Featured Painting - Silent Party

Starting this horizontal group portrait in a somewhat more upbeat time, employing a colorful palette, I aimed to create a group of people engaged in dialogues and interactions. However, during the painting process, those figures took more and more an air of despondency, and the vibrant colors started to become untruthful and had to fade. A couple of months later, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the piece was finally completed, it had morphed into a monochromatic nightmarish hallucination, featuring some sketchily painted heads, shrouded in white gauze, turning into different directions, strikingly silhouetted against pitch dark background, and emoting resignation, sadness, and anger. Though compressed in space, they seemed hardly related to one another, and remained in utter isolation; a party without conversation. To their left, a jumble of cantilevered structures protruded from the distance, adding an atmosphere of foreboding and disintegration. This painting ended with a sad wailing note, aptly echoing the signs reverberating in our daunting time.


Silent Party
18”x36”
Oil on Canvas
Completed in 2020


Originally posted on matthewfelixsun.com 

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Three Gouache Paintings Completed in the New Year

Into 2017, while working on  five oil paintings simultaneously, I decided to better utilize my time and took on work on paper again.

So far, I have completed three gouache paintings this year and they formed a very interesting complementing body of work to my oil paintings.


Origin, 10"x8", Gouache on Paper, 2017

Origin was an abstract painting, depicting the beginning, or end of the the time, featuring yellow dusts over background of black intermingled with layers of red and blue hues. It boasted a striking contrast and pleasing presentation.



Hope and Desire, 10"x8", Gouache on Paper, 2017

Hope and Desire was a geometric study of shades and shapes, representing hope, desire and the dash of them.



Cascades, 12"x8", Gouache on Paper, 2017

Cascades was inspired by Yosemite waterfalls, in the style of Impressionism. Completed just days ago, in February.


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"Crowded by Beauty" Exhibit at McGuire Real Estate, Berkeley

McGuire Real Estate at Elmwood, Berkeley, continues its effort to support local artists, with its new eight-person show, "Crowded by Beauty", including works in a multitude of mediums: sculpture, acrylics, ceramics, watercolor, oil and photography. The featured artists are Philip Hall, Matthew Felix Sun, Camila Valdez, Jill McLennan, Deborah Schilling, Sarah Whitecotton, Judy Wiener, and Susan Erickson.



Four paintings of mine were included in the exhibitions are Forest Within, Birches, Net, and One Fine Day, all played a bit of optical illusion, with a bit twist of psychology.


Forest Within & Birches




Net & One Fine Day



There were many interesting artworks and it was a thrill for me to be in their company.







The turn out was quite wonderful. The place was indeed crowded by beauty.











Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:

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- Amazing exhibit at Kala Art Gallery, Berkeley
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- Modernism from the National Gallery of Art in De Young Museum, San Francisco
- Impressionism from National Gallery of Art (DC) in San Francisco
- Last Trip to a Museum in 2012 - The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism at De Young Museum in San Francisco

"Golden Ages" Opening at Expressions Gallery, Berkeley

Last night, the "Golden Ages" exhibition opened at Expressions Gallery, Berkeley. It was a show dedicated to acknowledging the artwork of artists 50 years or older, and showcasing some younger artists who capture the beauty of the Golden Years in their works.

I had two paintings included in the show, representing the later group of artists: Fruition and Century's Greeting.

Below are some pictures and a video compilation from the opening:



















Here, these quail eggs were my little contribution to the reception:




Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
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- Oil Painting "Upstream" Goes to Seattle
- Opening of "Free Art" at Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland
- City Art Gallery Holiday Show Opening Reception

Group Exhibitions in Seattle, Berkeley and San Diego & a Publication

Last year was a fruitful year for me - two more paintings published by Pomona Valley Review, and I participated group shows at two galleries in Berkeley, and for the first time, in Evergreen Association of Fine Arts Gallery in Seattle, which just concluded last week.






