setsuko's studio

I have a tendency to be obsessed by something. Gardening, photography, computer graphics are some of those. Since I worked hard on whatever I was fascinated, I became very good at those challenges in amateur level. Gold leaf is not one of them. I read many books and watched many tutorial videos. I am not good at it at all. A few days ago, I saw a beautiful drawing created by a young female artist with multimedia including gold leaf. I was so impressed that I had to try it myself again. I made many thumbnails, and then took out all supplies….and could not do it! Instead, I painted this image. Red, Yellow, Orange, Black, and White were all I needed. Someday I will try again!

Acrylic on Wooden Panel 10″ x 10″

This is the corner between Meeting and Calhoun streets, downtown Charleston. It is rare to see those electric lines in the sky these days. I was quite fascinated by the abstract quality in the design.

Wood engraving on Japanese paper 7″ x 5″

George Innes seldom placed a human in his landscape paintings. But still there is always a sense of community. I realized that all my landscape paintings are also civilized one. They never be a wild scenery. Red boat! I will try to paint something wild. Can I do that? I live in a suburb not in a jungle.

Taking a walk early in the morning is wonderful. Especially in spring the air has still a crisp chill but anticipates the warm beautiful day. This is my favorite season in Charleston.

Acrylic on wooden panel. 12″ x 12″

I was simply busy. I could have managed my time better. But I finally finished this image.

Acrylic on Wooden Board 24″ x 18″

Very slow progress. This is just one third or a half way done I think. Spring break starts day after tomorrow, I am hoping that I will be able to finish this image soon.

Yesterday I prepared several rather large wood panels. This 24″ x 18″ was one of them. It is supported rather thick support and very nice panel, but the surface was extremely rough for me. It needed to be sanded down for quite long time. When I was doing this boring process, the sun was shining on me and warm wind was heavenly talking to me. It was Spring and is Spring outside right now. I decided to paint flowers on this panel.

As the first step I like to cover the entire surface with the some medium value color with the basic map of the image. I do not like to see white background seeing through every time I place the color. White always create the dramatic contrast with any hues and deceive my eye. But I regret a little selecting Blue Green for the base color because Blue usually sneaking up the layers and makes the final image rather gloomy. Now I need to be very careful. I am going to work on this image today and see what will happen.

Acrylic wood panel. 24″ x 18

I started to paint again. I got lost in the painting process. I did not know what to do next either. Since I have a job, it is very easy to find many excuses for myself not to paint nor create any images….. Actually I do not need to paint. I should not feel guilty by not painting. But I do! Creating the images becomes a major part of my living and not doing so makes me feel void and lazy. I do not know if feeling like this is good or bad, but this is what it is now. So I started to paint again! I decided not think about anything but just enjoy painting. I am working on five paintings right now. I am going to sand and gesso 10 wooden panels today. I am ready for the creative Spring!

Acrylic on wooden panel. 8″ x 10″

Spring in south is always magnificent. When I start dreaming of colorful flowers, it is the beginning of the season. My anticipation for walking among the flower full gardens and streets are getting higher. Welcome warm wind and sunshine!

Acrylic on wooden panel. 24″ x 12″

It is a kind of hard to keep painting by myself. It is very easy to distracted and do something totally irrelevant. Now I am getting conscious about up coming Spoleto show. I need to create many paintings to fill my tent. I sometimes doubt about my sanity. Do I really need to have a pressure to paint?

Acrylic on wood panel 12″ x 12″