Video Presentation of My Abstract Paintings

Abstraction is a highly cerebral activity that it intimidates me, a sensualist fundamentally.  But, over the years, not only my paintings started to become more abstract, by the natural development -- once you've painted any subjects and objects you fancies, what's next left do do -- I also made foray into purely abstract paintings as well.  Below is the video presentation of such efforts:



>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XXI: Oil Painting "Liberation Road" on Video
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XIX: One More Life Drawing Video from Last Year

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

Monochromatic Drama

Dramas, by nature, are often full of contrasting or complimentary colors.  As an avid theater lover, I, however, do not consider myself as colorist painter.  This is not to say that I don't appreciate colorful offerings by other artists.   It is simply that I neither use color as primary tool to convey, nor I pursue wonderful combination of colors as the end goals.  Sometimes, I found ways to express myself satisfactorily with very few colors, sometimes even monochromatic colors, as in the traditional Chinese water ink paintings.  That similarity actually surprised me sometimes since I had practically no training in traditional Chinese paintings.  I suppose that subconsciously I must have absorbed much.

Recently, I revisited such efforts of mine and chose the most representative works in this group and assembled them onto a video below:



Painting list:

- Woodcutter
- Snowy Mountain, I
- Dark Trees
- Birches
- Explosion
- Liberation Road
- Companion
- Sisyphus
- White Fish
- One Fine Day
- Sea Storm
- Dirge
- Swamp
- Kampf
- Funnel
- Homeland Impression, I
- Rape Fields
- Purple Dream
- Red Sail

>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XVI: 2010 Recapitulation
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XIV: My Theatrical Paintings on Video

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

My Theatrical Paintings on Video

My musing on paintings as pivotal elements in literature and theatrical works, made me thinking about using painting to present theatrical works, which has always been popular with artists, from Watteau to Picasso. I have made several such paintings myself and recently I also made a video presentation of these works:



The paintings on the video are:
- Limelight
- Pas de deux
- Wer tanzt
- Ballerina
- Blue Dancer
- Leap

>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XV: Monochromatic Drama
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XIII: Video Presentation of Still Life Paintings

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

Video Presentation of Still Life Paintings

Continuing my effort to present my paintings and drawings in a "curated" way, I made another video of my still life paintings.

As a painter, still life as a genre does not hold my attention as portrait or landscape paintings, simply because I feel that I can express my thoughts and emotions better through other subject matters. But I do esteem this genre as much and time to time I did feel compelling reasons to try my hands in this field.

I did not aim to recreate life like a photographer, rather, my paintings have always try to interpret what I saw. My still life drawings are much more "faithful" because they are mostly studies of real life and less personal statements.



Happy Thanksgiving!

>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XIV: My Theatrical Paintings on Video
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XII: Orientation of Paintings

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

Paintings of Interiors

Self-portrait is a portal to peek into a creative mind and inspect a revealed soul, or a veiled soul. A self-portrait is the inner being, which is always mysterious.

Of course, that was only a metaphor. Inner space in its literal sense can be as intense and mysterious.

In past years, I have made several paintings with interior scenes and the probing f those domestic niceties, grandiose magnificence or forbidding mysteries gave me endless intelligence stimulation and even sensual pleasure. Below is a collage of such effort on video:



The paintings in the video are:

Awakening
Swing
Stairwell
Lamp and Firefly
Room with a Lamp
Domesticity
Cave
Limelight
Museum Interior

For more interior paintings, please visit my Flickr site: Interior

>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part XI: 2011 Calendars Ready for Downloading
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part IX: My Self-Portraits

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

My Self-Portraits

My post on my beginning as a painting prodded me to inspect myself deeper.  One of the convenient way to do so for me is inspecting self-portraits I did in the past.  Those paintings including portrait-studies, and other genre of works I conveniently stepped in as the model.

Many artists painted self-portrait - one of the most familiar objects to most artists, and the model is most readily available and can be requested with any order, without much ado, therefore the attraction, plus the sense of self-discovery and a little vanity.  Therefore, in the following paintings, technically speaking, though I "modeled" for all of them, only a handful are really me, while in the rest, I was only a vessel.



http://www.matthewfelixsun.com/

Painting list:
- A Moment with Oneself
- Three Figures
- Drifting
- Beach · Elements
- Dissonance
- Self-Portrait, Black and White
- Interaction
- Dancing (or Wer tanzt?)
- Sheltering
- Vegetable Garden
- Orange
- Irises

>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part X: Paintings of Interiors
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part VIII: "The Triumph of Saint George" 
(2003)

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

My Bird Paintings on YouTube

My video of fish paintings was rather quite received and I was encouraged to continue the effort, therefore I uploaded a video consisted of my bird paintings.

