Yi-li Chin Ward  Art Blog

This is another duplet that stretches the idea of inteactions between two poses.  In this one, the model is serious and professional on the right, and a ghost of her, or a dream of her, or a spirit not even connected to her takes up the right.  The two are very interconnected colorwise.  They are the same person, one exhausted or indifferent, and one paying attention to business.

The painting is also georgous, with a rose petal flush, and recognizable figures, but not realistic.  It is a king of tableau of female beauty versus female indifference.  Really a great piece.

Here we are: my sister Yi-ling and my niece Cynthia, the daughter of my other sister Diana.  In front of my largest scale painting from the show at Mount Saingt Mary's.  A really mysterious piece, which I talked about on another page.

A model on a Mexican Blanket. It looks like she's in a deep sleep, though she probably wasn't.  I am really proud of capturing the effects of gravity on a body that is totally relaxed, and the contrast that makes with the stripes of the blanket.  Over her shoulder, a hint of blue sky and clouds.  About as close to Elysium as you can get in Southern California.

Here's my most sumptuous treatment of Parker.   It's perfectly balanced,  and highly naturalistic, without sacraficing the immediacy of  swifly drawn charcoal outlines.  The use of a chalky white with a hint of orange was a great decision for her hair. From the corner of your eye it looks golden, and totally defines the piece's atmosphere: that of naturalness and self posession.  Of the female form as something ideal and unassuming and just one manifestaton of a deeper practicality.

Here's another model floating amidst ghosts or dreams of herself.  Again almost structurally perfect.  I was really on a roll when all the pieces on this page were made.   This piece incorporates yet another feature: white chalk outlining of  another fragment of the model.

There are so many possible interpretations of what she's thinking, and what her relationship is with the fragments of female around her. What kind of medium, or background, or place on earth she occupies in this painting.  Lots of questions, and lots of things to think about for anyone putting something like this piece on their wall.

This is a much older piece, closer to my college output.  You can see the less primary color tone and more elaborate layering,  along with less vibrant charcoal outlines.  More tentative.

Its a good piece.  The way her red hair is drawn gives it a hint of something primal, not from the world of real humans.  A fairy or sprite perhaps.

Here I am again at a 57 Underground opening during my orange phase.  This is the end of folder 24 out of 32 folders of random images from my career as an artist.  I hope you are entertained and have  learned some things about the artistic process as you browse these images.  

We have 8 more folders of images to cover in this blog.  Onward !!!

Here' a study for a flower painting that never happened.  Looks like the flowers were starting to wilt at the time of the drawing.  That does not work well for a painting since the shadows change and the colors change from hour to hour now, not to mention the bend of the stems and curling of the leaves.

So here it is: the wilted bouquet.  Naturalistic, real time art drawing by Yi-li Chin Ward.

Speaking of Yi-li Chin Ward, here I am at the little cafe at the Mount Baldy Ski Lift above Los Angeles for our son's birthday party some years back.  A very scary ride to get up there, because the ski lift doesn't stop for anyone, and I have Rheumatoid Arthritus these last 30 years or so.  You can probably see that in my hands.

Here's a model that imiates the pieces of furniture that are in the pose.  She's especially made up of verticals and has a background that looks to be a freeform riff on the textile pattern of her chair.  She makes an elegant compositon out of the corner of your eye.  Even her body planes are like patterns in textile prints.

I worked copying textile prints for a living at the first job I had out of college.  The company I worked for in the fabric and textile part of downtown LA pioneered designed textiles used in the  "Mu Mu" craze of the late 1950's and early 1960's.  Los Angeles sprouted Polonesian tiki restaurants made to look like Hawaian temples, according to my husband.  Disneyland also sprouted a tiki themed attraction.

Speaking of Yi-li Chin Ward, here I am at the little cafe at the Mount Baldy Ski Lift above Los Angeles for our son's birthday party some years back.  A very scary ride to get up there, because the ski lift doesn't stop for anyone, and I have Rheumatoid Arthritus these last 30 years or so.  You can probably see that in my hands.

Here's a model that imiates the pieces of furniture that are in the pose.  She's especially made up of verticals and has a background that looks to be a freeform riff on the textile pattern of her chair.  She makes an elegant compositon out of the corner of your eye.  Even her body planes are like patterns in textile prints.

I worked copying textile prints for a living at the first job I had out of college.  The company I worked for in the fabric and textile part of downtown LA pioneered designed textiles used in the  "Mu Mu" craze of the late 1950's and early 1960's.  Los Angeles sprouted Polonesian tiki restaurants made to look like Hawaian temples, according to my husband.  Disneyland also sprouted a tiki themed attraction.

Here's another architectural sort of piece.  This model became a sort of pile of rocks.  A mountain form of some type.  She lost all her own personality and became what I imagined.  Her head looks expecially granitic, and craggy.  Maybe this was right after the trip to Mount Baldy.

Of course she is still recognisable in her pose, but the colorfield fantasy rules.  Huge deep gouges of charcoal.  Wonderful interplay of browns, greens with a background of dark blues.  This is a gorgeous piece, I believe, and my husband agrees.

Here's another model on a Mexican blanket.  Again more a fantasy than a real person.  She's a study in pinks, purples with shadows of barn door red.  there's  a curious turquise patch at the bottom, probably from the blanket, repeated in her belly and as highlights on her arms and back.  Its a very interesting piece.  The model has been exaggerated away from life, and becomes more a sleeping giantess, or piece of landscape. 

I think this was probably Helena.

Here's an unfinished duplet.  Which is, of course, finished now.  One side is asleep, the other awake.  There's a suprising about of personality and even vanity in the model's face and pose despite the brevity of line.

This is not brevity of line.  It's a fulsome figure study with lots of charcoal line work, and yet, happened very quickly.  Then it was covered in color of a sloppy wet watercolor brush.  All done as instinct.  No time to consider anything.

It's a great piece.  Look at how she crouches down.  You sense her body pressing the ground.  The weight of her.

This is a less successful piece.  I tried to imagine an architecture for her.  Kind of like she's made of rivited plate steel, but got bored with that, and switched.  So she's sort of half human, half robot.  Her head is almost a third mood.  It's blurred slightly and detached from the rest.  It looks almost like she's about to speak.

Perhaps ask me what she's supposed to be?

Here's the flower commission again.  Somewhere before completion.  This piece went through several color changes, as the client asked for more detail and atmosphere.  As you can see, some of the flowers on the right are, as yet. undecided.

This is a large piece: stretching the full length of a couch, and hung above it.

End of folder 25 out of 32.  Time, I guess, for a new page,   page 11.