Author: Trung Cao

I ponder on what a painting of environmental change of the arctic looks like? The Arctic is warming three times as fast and the global average. The melting of snow and ice exposes a darker surface and increases the amount of solar energy absorbed. This significant regional warming leads to continued loss of sea ice, melting of glaciers and ice caps. Polar bears rely heavily on sea ice for traveling, hunting, resting and mating. I wanted to create a moving representation of the warming of the permafrost, decrease in snow cover, shrinking of glaciers, and disappearing of sea ice. I wanted the movement in the piece to represent this continuous change, a battle of cool and warm and the chaos of complex changes. 

I fell in love with painting my last zebra that I couldn’t wait to get back into it, finding new ways to give it form, and interesting lighting. So here it is. This one went by really quick, a few days of painting total.

Growing up, I enjoyed the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show. In the Road Runner Show, they love to mock the scientific Latin name for the coyote and road runner, flashing a humorous made-up name. For example, the coyote name in show is Wile E Coyote, real Latin name is Canis latrans. However they will flash like “Carnivorous Vulgaris” or “Carnivorous Slobbuis.” I played on this idea here with the title of the painting combining its Latin name a work to describe its beauty.

No matter what I paint, I place great emphasis on composition, shape, value, and the play of cool/warm. I really enjoyed this piece because it easily fulfilled my goals. Hope you like it.

Nice to have a page of my drawing on the latest Best of Drawings, the 15th Annual Strokes of Genius Competition.

Every atom of water in our bodies was created by the Big Bang along with heavier elements from the heart of our stars. The constituents of our body and mind are immortal, moving through our environment and assembly into one life form after another, an essence of reincarnation. Particles are neither created nor destroyed, and perhaps there comes a time when all elements reach a new form of energy immortality. We are creatures of comfort, fearing changes, asking the whys, but that is due to our present state of mind, a mechanism of survival of our species to possess those qualities. We are all one in a process, one world, only separated by a small speck of time. It’s the greatest gift, to be apart and to be together, and to exist in this moment in time against all odds of probability. 

I’ve been wanting to paint sunflower for some time. I really enjoyed this one, setting the yellow over a cool, blue background, and giving a touch of life with 3 hummingbirds.

Just by accident, last summer I was walking at a Lake Tahoe beach and noticed how with lights and reflection, the pebbles under the thin water shine like jewels. I knew I had to paint it. It was abstract looking, had great value and color, so I was inspired to produce this. I will certain do more painting like this in the future.

Jewels of Lake Tahoe, 18x24in, oil on cradled wood

A continuing theme of our one world, our planet, our people, and the dynamic of all that goes on.

Taking on the theme of humanity, our place on this one earth. I have a lot to say but I’ll let the viewer contemplate the symbolism here.