Contemporary Paintings

                                             
                                                   A Man of Few Words but Read Many                                                                                                                       Acrylic on Paper

It has been good to work solely with brushes again. Big brushes. You can't get too many small details but you can make your color values work harder for you instead. This is a painting of my Dad reading the newspaper. This is a cropped section of it. When you see a photo of someone you don't always see their personality...that is what the artist adds. My recent studies have been contemporary paintings.


If you're on Instagram visit @carolyapfineart

Light and Shadows With a Smile

Bring out the brushes. One to be exact. I did some very loose portrait studies on paper in acrylic. I limited myself to one big flat brush. These were done in one sitting. The light and shadow colors play off of each other here. The light was coming from the right side so I put in dark blue on the left. It gives the composition more interest and balance. I think a bundle of books could be written on skin colors. Some artists are a little secretive about their color formulas. Mine are warm because she is a "Sunny" person!

Links to more of my work.



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Works in Progress

Inspirational wall or influential wall. What ever you want to call it, other than a mood board, that is what I am making. I could have a complete wall full of portraits of artists. There are many that have influenced my work. It could be their use of color, their brushstrokes, composition and other brilliant uses of paint. These are in the process of being painted in my style. Many didn't have photographs of themselves so I am painting from their self portraits. This Van Gogh painting is still in progress, but here is a cropped section of it. It only got 1/2 hour slot in my day. Will post more when completed. 

If you are on Instagram you can find me at Carol Yap Fine Art 

Find me on Google Plus under Carol L Yap

Browse my paintings for sale on Saatchi Art under Carol Yap

Watercolor Self Portrait

If our lives are like a field I have many furrows on my self portraits.  But then sheet music has lines so surely our portraits can be like music which is hidden between the lines and above and beyond them as well. I did this today on white watercolor paper and then digitally gave it a background color. I would gladly paint anyone else but myself. The good points are that the model is free. If I can use the word "model" and my name in a sentence is questionable.

Learning and getting comfortable painting my self portraits is my job this week. Hopefully your week is just as fun.

More of my art can be seen on Saatchi Art

Modern Expressionism Self Portrait

If anyone wants a good laugh try painting a self portrait. They are amusing. Modern art is meant to entertain. The shocking part is that you also see some family resemblances right before you. Can that be? Yes. Very much so. So those artists of old who painted many self portraits were no doubt had a great sense of humor. They also learned valuable lessons from each portrait.

Here I am with all of my flaws and stories that show on my face...  A wonderful truth about modern expressionism is that we can put equal amounts of feeling and color in our paintings.

A painting can tell as much as a novel!

View more of my modern expressionist paintings on Saatchi Art

Hawaiiana Paintings

Work in Progress

I've been working on some Hawaiiana paintings at home. This one I started one day but didn't have enough time to finish. I feel like my paintings are more fluid and flowing when I begin and finish in one setting. There are perks of  painting in different settings. I analyzed the colors and made some changes. I'm not sure I am 100% happy with this one yet so that is why I am not showing this in full color yet. It looks more vintage in black and white here. That brings up the subject of photographing your paintings in black and white to critique paintings. . It helps to analyze  pattern, texture and all over design. Let the camera be the silent critic. Smiles.

When this acrylic painting is complete I'll be listing it for sale on Saatchi Art 

Childrens Portraits - Creative Process

Behind the scenes I am diligently working. This portrait I started today. I've had many interruptions, but that is fine each time I come back I have a few more questions for myself. Some answers are clear and some a bit fuzzy. The creative process is an open zone to ideas. This one I started with a big brush and it's a larger painting on canvas. Am I  going to use brushes to complete or just to get some color and composition on the canvas? That's one of the fuzzy questions...and it better get clear as I'm at the intersection and people will start hollering if I don't proceed in one direction or the other.  It is my choice though as I'm the artist. So I deliberate with luxury and a lemonade. I try to focus on the end result, and the possibilities keep popping up.

Every day we are presented with questions and possibilities and we race through them  with, "Yes," and "No," and "Someday," or "Never."  We are almost computerized, but a painting is a work of passion and when it comes to love, we don't want to mess up. Possibly I will show you much progress tomorrow on this painting. For now I will have another glass of lemonade (it's finally wonderfully warm here) and think about the background. Do I want it full to the brim or rather simple? Decisions. Decisions. I really love the creative process at this moment.