The painting went to Seattle was a 2008 painting, Upstream, depicting struggling yet determined fish in stream.

 

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Just before the year end, I got accepted into two group shows in Expressions Gallery, Berkeley and The Studio Door in San Diego - another city conquered.

My portraits of old women, Century's Greeting and Fruition will be exhibited at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. Berkeley, California, 94703:
January 17, 2015 - April 10, 2015.  Opening night: January 17, 6-9 pm.

 


The painting to be shipped to San Diego is another animal painting, Crow, depicting a lone crow in a desolate urban space, and the show is aptly titled "The Crow Show: A Tribute to Raven".

The Studio Door
Exhibition Dates: February 2 - 27, 2015 Mission Valley Reception: February 5, 2015 6:00 - 9:00 PM Ray Street Reception: February 6, 2015 6:00 - 9:00 PM

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My lucky abstract painting, July Meteors, has just be published by an online literary journal, Shark Reef, based in San Juan Islands of Washington State, after it made an appearance at an exhibition/auction, Collect!, in Berkeley Art Center last year.  Another piece published by Shark Reef, is a drawing, Ink Drawing Night City 3.

 

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Finally, one of my three paintings included in the last Expressions Gallery show, Changes, was chosen by Berkeley Planning and Development Development (2120 Milvia St) for the gallery's Off-site Shows: February 6 - July 31, 2015, and the display is open to view from Monday to Thursday, 9 AM - 4 PM.


One Fine Day

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
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- Changes Exhibition Opened at Expressions Gallery, Berkeley
- Oil Painting "July Meteors" in Berkeley Art Center
- My Next Show - Prince Street Gallery, Chelsea, New York
- Oil Painting "Upstream" Goes to Seattle
- Mackerel / 鯖魚 / Makrele

e-Portfolio on MagCloud and ISSUU

Finally, I made an electronic portfolio of my selected paintings, drawings and installations and it can be viewed on ISSUU:

Unfortunately, ISSUU would not allow my readers to print the copies so, you may send me request, or sign on my eNewsletter on my website: www.matthewfelixsun.com and I will be very happy to send a free PDF to you.

Alternatively, I am also offering a professionally bound copy via MagCloud, at the cost of $8 per copy (Wire-O-Bind), 8.5"x11":

Art Portfolio of Matthew Felix Sun

Electronic portfolio of awarding winning fine artist, Matthew Felix Sun www.matthewfelixsun.com

or a square one, 8.5"x8.5", in perfect bound, offered at $8.5 per copy (with 8 extra pages):

New Publication

Electronic portfolio of awarding winning fine artist, Matthew Felix Sun www.matthewfelixsun.com

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Several More Gouache Paintings

Continuing my exploration with gouache, I recently made these paintings below.


À la russe, III 

À la russe, mini series continued as the crisis between the Russia and Ukraine deepened.  I hope the Russian menace will abate soon.


Male Torso 

I also want to explore making life drawings with gouache and this "Male Torso" above was one of such efforts.


Floating 

Finally, I focused on the coloration in this "Floating", which also examined spatial relationship.


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Recent Installation and Gouache Paintings

Recently, I make another installation - an origami white dress, trussed up by strings leading to different directions, and nailed to the back of a frame.

It was a found frame, with the original artwork removed, though I kept the battered backing material, which was flaked and a bit tainted in a very interesting way, as an evocative backdrop.  The pose of the dress was simple and serene, yet the splash of red ink all over the dress and on the backdrop, hinted at some dark undertone:


Constraints
Paper, Gouache, and Threads on Paper, with Wooden Frames  
21.25" x 17.25" x 2"

The recent gouache paintings I made in last several weeks include some still life, landscape, figurative and some semi-abstract paintings:


White Rose                                      Iceberg


Dressing                                         Sketch of a young man


Reeds


À la russe, I


À la russe, II

The last two pieces were inspired by Vladimir Putin's Russia.


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