Flowers in paint

I have run out of interesting photos to upload so I thought perhaps I should post my paintings of flowers instead. These paintings are part of a bigger painting that is currently in progress. I have been procrastinating too long in my quest to paint but once I got started, I was hooked on the acitivity. I only wish that I could take a few weeks' break and disappear into some nice retreat with plenty of flowers and plants and just paint to my heart's content. As it is I only get to do this at night and the colours are rather 'cold' because of the flourescent lighting. Still, just getting hands-on with the acrylic paints and brushes is a great feeling!

Delinia Suffruticosa, Banana flower, Sunflower.

Flower of the Passion fruit.

Alpinia purpurata - "Double Red"

Morning Glory

Heliconia

Hibiscus or Bunga Raya

Spider lilies

Today's date: 20 08 2008

These spider lilies are white in colour. Or are they?
These orchids could be described as having white petals with tinges of pink on them.

This painting was a still life of white crockery on a piece of white table or beige coloured table cloth. It was one of the early paintings I did under the guidance of my art teacher. I had thought that his choice of still life on that night was kind of boring. Afterall, white is just white and my painting, I imagined, would be really dull without any vibrant colours. At the end of the session, my painting did not resemble what was actually before me. In fact it turned out to be rather interesting. All because my teacher said that white is not what it seems. When you look at something white hard enough, you begin to realise that white takes on the colours of its surroundings. 有时候望着云朵会可能见到彩虹。

Dillenia philippinensis - Philippines simpoh

I like the way the petals lay
as if nothing in the world matters
except the importance of rest

and a freedom from worldly fetters

A time to breathe at last
not for others but for self
A time to take in what is best
to regain one's precious health

Oh to bask in the sun
feeling life in every cell
joy in simple pleasures
and for a while all is well

This must be life at its ideal
if only it could be stretched to maximum
and every day is a brand new day
filled with laid-back goodness ad infinitum

If it is only wishful thinking
or mindless dreaming
Let it be, let it be
Once in a while we need to feel free

Flowers from the heart - Happy Mother's Day

A mother's day present from my daughter such as a painting like this has no price. It is not for sale and it is not meant for any one except me. It has a special meaning and was painted from the heart. It has all the things that make up a large part of my consciousness - flowers, birds and nature. The predominant colour, purple, is my favourite hue in the rainbow.It speaks of a family looking at flowers that are out of this world that are precious with star-like qualities representing the timeless values of goodness that sparkle through eternity and rule the darkness with light. It is a gift that makes Mother's Day a meaningful day, at last.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers in the world!

Cassia fistula - Golden Showers

These sumptuous flowers

are back again in showers

stunning, yellow, wonderful

mesmerising, joyful, beautiful!

There are two golden shower trees in full bloom along Bukit Timah road between King Albert Park and Hwa Chong Junior College. Each time I pass them by I sigh because my hands are on the wheel and there is no way I can photograph them on my own. Well, the weekend beckons and that means that I can be the passenger instead of the driver and maybe next week, there will be pictures of these lovely trees on this blog.

More >>> http://www.flowersinsingapore.com/gshower.htm

Sunflower

I have been hiding from the heat the whole day. I wanted to go out and yet I did not want to be out in the sun. The solution was to drive from home to shopping centre so that I can enjoy air-conditioning throughout the journey and not have to battle it out at the crowded MRT stations and trains for seats. The last thing on my mind was to be out looking for flowers to photograph for this blog. The solution is to put up one of my humble paintings to show how I feel about today.

Bauhinia Blakeana - Orchid Tree

As promised, the lovely flowers of the Orchid Tree. Enjoy!





More information given on this website here.

Coral tree, Heliconia, water lilies

Today the urge to paint is strong but there is no time. Playing around with colours and other adjustments in my photo software is only a temporary means to feed my hunger for creativity. Good enough for now.

Heliconias in the foreground with coral trees with flowers in the background. I cannot recall where this photo was taken.
This photo of a water-lily pond that I thought looked a little like Monet's paintings was taking in Sungei Buloh some years back.

