Fantastic "Edge"

Edge is a fantastic cityscape, focusing on a sharp- lonely house in a peculiar perspective, with a sharp edge menacingly pointing to the viewers. The strangeness of the structure is further emphasized by its faceless facade, its imperfect windows, and the surrounding plantation in unusual hues and shapes. This geometric cube and its tightly closed windows promise some zealously guarded secrets, and invites and dares the viewers to discover. 

Edge
24” x 30”
Oil on Canvas
Completed in 2022

Originally posted on matthewfelixsun.com 

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Arid Urban Life – “Crossing”
- Domain ⁠— Familiarity, Sameness, and Subtle Variations
- A Glimpse of Relief ⁠—”Narrow Confinement”
- Uncertain "Prospect" - an oil painting
- Touching Landscape Painting - "Still Water"
- Enigmatic “Seclusion”
- Oil Painting “College Town”
- Allegorical "Surveying"

Arid Urban Life – “Crossing”

Crossing is a somber urban snapshot, featuring a not yet crowded thoroughfare, dominated by a row of pillars planting on a grassy tram lane in the middle of the street, between two vanishing tram tracks. From these mighty pillars, which extended from top to the bottom of the canvas, protruded a complex web of beams and wires crisscrossing the entire upper half of the canvas, as if wanting to imprison the indistinct highrises and the surrounding early morning gray sky in the backdrop. 

In the foreground, a slouching pedestrian, isolated from everything and everyone, setting about to traverse one of the tracks. His detached form and uncertain posture enhanced the somnambulist atmosphere of this picture of parched and flinty urban life. 

Crossing
oil on canvas
20" x 24"
2020 

Originally posted on matthewfelixsun.com  

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
-  Domain ⁠— Familiarity, Sameness, and Subtle Variations
- A Glimpse of Relief ⁠—”Narrow Confinement”
- Uncertain "Prospect" - an oil painting
- Touching Landscape Painting - "Still Water"
- Enigmatic “Seclusion”
- Oil Painting “College Town”
- Allegorical "Surveying"

Oil Painting “College Town”

College Town was a snapshot of the unpretentious college city I live in, during the summertime when droves of young temporary dwellers cleared out their flats and moved on to their next destination, or back to where they came from, and left their transitory possessions at the curbs for repurposing. This still image captured the melancholic and slightly forlorn atmosphere after the adrenaline rush from graduation celebrations, when the excitement had ended and only abandoned chairs and mattresses scattered about in this way station, which dutifully quietly welcomed and sent off the young people to make their great or tiny marks to the world, year after year. 

 

College Town
Oil on Canvas
30” x 28”
Completed in 2021

 

Originally posted on matthewfelixsun.com 

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst: 
-  Allegorical "Surveying"
- Crisp and Somber "Drifting"
- Disquieting Code - Oil Painting "Postscript"
- Featured Oil Painting - Crisp
- Featured Painting "Waifs"
- Featured Painting - Itinerant
- Featured Painting "Boyhood"
- Featured Painting, Hordes 

Featured Painting “Mirage” – A World of Ambiguity

My Mirage, a fantastic painting, was based on a vision visited me when I was falling asleep but with enough mental presence to get up to make quick notes – a distant town, whose outlines barely discernible, in the manner of those commonly seen in old Dutch or Flemish landscape paintings, overwhelmed by several enormous and boldly sketched black feathers floating above the sky. Behind those dark and somewhat ominous feathers, a delicately pretty pale blue sky flashed through persistently. Yet, despite the seemingly menace, those dark feathers also looked rather protective and comforting. A world of ambiguity.


Mirage
Oil on Canvas
22" x 28"
Completed in 2016

© Matthew Felix Sun
www.matthewfelixsun.com


Originally posted on matthewfelixsun.com

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Featured Painting – “Forest Within” – When Reality Met Illusion
- Featured Painting: The March of Time
- My Featured Painting "Minotaur"
- Featured Painting "Progression"
- Featured Painting "Liberation Road"
- My Featured Work - Portrait Painting "Grandma"

Another Award for a Drawing

In the era of social media and instant gratifications, it is often very lonely and despairing to be an artist or a writer.  Solitude, dedication, monkish life yet often yields no rewards.  Occasionally, a sort of recognition is like a shot in the arm and can propel an artist to renown his resolution.

Yesterday, I received such encouragement, or a kick, from the online art community/arbiter, ArtSlant.com - my recent colored ink drawing, was awarded its 5th 2012 Showcase Award.





Ink Drawing Night City 3
Ink on Paper
Completed in 2012


So far, I have been recognized three times by this panel - two for my oil paintings (see image below).  Drawing really is a byproduct of my endeavor but it is gratifying to know that even so, my drawings do have some merits.

 

Now, I must work harder.


Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- "Diptych - Dawn" Won Another Award

- Editor's Choice Award for "The Song of Orpheus" - Artist Portfolio Magazine
- Editor's Award on Artist Portfolio Magazine, Published by My Art Contest
- One More Award from ArtSlant Showcase Competition
- Honorable Mentioned in A Juried Competition

Baby's New Clothes

Signing and dating a painting is the final process of delivering a baby, but the excitement does not end there - showing off the baby and clothing the baby (framing it) continue the thrill. Selecting a right frame from endless choices for a painting is a daunting task; even the artist himself/herself sometimes approaches this step with trepidation and hope. Frames make a huge difference.

I often bring the painting, or at least a large print to the shop to select a frame. In the digital age, we have better tools than that. I often use a good web site for reference. Frames By Mail.com is a good starting point. This web site has a large collection of reasonably priced frames. The best feature of this website is the preview of one's uploaded image of a work of art framed in whichever selections one wishes to consider. (How I wish my local frame shop had such a feature!)

For this study, I uploaded my newly finished painting Bruges, Impression. The sample pictures below demonstrate what different frames will do for a given painting:

1 1/2" Black Wire Brush Panel

1" Black Compo Scoop














1" Two Tone Paduque














1 1/4" Dark Gold Leaf















1.25'' Dist Grey















1" Traditional Walnut On Ash













Clothes make the man!



Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- New Presentations of My Yearly Artworks
- First Painting Completed in 2013
- 2012 Recapitulation - Video Presentation of Paintings Completed in 2012
- Revolutionary Way to Shop for Clothes. What About Frames?
- Before and After - A Painting Framed
- Revolutionary Way to Shop for Clothes. What About Frames?

Two Newly Finished Paintings

I just finished two paintings on Thursday and Friday respectively, after a six-month drought. The one I finished on Thursday (Bruges, Impression) is a painting inspired by my memory of Bruges, Belgium and a 1897 novel The Bells of Bruges (Le Carillonneur) by Georges Rodenbach. The one finished the day after (Progression) was a portrait half-surrounded by collage of familiar iconic images. Previously, I published the images of these paintings at near finished stages on March 9, 2009.

During last a couple weeks, I carefully evaluated these paintings, slowly inching towards the finish-line, so as not to ruin them at the last moment - disaster has struck before. Little by little, I fine tuned the color balances and a certain small details without altering the composition. Finally, I judged that I could not add anything more to them, thus I determined that they were finished. Excitedly but carefully, I signed and dated them. Voilà!

















Bruges, Impression






















Progression