Vegetables & Fruits

When I travelled in Bangkok, Thailand, I stayed in Mandarin Oriental Hotel for a few days years ago. It was the first hotel built in Thailand and the structure was built in 1879.  I visited there in February, the place was definitely a great escape from harsh Canadian winter. Unbelievably, the weather there is still very hot.  Everyday when I went out of the hotel, my sweaters were soaked wet. In order to keep the hotel's customers hydrated, they provided bottled water in the room, which a lot of hotels would do so.  Apart from it, they also provided fruits commonly eaten by local people. Of course, for a Canadian, their "common" fruits are quite exotic to me. Every time when the butler sent a new bunch of fruit to the room, he also put a hand-painted postcard in the fruits. The postcard depicted the fruit he offered on that day. The idea was so good and I kept most of the postcards.  Everyday I could not wait to go back to the room to get them [the cards]. 

These cards inspires me to paint fruit on my greeting-card series, for instance, pineapple,  dragon fruit, and now even vegetables.

 Enjoy!

Charlotte L Design

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My Latest Sumie Paintings [unstretched]

I have studied Sumie painting for years, and seldomly post them to my Facebook or blog. Before I simply use my Sumie skill onto porcelain ware, I suddenly find out the paintings on paper are quite good and should share them to my readers. 

A Running Horse with simplified chinese character. Although I should write Kanji charcters instead, I think the simplified chinese charcters reflect more onto the action of running. 

I painted the subject of dragon very first time. Once I painted it, it looks like
one of my favorite games,  Angry Bird.  Can I title this painting as "Angry Dragon". 

Of course if it is named as "Angry Dragon", a fighting scene is unavoidable! 

Opposite to dragon, there is a Phoneix, another imaginative figure. 

Another creature I like is frog.  This frog is small enough to lean onto a leaf. 

A pear with woman-like full figure

Lotus and Water Lilies

This winter I launch a series of hand painted greeting cards for my booth at the Arts Market. Among the cards, I specifically painted some water lilies and lotus. I always like these flowers, which impress me with their simplicity and pure look. They look outstanding than the other flowers.I adopt light hot pink and fine black outline to stand out their innocence.
In Asian culture, water lilies and lotus are elegant flowers.  When I traveled in Bangkok, I saw each believer carried a stem of petals-folded lotus streaming into the Buddhist temple. In contrast to a bunch of mixed flowers, I think a stem of lotus fittingly symbolizes the believers' heart to their god. So pure and simple.

Display for this holiday at Leslieville

Last Thursday I went to the Arts Market [the Leslieville location] for organizing a bit my booth after 8 p.m.  It was a freezing cold yet dark evening.  On the street I barely saw people passing. I quickly got a parking spot and rushed into the Arts Market.  The owner of the Arts Market, Daniel, waited at the entrance.  When I got into the store, it was totally another scene. I couldn't say it was fully packed, on the other hand, I gladly saw warm and smiling faces there.  It was so nice to see varied artists working hard on their booth there. An artisan brought her dog as an assistant [seemingly] to decorate the booth together, while another busily hung his wall arts with the help of his daughter, mother, wife and brother.  What great teams are!  

Honestly I was a bit guilty that I didn't have their diligence and, of course, envied of their teammates.  My son, Jaden, was still too young for this.  I hope one day he can be involved in fulfilling my artistic dream. On this visit, I first launched my Sumi-e series in public and hopefully it would be accepted by the viewers. 

After a busy night, I went back to my warmest hub and slept tight with Jaden for a sweet dream. 

Arts Market Shop @ Relaxing Leslieville

Hi there,

Starting from October, I have displayed my art works at the Arts Market, which locates at 1114 Queen Street East, Toronto.  This time, I showcase my porcelain paintings and my Sumi-e paintings as well.

A slogan of "Paper isn't the only canvas!" is a good vehicle to shout out my painting point of view. Yes,  all those years I have diligently worked on my artworks, until recently, I realize my painting desire is expressed beyond a piece of paper, but different kind of porcelain wares, i.e. tiles, cups, vase and so on.   Last Sunday, while I was doing my display there, a nice lady approached me and wondered what kind of work I did.  I simply told her I painted on the stuff, not just on paper. Then I showed her the painted tiles and explained to her I even put them on my kitchen's wall.

In Leslieville, there are a number of varied shops, bistro and dine-out with characteristics.  This place is absolutely good for couples, duos and group of friends who want to spend a relaxing weekend. I think, if you are tired of the standard shops and places in the giant shopping mall or plaza, you will find charm in this neighbourhood.

Please drop by there between Wednesday to Sunday from noon to 7 p.m.

Charlotte L.



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CNE Booth 2012

Today it is the day before Canadian National Exhibition's [CNE] opening in Toronto.  I woke up early this morning to gather my artworks and drove down to the Queen Elizabeth Building in CNE. My guild, Ontario Porcelain Artist Guild, set up its own booth every year there and the members take turns to demonstrate the painting technique there. This year I won't do any demonstration there and I only went there today for putting up other members' artworks in the glass cabinets.

This morning, around 10 a.m., the ex-OPAG president, Elizabeth Fry and her husband showed up at the booth. Joy was burst out from my heart all of the sudden when I saw her.  I haven't seen her a while.  Later,  an another member,  Jayne Paradiso showed up.  Jayne is the co-ordinator this year for the CNE event.  They set up the booth with me together.  This time it took us about four hours to finish setting up. After I finished it, I felt very hungry, then I realized I hadn't had my lunch yet.  So I said bye to them and drove back to my home. Anyhow, it was so pleased to see them.  With fingers crossed, I hope people will like our booth.

For your information, our booth will be opened from August 17th to September 3rd 2012 at booth #171 of the Queen Elizabeth Building.