❝Art is both love and friendship and understanding: the desire to give. It is not charity, which is the giving of things. It is more than kindness, which is the giving of self. It is both the taking and giving of beauty, the turning out to the light of the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit. It is a recreation on another plane of the realities of the world; the tragic and wonderful realities of earth and men, and of all the interrelations of these.❞—Ansel Adams

I usually paint in oil, but I use other mediums for my subjects such as charcoal, graphic, watercolor, gouache, and sometimes a combination of at least two mediums. I usually call them sketch studies, but I also consider many of them complete works. Sometimes I base a sketch study on a photograph, but I prefer to return to the original subject to make a sketch study in person to capture its essence.

My paintings and drawings are of subjects that we would have normally been overlooked because they’re “not inspirational”. An artist once said that he had resigned from trying to look for inspiration in faraway places for his art; instead he finds them outside his studio from things that are “not inspirational” and has turned them into beautiful paintings. I have taken on his approach with my own art; that is to use something mundane and make it into something beautiful to enjoy.

All of my paintings are available. You may have noticed that some of my paintings are marked Artist Collection, but they all are actually available. I have a blog that I call Studio Notes at studio13.tumblr.com. I use this blog as an online personal note book to supplement my creative process. I have purposely made this an open book for everyone who is inclined to read blog entries. I also have created another blog as a place to sell some of my recent works. You can find it here at danielwkchow.tumblr.com

I hope you are enjoying my paintings as much as I am. 

La dolce vita!

Daniel