Fangipani - Plumeria blooms

Work-in-progress. Confucius said, "If you enjoy what you do for a living, you never have to work a day in your life." Not everyone truly enjoy what he or she does at work. Fortunately for me, painting is not work and painting flowers is pure joy because I have no deadlines to meet and best of all, no one to please. I photographed these flowers by the side of one of the swimming pools in Bintan Lagoon Resort many years ago. The colours on the photo have faded a little. In this acrylic painting, I want to bring out the fire in these flowers by using strong contrasts in colours of the petals against a background of blue water that will make the flowers smoulder.

Flowers on the wall

An artist's imagination of how nature might have looked in the days when Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore in 1819.

I would love to look out of my window to scenery like this.

Heliconia

Heliconia flowers are fascinating because of their brightly coloured bracts. Some grow upwards, some hang down and some grow sideways. This must be a very restless plant. When it blooms it has to make a strong presence as these did in the Singapore Bird Park.

My first heliconia painting, still incomplete and most likely will remain thus for good.

Helianthus annuus - Sunflower

These robust-looking sunflowers were photographed up on Fraser's Hill in Malaysia. I have a life-long fascination for these flowers that hold the power of joyfulness. I see them very often in the gardens of people in Singapore and they grow up to a meter in height and very often I have been tempted to try my hand in growing them. I was told that they take a lot nutrients from the soil and once the plant is done with flowering, the soil is useless.

Instead of labouring on the planting of these admirable flowering plants, I have chosen instead to paint them. It also happens that my favourite artist is Van Gogh and I am much inspired by his paintings. This painting was laboured over a few months as my first effort in painting on my own. I may not have sunflowers in my garden but I have them on my wall.

Family: Asteraceae

Origin: America

Retreat

A retreat to the jungles of Malaysia, to gaze at the magnificient mountains of the main range, to give the flowers in Singapore a break and myself time to be with nature and to seek out new flowers, those I have not seen before. Been there and done that.

Nature and Art

Art, History and Nature come together in this exhibition "Empire of Nature" currently taking place at the National Museum. I've always admired the drawings in the William Faquhar Collection that I have seen here and there. So when I learned that for the first time the entire 477 drawings made as recordings of the flora and fauna in this region are being displayed in the National Museum, I was simply thrilled.

The drawings were superb as can be seen from the samples on the brochures of the exhibition. The drawings were educational as well as appealing artistically. I simply could not go through such an excellent collection of drawings passively.
So I decided to make sketches of some of the drawings, that I had found interesting just so that I have a record of my visit. My drawings below are not meant to be artistic endeavours, just evidence that I have spent time to study closely the details recorded by the artist as observed by him. The actual painting of this Flying Lemur was executed in meticulous detail and you cannot imagine how fine the lines are. Though the depiction of this Flying Lemur may be disproportionate, I find that the face of the Lemur is gentle with large eyes on a small face and yet the way it held on to the branch shows that this animal is strong in survival instincts. This may not be a realistic depiction of an owl but nevertheless the artist had, through the use of colour and patterns, highlighted the beauty of the feathers which I would not have noticed if I had just looked at this painting passively.This watermelon is not round but it does not matter to me. I was drawn to the arrangement of the seeds in the original painting that was in colour. I wondered if the stylish patterns of the seeds were what the artist actually saw or were they just how he wanted them to look in his painting. We often look at what is before us and ignore the fact that there are always two sides to a coin, or leaf, or anything in life.
A typical botanical drawing that was in colour. In just one depiction of this palm, you can see how the leaves look when it is at the peak of its life and how it looks through various stages of wilting.
I did this quick sketch because I have seen this bird before.
I made this drawing from a painting of a very happy mudskipper. It looked so happy that it could almost be a cartoon character. The artist sure had a sense of humour because right next ot it was another mudskipper looking like all the mud in the world has disappeared.
I never knew that pufferfish have such elaborate patterns on their bodies.