The places I do my paintings

I needed a professional painting studio. This thought grew stronger and stronger toward to end of my MFA studio after I visited the work places of the conditions that other professional artists which include some of my classmates. Yes, I needed a professional, bright, spacious studio, in order to do my best work. That was my believe. I talked to my wife, as always, she supported me, as she supported any of my ideas if I strongly believed in. I did some search, and finally had three general construction contractors come over to give us their pitch. At the end, we decided to build my studio above our existing two-car garage, and gave the job to one of the contractor, but two years had passed, and we gave him more money than we agreed for the entire project, the studio is still not finished... And that it proofs that was the biggest mistake we had made in recent years.

Do I really need a professional studio to create the best artwork?

That would be nice to have a beautiful painting studio, with four big north-wall windows, four big skylights.

After both my parents passed away within 6 months in 2010, especially when my mom died after my father, I felt suddenly quiet, alone, and start thinking. It suddenly reminded me, like that I have never knew, life has a limited time to offer, a limited number of years, and a limited number of months and days. We don't know how much time we have, but one thing for sure, that is not a lot, at least not unlimited.

I started to ask myself and my wife, what should I do, what do I wanted to do as I only have a limited time left in life. I knew the answer, I should paint. That is what I have wanted to do, and that is what my wife thought I should do.

But I don't have a studio, at least, not yet. Then, I realized that it really doesn't matter if I have a good working space. I had never have a good studio, I painted on one wooded table at a corner of my old house when I was a child, I painted from a small studio converted from a kitchen with the help from friends when I was in college in China, and after I came to the states, I painted from the artie of my sister's house, then I worked in a basement of where we rented to live, then it was the cubical after work at night where I worked in a publishing company... I did good work when I didn't have good working condition. Then, I thought about the artists who has only a small studio to work and live, many of them live in a dark basement...

Then it shocked me to finally realize, that I have been finding excuses to not to paint. Doing good work is not conditioned by the place you work, it is only conditioned to how much you wanted to work, how much you love to do it, and how bad you wanted to do it.

I immediately gathered the materials, tools, and started to order what else I needed. I decided to start from watercolor since it has been the medium I used the most in my latest 20 years, then I will do other medium later. I divided my materials and tools into three sets, one for my home in New Hampshire, one for my office in the college I teach (I has been a full-time professor there), and one set for my apartment in Massachusetts. I can paint whenever I have time and no matter if I am in one of these three locations. I have a table and fluorescence light in these places. Next, I needed a project, a project big enough for me to last for a few months. Since my latest child was born, I wanted to do a hundred paintings of her but for the past 3 years I have never started. It is a perfect project. I started the project on the day after my mom's funeral. I told myself and friends, I will not waste a day of my life (it is limited) not to do the things I love.

The project had started 30 days ago, and now I have done 30 paintings. The project can be view from facebook from this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=250908&id=585198538&l=3d384a8a81

I have done better and better work in my recent years. Recently, a student who came to the states not long ago told me that she has been surprised by how much tools the students need before doing drawing in this country, and she said that the only things she had were a 4B pencil and an eraser and a paper. And, she is one of my best art students. I truly believe, though it is nice to have a beautiful painting studio and to be looked like (you may say, hahaha) a professional artist, but at the end, the best work is only from how much you love what you do, and how much you dedicate your time and energy to it. That is it. This is my believe, so far.