The Beauties...can you identify them?

Works  in Progress.....

I managed to sketch these images from the Youtube, while waiting for my students to come.
For the past month, I have been sitting and staring into the thin hot air, trying to keep cool in this extreme
heat and humidity.  At this hour, about 3 pm , the ground, especially the tarred roads around the estate, have been heated to its maximum, and as one walked out, one can feel the radiating heat.

Thank God I need not go out at this hour and if one does, it is better to have some protection from the heat and the Sun's rays.

My artwork can wait.....this is a HUGE sacrifice!

Images kept running through my brain; wonderful pictures but alas, I have not been able to put them on
canvas or paper.  'That can wait,' I told myself comfortingly.
Sometimes we cannot be thinking of ourselves only.  We need to give time to our loved ones and consider what is more important, in which case, I had to put my family first.
My hands had been 'twitching' to hold a pencil or a brush and I felt quite sad or a little disappointed that I was not able to do anything.  I had to paint what I saw in my brain first and even with that, I found much satisfaction.  I wonder if that is the same with other painters.........


Finally I get to paint the pictures I have sketched months ago.  Although they are not completed yet, I
am happy to see them coming into reality.  Sometimes after sketching, I fear my painting will not bring out the results I want.  Usually, I will boldly step into the next thing to do, provided I have the time.  Come what may, I will always try to be happy with the eventual artwork.  I got to like my own artworks before I can expect others to like them. I think.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

 Bracket fungus on the tree stump and green grass/weeds growing around it

 Cotton tree with flowers and buds

Hey! Wait for me....

A cockerel and a hen among a heap of cut garden plants and dried leaves.

Sweetness

This is a picture I painted from the blog 'Paint and Draw Together'

The Rape of the Virgin Forests(a work in progress)

This is my latest painting, watercolour and painted without making a sketch first which I am used to.
Eventhough I have done this kind of painting before, it has been almost two decades now since I last did it.
I used to do Chinese painting, using just black ink, red colour and some green, to paint pictures of lotuses. Sometimes it is just black ink for painting bamboo trees.
Now I am having a problem of executing the strokes confidently-the result of insufficient practice.

I am trying to paint what I have seen during the jungle trips that I went on with my father and mother. My father used to bring my mother to the site where the land was cleared for commercial crop cultivation.  I used to tag along and I was immensely amazed at what I have seen.  Tall straight trees that I have never seen before and occasionally a king fisher could be seen flying across the land and  perching on a branch after its meal at a brook nearby. At one time, I even saw a land tortoise walking tirelessly under the hot blazing sun to a water source, which I found later, turned out to be a small stream hidden by tall grasses.  The survival instint of the tortoise is remarkable.

Latest Artwork-a crochet shoulder bag

This is my latest passion besides painting. I am thinking crochet works do last for decades, so why not I make a few which will outlive me.  What a great thought!

Here is my latest creation...a first actually which has found an owner....my eldest daughter who is going to use it when she's wearing her blue jeans and T-shirt. Hmm...not bad, but do not put in too many things though ,if you want to look nice.

Don't kid yourself

I have found out that painting and studying the Bible have a similarity.  Both need discipline.

One just cannot be kidding oneself  by being satisfied with a finished project when at the back of one's mind that there is something left undone.  For instance, every time I  finish a painting, I have a feeling
I can still improve on it. If I let myself proceed to another piece of work without almost perfecting it( perfection according to my own standards), I will be still thinking about it.  In my mind it is still undone.

Similarly, I can skim through a few chapters of the Bible and presume I know what's going on but somehow the Holy Spirit will keep on bothering me about it.  Hey, there are more aspects to that ...why don't you dig into it more...you are missing on something.  There I go, turning back the pages and erasing the marks I put earlier on the chapters, to consider them undone again. Following that,  I will go and listen to sermons relating to the chapters.

Yes, it is self discipline. No point cheating yourself.  If the artwork is not good , it is not good.
Just put more time to look at it and see how to make it better.  Look at other people's artwork and you will realise how skimpy yours is.  I will be ashamed if someone tells me that mine is not up to standard, whatever it is.  God help me.  
 

Happy Valentine