Morning glory

This really captured my mood with the pandemic - sometimes dark, but with hope 😅

This was based on tulips in my dining room - sometimes the morning sunlight hits just right, making my glass table the stage for some pretty dramatic lighting.

Acrylic on paper.

In flight

This one was a lot of fun to sketch out and paint! Drawing the swirls in the water was meditative, and melting the swimmer’s arms and legs with the water made me feel free to try things out, like nothing I did could be a mistake.

This was inspired by what my coworker shared about what scuba diving means for him - that he does it “to fly.”

Acrylic on canvas.

Winter bouquet

One of my personal favorites. I made this bouquet with juniper branches and other leftover flowers from a wreath-making workshop and it brought so much joy to my living room 🥰

For this piece, I just wanted to paint something edgy. Like literally with nice crisp edges. After I painted it, I wondered if I was inspired by the bonsai tree arrangements I'd seen over Christmas a few weeks ago at the Longwood Gardens.

Acrylic on paper.

liberation 01

What would you do more of, if you only had one more year to live?

That’s what I tried to capture in this painting.

A couple years ago, after a medical diagnosis, I thought I only had 6 months to a year left to live. As I was waiting for my second (and later, third) medical opinions, when I lay in bed at night, I wondered - should I quit my job? what would I do with this remaining time? am I happy with the life I’ve lived so far? do I want to travel, or spend time with my family and friends? what do I want to do more of?

Thankfully, my doctors were able to better understand my prognosis, and after my treatments, I was deemed healthy again. (I actually just had another related surgery but that’s a story for another day…)

That time still sticks with me though - the reminder of how fragile this life can be. But also how liberating it felt to have *so much focus* on how I wanted to spend my remaining time. So I started a series inspired by the very simple moments that made me really happy, and my mind drifted to them, craving more of those moments before my time was up.

This one is inspired by when I went stand-up paddleboarding by myself on Lake Lucerne. No agenda, just me in my swimsuit and sunglasses, meandering along the lake coast. I found so many cozy shady beach alcoves and passed by a guy who was just napping on his floating SUP board, soaking up the sun. Every time I was tired of paddling, or found a particularly pretty spot, I’d just sit on my SUP with my legs dangling in the water and enjoy the view, or when I got hot, I’d just jump into the water, float for a bit, and climb back on my SUP. I felt so free.

Acrylic on paper.

Vitznau 01

The painting that started it all. I never thought of myself as an artist before this. I just paint and do crafts on the side as an occasional hobby. But this painting is probably the first time I was like, “whoaa I think I might be good at painting. I can’t believe I made that.

This is based on what I saw along the lakeside in Vitznau, a small resort town near us. After a day of hiking and beautiful views of mountains, golden grass, sparkling water, tiny lakeside city panoramas while we’re a thousand meters up, somehow this was the view that stuck with me the most, and the one I was most excited to paint. Something about the color of the water, the seafoam looking like star formations, the duck floating like it’s on air, the bright yellow buoy staying optimistic even though it’s chained to the sea floor.

I’m self taught - one day in high school, I just decided to try out my mom’s old box of acrylic paints. I used to paint as an emotional outlet. Somehow if I could paint out the thoughts and emotions in my head, tucked away neatly in symbols across the canvas, it made the thing I was feeling more real. Sometimes on holiday breaks from college, I holed up in my room for days working on a painting, making a (bigger) mess of my room, resurfacing occasionally for meals and bathroom breaks 😳

Vitznau 02

This one made me nervous. I was almost done with the painting and had painted in the mountain and dock with ladder. But I really wanted to add this mossy wooden pillar in the water on the bottom left, even though it’s.. well, rotting mossy wood.

So here we go - after 4 hours, I’m gonna smear a weird brown thing in the corner. ... Or we could just leave it like this. It’s more approachable - mountain and lake and ladder - it’s good. Buuut the pillar would make it more interesting. Plus its green shadow hues mixing with the water, trust me, it’s gonna look cool.

So I trusted myself, and I’m really pleased with the result! Phew.

Vitznau 03

I really wanted to make this a 3-part series. When I started thinking about the concept for this last painting, I wanted it to have a bright and simple tone. It was fun to incorporate bright pinks, orange, and turquoise hues into this one, and to make the water sparkle✨

Bouquet on the table

Experimented with looser brushwork. I found this tougher than the more realistic paintings I’ve done - it’s hard to know when to stop, how to abstract an object to its barest essentials, while keeping the whole image fluid.

P.S. - did you spot the two hibernating orchids in the corner? 🧐

Catheral

Featuring Wing foiling on the Urnersee, which is the southern tip of Lake Lucerne.

This was a commission for my friend as a birthday gift to her husband.

I loved learning about wing foiling (my friend’s husband’s passion), what a cool sport! I really wanted to capture how calming it feels when you’re on the lake. There’s nothing else like being carried by the water 🐠😌

I've had a few conversations about religion with my friend and her husband over dinners, and though he's not religious, he says the closest he gets to feeling spiritual is when he's on the water.

Acrylic on canvas.