Thomas Center

Oil on canvas 16 x 20

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Comment by Olivia O'Carra on July 26, 2014 at 7:09: Nice painting Xiao.Great that you found a group to paint with.

Comment by Xiao Li on July 24, 2014 at 7:03: Thank you Betsy, Stu, Aurelia Michael and Silvana for your encouragements.

Yes, Stu, I am very happy to have a plein air group to go out with. They are going out every week, so I will start to be a little busier to working on my canvas mileage. Next time I will choose the scene to paint a little wisely. Michael, you have very good eyes!! The structure was off. I did not noticed until you pointed it out. Thank you. I posted the revised version, and hopefully this time the perspective is a little better.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on July 23, 2014 at 2:03: Very good work Xiao! Your tonal values look pretty good ...so that is very important. The shadowed grass is very luminescent and your architecture is your lightest light ..as it should be ..it really glows against all the darks. Your high key values give a sense of atmosphere to the scene. Okay, I would suggest that you study your perspective when doing architecture. ..your perspective is way off on yours. Your trees on the left and your dappled light on the lawn, are a little busy ..especially the dappled light. Try taking a few of those shapes out and WARMING them up a little.....less is more in this situation. What happens when you put too many spots of light in a dark shape, the light shapes "fracture" the dark shape ..so instead of having one simplified dark shape (which is what you want), you now have many unsimplified shapes ...that is not what you want. So, very nice painting, just those 2 items to take care of Xiao. :)

Comment by Aurelia Sieberhagen on July 23, 2014 at 1:56: Lovely painting Xiao. You handle the greens very well and did a good job on paintings the trees.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 22, 2014 at 14:58: Nice work Xiao. It isn't easy to simplify when painting plein air but it really helps when you are first starting. One way do do it is to set yourself a time limit and use large brushes as much as possible. This forces some degree of simplification and suppresses unnecessary detail. Glad you found a group to paint with; that always makes it more fun. Stu

Comment by Betsy Jenkins on July 22, 2014 at 14:49: I just realized my mistake! So sorry! I'm using my cell phone and dont have a full view of the screen! My apologies!

Comment by Laura Xu on July 22, 2014 at 14:37: Xiao, I am so happy for you to find a plein air group around you! I will enjoy it! I can see that It is too complicated scene for plein air. You have done great job on this one. I love your trees and the house behind the tree is just right. I am wondering what is the purple color at left corner? It seems pull me attention.

Comment by Betsy Jenkins on July 22, 2014 at 14:24: Laura, I like this. I really like the light on the columns!

And lucky you for finding a group near you! Just paint without fear, as Richard says.

My question about this is: Did you use different blues and yellows on this than on the Golden Gate Bridge painting? I'm just curious, because this one looks much cooler in temperature overall than the other painting. This is not a bad thing! I'm just wondering about it. It could be the photography, too.

Comment by Xiao Li on July 22, 2014 at 12:34: I found a Plein Air group in my local area. I was so happy that finally I can go Plein Air without fear. But my first Plein Air was so horrible that I am not dear to show it here. Part of it is because I chose a wrong scene for Plein Air. It is not because it is not beautiful but it is because it is too complicate, I think. I still like the scene, so after I went home, I painted it based on the photo I shot when I was there. Here it is. Critiques are welcome.