Do check out some of my original paintings paintings for sale at Saatchi Art.  

If you want to see photographs of paintings and very little talking you can visit my Google Chrome posts 

Enjoy!

Van Gogh's Birthday

                                                                 
                                                                   Mind Word Threads
                                                                           Acrylic
                                                                           8 x 10
                                                                        Carol Yap


Yesterday, March 30th was Van Gogh's birthday. I must say I did think of him when I used a palette knife for this painting yesterday.  For me the palette knife gives energy and vibrancy to the canvas regardless of the color used. Van Gogh used brushwork for that. He could paint four green vegetables against a green background and it looked great.  Do you think he had those moments during painting where you feel you are balancing on the brink of disaster or genius? Which is felt momentarily about half way through a painting, but dissolves as you continue to paint. There was an "Aha" moment for me when I looked into this painting and saw a resemblence of myself. This was painted from an old black and white photograph of one of my ancestors. The image was about the size of my thumb so it didn't give me much to go on, but was a start.    

Mind Word Threads is now available at Saatchi Art 

                      

Electric Portraits

                                                                           SOLID
                                                                 Acrylic on Hardboard
                                                                       10 x 8 inches
                                                                         Carol Yap

Anyone need their portrait painted? I have completed three portrait paintings in the last week and it's given me confidence to continue. This fine gentleman above is my Great Grandfather who passed before I was born. I do know this about him that he loved dark, strong coffee and worked hard from dusk to dawn for his family. Hopefully this shows in the painting? I think the energy is present at least. I will move forward onto the next fourth portrait.

I've listed a few more recent acrylic paintings for sale online at Saatchi Art. You can view my painting there by this link. There are many artists there that have been through art school. Since I didn't go to Art School there is a bit of white empty space in that box area. Gah. I will work hard and try to fill my portfolio with great art. I do believe that art is alot about emotions mixed with color and composition, brushwork, etc. Emotions I understand. Color I understand. It's funny because there are no two artists "exactly" alike. With every painting I create it's like weaving Emotions, Color, Brushwork, (or texture) and composition together by my internal creative genius. Some days present some days hiding. Everyone is born with one inside. We just have to wake it up and make it work, work, work.              

Barns Contemporary Painting

                                                                       
                                                                        Familiar Faces

My palette knife was put away for brushes. I must go outside my comfort zone to grow and think about design and composition in an abstract way. You don't see many sharp edges in my paintings and that changed today. All of my art must have meaning from myself, coming from within.

These two barns are on the farm and I see them often when I look out the window. We used to run up and down the ladder, stack hay high in the loft and look for kittens in them.  They are familiar features in the landscape and they have a fond place in my heart. This is how I saw them today! I painted this abstract landscape with acrylic paint on cotton canvas.

It was below zero this morning with so many closings, both business and schools, that it was a good time to work on some art projects here. I hope you have a great weekend.

Contemporary Art

                                                           
                                                                     Work in Progress
                                                           
                                                                 Contemporary Painting


My first cityscape painting in progress with a palette knife. The sunset makes little things here and there glow like at no other time of the day.  The bright under painting helps me not to forget my mission. This painting is more of a study for a much larger one, but it is my first and I have much to learn. I might be getting a bit more painting in as the forecast this morning said we could get 6-10 inches of snow tonight.  Not really a shocker. My phone has been delivering similar texts almost daily for the last month.

Here is some inspiration from Eli Klein in New York, "Negative feelings from viewers of an exhibition are often indicators of a successful show. It's much better for the audience to leave thinking about the artwork, even in a negative way, than with no emotional response at all." Don't you love this?

Flower and Sugar Art

                                                                            Side One    

                                                                       Flower and Sugar 

                                                                      Carol Yap Painting

          

My hand healed enough to finish some palette knife paintings. Here is a sneak peak of one side of my 8 x 8 x 8 inch box that I painted for The Artists Gallery Auction in Frederick. With all of the Winter snow and ice we continue to see how could I not go bold and brilliant? It is also March and the ground is still frozen solid.  There are five painted sides, three are bright and two are toned down, but hold their own weight against the others. 

Opening reception is March 7th Saturday,  from 5-9 pm at 216 N. Market Street, Frederick, Maryland. Located right next to Volt Restaurant. Make it an evening!   Check out their menu.