Life Hacks 101

     I am a fan of life hacks, easy tricks that help you get through the day. They make things efficient, aid in problem solving and save time, leaving me MORE TIME FOR PAINTING. One of the life hacks I'm proud of is the use of flyers for palette paper. I use these to mix my colours on. They are free, get delivered right to my mail box, are coated with a plastic layering that makes them great for mixing paints on and let me know of great deals. Thank you Canada Post for delivering my free palette paper. I probably go through a couple dozen of these a week and they are double sided. To think I ever wasted my hard earned bux at the art store on buying palette paper. Above is the colour palette I used to colour the eye below.

RIP Abbie : (

DOGGY UNDERWORLD acrylic and ink on canvas 48 x 36 x 1.5 inches 2012 $1500

     We had to let our family dog go recently. She was a good dog and lived a great old life and I can't think of a more peaceful way to go but tears were shed and she will be missed. She never cared much for my painting but was great company and always up for an exhaustive round of fetch. If there such a thing as a doggy underworld I bet she's chasing after that gross green tennis ball bringing vast amounts of joy to the dead. Here's me bugging her on painting break: 

Easter Egg Hunt In The Lisa Ng Paintings (Edited April 2019)

Turns out, I like to paint a lot of Easter Eggs. This was not intentional, I didn't even notice until someone else pointed it out actually. I'm not even sure if they meant Easter Eggs, as in hidden messages in general (because I do a lot of that too) or if they literally meant Easter Eggs. Anyway, I combed through my 200+ painting catalog, available at www.lisangart.com and am updating this most currently, April 2019 (I had to add another 5 eggs since the original blogpost) and counted for a total of 23 Easter Eggs! This is not including the ones replicated in my 100th painting in which the details get sorta hairy because now I can't remember which 100 paintings were in my first 100. I guess only the owner of my 100th will ever know..

I went hunting and as far as I know, only 9 of my 200+ paintings contain Easter eggs (answers below). I went with any unhatched egg since technically they're all painted anyway. The first one was painted in 2009 and the most recent, 2018. I got close in my 2016 painting of birds shitting in a room but opted for the nesting bird instead.  If you happen to find any I missed, please let me know! Everybody wants my eggs.

THE BIG GOOSE acrylic on canvas 48 x 48 x 1.5 inches 2018 $6500

CLOUD 9 acrylic on canvas 30 x 24 x 0.5 inches 2009 $800 My first brush with the robin egg.

FOUR SEASONS IN VERTICAL STRIPES acrylic and ink on canvas 24 x 12 x 1.5 inches 2010 In private collection. 

SANTA IN THE OFF SEASON acrylic and ink on canvas 12 x 12 x 1.5 inches 2009 In private collection.

DAY TIME NIGHT TIME PLAID acrylic and ink on canvas 12 x 12 x 1.5 inches 2010 In private collection. I nearly forgot I painted eggs in here years ago.

  

100th PAINTING acrylic and ink on canvas 12 x 12 x 1.5 inches 2011 In private collection.

The eggs in this one are painted on the sides somewhere.

TREE HOLLOW acrylic and ink on canvas 12 x 24 x 1.5 inches 2009 In private collection.

HOUSING GRADIENT acrylic and ink on canvas 60 x 24 x 1.5 inches Towards the right end of the painting and above the hamster cage.

SELF PORTRAIT AS A HORSE acrylic and ink on canvas 12 x 24 x 1.5 inches 2012 $600 Eggs depicted top right.

Leaky Pipes

Been tied to the studio apartment the last few days. There was a leak under my bathroom sink, my husband and I had to empty this small jar (the only jar that would fit) of water every few hours : ( Thankfully the plumber came by and the leaky ordeal's over but some major renovations need to take place in here. Contractors, electricians and plumbers are hard to come by in the city, all are very busy and I'm lucky to get on anyone's wait list, which makes me think these are all great professions to get into. I very briefly considered being a plumber prior to a nurse to support myself, seems like a good job with a lot of autonomy. 

Anyway, above is my bathroom sink. On the left is the reference photo I used to make my painting on the right:

X SECTION OF MY BATHROOM SINK

acrylic and ink on canvas

18 x 24 x 1.5 inches

2009

In private collection.

I did this painting several years ago, just when I was learning to experiment with paint, colour, symbolism and pattern. This is the first time I tried painting marble pattern (of the bathroom counter). The bathroom decor itself is from the 70s and it's fake marble painted on plastic. This painting still contains the ink line work which I no longer use in my current painting, neat to see how far I've come and developed as a painter. I never met nor received the buyer's contact so I have no idea where this painting ended up but it's an imaginary take on what might be in there. Sometimes I like to wonder about all the interesting items people accidentally drop down their bathroom sink, mine probably just contains hair, goo and maybe some paint chips though.

FAQ What's it like being an artist?

FURRY LISA acrylic on wood panel 30 x 22 x 1.5 inches 2016 $1500

It's fun but hard work!

I'm the type that likes to stay prolific so I'm either working on something or on my way to working on something. I also never run out of ideas so there's a lot of internal pressure to get out as many ideas I can it's ridiculous. Life is exciting but suspenseful. It can make my day-to-day tasks difficult being occupied in a dreamworld most the time. I hate long line ups and find relaxing hard. Friends and family will complain I've gone missing but really I've just been caught up in a picture somewhere. I like being able to make all my own decisions though: expressing whatever I feel like, being the boss of my own schedule, getting to pick the music, choosing all my own colours etc., but not getting consistent payment can be rough as is rejection. That is not to say there isn't that instant high of the odd pile of cash either. The highs are high and the lows are low but above all else the connections are interesting, interesting enough.

Moon Cake Season

Here I am eating mooncake with one of my not-for-sale paintings. The Afterlife feat. my grandmom, "Paw Paw." In it are some pets I lost along the way including a plant or 2 : ( Anyway she was big on mooncake and mooncake traditions and it's been years since I had any.

Sh! Painting in progress..

Early process shot of a large diptych I'm currently working on. They are each 5 by 3 feet. Right now it's shaping up to be 2 unlikely friends, they always have an eye out for each other.

Recently discovered this magic formula for saving frayed paint brushes, see below for some before and after magic.