was no sign or any indication as to what was inside. I was so intrigued by the blue color and peeling paint.   One night a friend took me there and much to my surprise, it was a French antique shop turned into a cocktail lounge!  Hence, the name of this piece.

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