Stage 1:

I paint the sky during sunrise. Using water color pigments, I record the colors of the light in the morning sky. I begin painting just when  eyes start seeing shapes in the dusk. Duration of initial painting usually lasts about 90 minutes, when the color changes from dark to light with the coming of morning. My activity consists of looking up at the sky and down on my paper to match the colors, adding pigments in layers. While the change is slow at the beginning when the sky is mostly dark, during the period of about twenty minutes, the light and the color change rapidly and dramatically. The pace of my painting picks up as well, corresponding to the changes in the sky that begins to lighten with a flood of light. I stop when the sky feels the lightest, after which the lightness seems to stabilise. Then I let the painting stall for about ten days to dry. 

Stage 2:

Brushing is a way of forcing time. I use the same brush and the water used for the initial painting process to mix all the layers of color pigments on the painted surface. Acting as a kind of embedded time format, the initial painting process is linear; Whereas in stage 2 of the panting process, this linear order of color layers is mixed and de/recomposed. I brush out the excess pigments that are not fully absorbed into the paper. I stop brushing when no more pigment could be taken out of the paper. What is left is the dyed paper and excess pigments in water. The pigmented water is then, collected into a clear glass jar. 

Five initial morning paintings were made during two-week period around the Spring Equinox on Columbus Drive, Chicago, Illinois.  The  work was exhibited in Merchandise Mart with the support of Chicago Artist Coalition in 2010.

Medium: watercolor, paper stretched on wood panel, glass container

Phtos by Cheng Yung Kuo