Miniata Groupers, Chinese Wetmarket, Singapore

This watercolor painting is called Miniata Groupers and is from the Singapore series. Click to enlarge.



It is based on this photograph that I took on my trip to Singapore in 1996 at the Chinese Wet Market. This was a tank of live miniata groupers.


The painting was an exercise in watercolor washes and gradients and was tons of fun. I drew the tank and fish and then painted the water and the painting sat for a long time before I got up the nerve to paint the fish. But once I got started, I was okay and couldn't stop.

Casualty of war, 2009

Please click to enlarge

Here is a new piece of art that I just finished this morning. I had an inspiration a few days ago and have worked on this solidly since then since I feel that stopping our operations in Iraq is way more important than sharing my trip to Singapore. The reason is that we are losing lives of our brave American men and women, plus Iraqis are also being killed. We need to get our asses out of there as soon as possible to end the dying. In the famous words of Edwin Starr "War, What is it good for? Absolutely nothin!"

Cattle statues, Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore, 2009

This is a watercolor painting that I just completed this morning. Chiaroscuro in style, it is of the two cattle statues that detail the cornerstone of the Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple at the corner of South Bridge and Pagoda Streets in Singapore. I took a picture of the Temple when I was there in 1997 on business, and decided that the cattle would make for a great watercolor painting. So, I searched the web and found the photo below in a flickr album.



One never sees architectural details like this in the United States! I am blessed that I had the opportunity to travel to Singapore and see this and thus make this painting. I will continue to make paintings from my travel to Singapore.

Chinese wet market, Singapore, 2009

Here is a new work that I just completed yesterday! It is called Chinese Wet Market, Singapore. I used a photo that I took from my visit to Singapore in 1997 as a model for the work (below).



Unfortunately the colors are washed out in the photo of the painting and are brighter in the original work.

This is my first major work since my brain surgery almost 10 years ago and it was really a trial. The medium is both watercolor and India ink and if you click to enlarge, you will see that I give a nod to my past pointillism days. The painting is 16 x 12 inches.

Hooray for me, now I am a painting fool again! I am excited an happy with many works going!

Koi in Holland Market, Singapore, 98/09

Here is yet another work that I completed yesterday. If you click to enlarge it, you will see that it took eleven years to finish this work. Much transpired in those years!!! Below it is the photo that it is based upon. We also use a version of the photo for printing our bank checks.

Unfortunately, the camera was not kind to this watercolor painting. The background is a lovely light blue and the fish a delicate yellow. Perhaps you can see that I finally figured out how to use my new brushes in the fin work on the 3 fish left upper center of the painting and the red and white one towards the bottom.

I feel that this work is graphically strong and very pretty even though there are some mistakes in it.

This painting is now owned by Francesco & Damien who reside in Madrid, Spain. It was gifted to them for their wedding day.