This group of bird paintings, almost universally ominous, perhaps that reflects the reaction of a city dweller towards those ethereal but somewhat nasty creatures. Many of these paintings were created in the difficult times, from the looming Iraqi War to the big economic downturn we all suffering from. But there was still sliver of upbeats can be discern, if one observe closely enough.




Painting list:

- Shadow, 30" x 40", 2008
- Ravens, 24" x 30", 2010
- Falling, 24" x 36", 2003
- Hindrance, 30" x 18", 2010
- Birds and Men, 30" x 40", 2003
- Siege, 18" x 24", 2010
- Bruges, Impression, 24" x 30", 2009
- Crow, 24" x 18", 2009
- Dark Wings, 24" x 30", 2010

For more birds and other animal paintings, please visit my Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/sets/72157621940201251/

>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part VIII: "The Triumph of Saint George" (2003)
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part VI: My Fish Paintings on YouTube

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

My Fish Paintings on YouTube

I am really on a roll now, building up my YouTube video presentations of my artworks.  This post features my fish paintings.

Time to time, I have painted fish, which is quite fascinating to me.  They are free yet water bound and that duality holds infinite opportunity for artists interested in probing psychological depth.  The relations between human beings and fish is quite complicated and several of my paintings such as "At Home" or "One Fine Day" described this rather clearly.

Yet, not all of them strike sad tones.  There are upbeats as well, embodied in paintings like "Upstream".  There is certain indomitable spirit in fish as well, which is what most cherishable.



Golden Fish
Oil on Canvas, 36" x 24", Completed in 2005
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3835140493/

One Fine Day
Oil on Canvas, 18" x 24", Completed in 2006
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3835017688/

White Fish
Oil on Canvas, 24" x 30", Completed in 2005
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3842416319/

Linear Fish
Oil on Canvas, 28" x 22", Completed in 2005
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3842416355/

Mackerel
Oil on Canvas, 28" x 22", Completed in 2007
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3842416439/

At Home
Oil on Canvas, 18" x 24", Completed in 2007
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3843244174/

Jingwei Filling Up the Sea
Oil on Canvas, 24" x 36", Completed in 2008
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3856364733/

Upstream
Oil on Canvas, 24" x 18", Completed in 2008
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3834225071/

For more fish or animal related paintings, please visit my Flickr photo set: Animal.

>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part VII: My Bird Paintings on YouTube
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part V: Flower Paintings in Video

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

Flower Paintings in Video

Floral paintings are perennial popular, either in the meticulous form of Dutch and Flemish still life, or in for form of unbridled passion of that by Van Gogh or Matisse.

I love to paint human beings more than floral objects, but occasionally, I would get into the foray, either due to curiosity, adjustment between emotional draining works, meditation or simple an expression of little private smile.

Below video is a potpourri of several of my flower paintings completed in last few years:



For more flower related paintings, please visit my Flickr photo set: Still Life.

>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part VI: My Fish Paintings on YouTube
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part IV: Traveling the World - Video Presentation of Painting Inspired by Wonderful Cities

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

Traveling the World - Video Presentation of Painting Inspired by Wonderful Cities

Traveling is a sure way to stimulate one's mind and for me, it often means a lot of materials to work with.

Just over one decade, I have completed several paintings inspired by wonderful cities. My progression was rather clear that I was less and less eager to represent the cities as a journalistic reports, rather through more personal lenses:



For more fish or animal related paintings, please visit my Flickr photo set: Cityscape

>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part V: Flower Paintings in Video
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part III: "Sibyls" - Portraits of Old Women

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

"Sibyls" - Portraits of Old Women

Producing videos with my paintings and drawings has become very addictive now.

The word sibyl comes (via Latin) from the Greek word σίβυλλα sibylla, meaning prophetess. Old women are the personifications of mysterious wisdom and deep compassion:



>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part IV: Traveling the World - Video Presentation of Painting Inspired by Wonderful Cities
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part II: Tips for Artist: Video Presentations

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks

Tips for Artist: Video Presentations

My blog on artist David Antonides featureda video presentation of his watercolors.  I also posted a video presentation of my painting "The Song of Orpheus", which was created with Flash, and exported as QuickTime movie.  It is a little tricky and needs some computer training.

However, Windows Movie Maker, a software often come in with Microsoft Office package, is a good alternative.  It is quite easy to use, with several built-in video transitions.  You can also drag and drop mp3 or other audio files in as the soundtrack.

Below video was created in such fashion in less than 20 minutes.  Afterwards, I posted it on my YouTube channel, so as to reach broader audience.




>> Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part III: "Sibyls" - Portraits of Old Women
<< Video presentations of paintings and drawings, Part I: The Song of Orpheus

List of Video Presentation of My Artworks