Friday, February 3, 2012

Celebrating Chinese Culture


"Stately Lion"
7" x 12" watercolor
Overfelt Park, San Jose, CA


Sketch of  elements of the park


 Sun Yet Sen Memorial Hall


View from the Hall

There is a lovely modest-sized park a dozen miles from my home known as Overfelt Gardens. There is a section memorializing Chinese leaders. Our Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society plein air group met there Thursday morning. There were about nine of us gathered on a crisp morning that soon warmed in the sun and then turned a bit windy.

A year ago we painted in this park and at that time I did part of the Sun Yet Sen Memorial Hall. You can see my post here. What to paint? So many choices. I settled on one of  the stately lions in front of the hall. Though I included some greenery with the lion, I channeled Chinese New Year and created a background of red with a bit of blue. Because these very same paints made up my "gray" on the lion, I was hoping for some harmony. When I got home, I added the character for Good Fortune, "fu" in Chinese.

As the other artists continued to paint before lunch, I decided to do a quick sketch using elements of the scene in front of me. That green hill? That was definitely not in the real scene - we've had almost no rain for months. I had fun with the tree using purple, magenta, and blue.


10 comments:

Christiane Kingsley said...

Interesting post, great pictures. I love your lion painting!

hmuxo said...

Stately Lion is a beautiful piece! Love the shadow work as well as the beautiful flowers...nice work.!

Autumn Leaves said...

You did an amazing job on that lion statue, Mary! And the colors of the tree worked beautifully to show the bare trunk and branches that come with winter.

Dean H. said...

Great use of color in both paintings, Mary!

Nina Jørgensen said...

Nice, I like the statue painting, and also your winter ones from earlier posts!! Happy Chinese New Year :) I went to the celebrations here in London and they performed a really cool lion and dragon dance! Your painting reminds me of that! Have you got any snow yet? It snowed here today, so beautiful!

Barbra Joan said...

I like both these Mary, and I so admire your 'get out there and paint' BJ

hw (hallie) farber said...

These are great, Mary. I am in awe of all those times you go outside and paint.

Rosemary said...

Super job on the Stately Lion - rich bold colors! Enjoyed the post and the photos!

Unknown said...

These are wonderful pieces!

Mary said...

This is a lovely piece, Mary--your lion is Stately, indeed. I think your use of color is very successful and appreciate that you mention that the background colors are the basis of greys in the lion. The resulting harmony is certainly pleasing to the eye. I'm glad to have found your delightful blog (via your comment on Sherry's).