Colored Embryo

Color Embryo #1, watercolor on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2017

 I love the idea of cells reproducing on their own and creating new life or different life. This is what I imagine it looks like if done with color. Beginning with a large sac, embryos form and stretch and begin to pull away from the "mother" cell and are then on their own. I believe this actually happens, that some organisms can reproduce on their own and create new life.

Color Embryo #2, watercolor on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2017

   This happening has always been of great interest to me. It's been an ongoing topic in my work for years. It always bothered me that people would immediately conclude that my interest was purely because I was interested in reproducing myself which was not the case. This subject of cell reproduction has been under exploration before I had children, during, and afterwards and I never related the two. Strange as that may sound, I view the two completely differently even though I know they are directly related.

Color Embryo #3, watercolor on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2017

  What's happening here, in my paintings, is an imagined molecular state where I can experiment with fluid forms and play with shapes and colors in endless ways. I love creating organic shapes or shapes that are impossible in reality.

The Thing in the Forest

The Thing in the Forest, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2017

  "It's head appeared to form, or become first visible in the distance, between the trees. Its face-which was triangular-appeared like a rubbery or fleshy mask over a shapeless sprouting bulb of a head, like a monstrous turnip. Its colour was the colour of flayed flesh, pitted with wormholes, and its expression was neither wrath nor greed, but pure misery. Its more defined feature was a vast mouth, pulled down at the corners, tight with a kind of pain. Its lips were thin, and raised, like welts from whipstrokes. It has blind, opaque white eyes, fringed with fleshy lashes and brows like the feelers of sea-anenomes. Its face was close to the ground, and moved towards the children between its forearms which were squat, thick, powerful, and akimbo, like a cross between a monstrous washerwoman and a primeval dragon. The flesh on these forearms was glistening and mottled. every colour, from the green mould to the red-brown of raw liver, to the dirty white of dry rot." - A.S Byatt, Little Black Book of Stories

After Nozkowski

Pastels are like paint without the mess or the heady smell.  They make a painted drawing.  After a lot of time away I am finally feeling ready to work again.  Nozkowski is still my chief influence right now and so far I am really enjoying the creation of playful backgrounds and amorphous shapes.

Vacation: Painting

Blue is a vacation color. Water, calm, the sea, just what one is supposed to experience on vacation. This little watercolor is a work in progress. I want to do something different, out of my element. It's time to get out of my comfort zone. Let's see what I do next.

Paintings: Shells: The Beach

Bright Shells, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Iterations, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Watery Conch, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

The Beach Paintings

Dotted Starfish, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

 I didn't realize how much I was going to love this theme. The beach has so many great shapes, colors, objects, animals, etc. I'm overcome with ideas. This is the first of a batch of sea related paintings and drawings. There will be more!

Pink Jelly, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Clownfish, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Dark Jelly, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Cruck-Framed House Interpretations

Wooded Swirl, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

 I love cruck-framed houses. The structure looks so beautiful and can be shaped in a myriad of different ways. In these paintings, I combined the flexibility of the wood beams with the organic shapes of flowers.

Beamed Blooms, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014

Beamed O, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2014