Like Father, Like Son?

My younger brother, Roti (aka Jason Chew, the Padungan curryman), sent me these scanned black and white photos of me when I'm still a baby, I couldn't help but laughed till my jaws hurt.

They say a picture says a thousand words, so I'll let you be the judge.

Have a nice weekend, folks! :D

Tranquility @ Bako National Park

It's been a week since Little Javier came into this world and things have started to settled down a little. It helps that Javier sleeps most of the time and Adeline's Mom and Aunt are here to help with caring for the baby... so I managed to spend some time painting this scene.

The reference photo is taken by fh2o, who is kind enough to let me use his photograph and allow me to alter the composition any which way I like. If you're reading this, unker...thank you so much!

I decided to add a boat on the beach and a distant boat in the sea to liven up the painting and I changed the rock formation on the foreground, to create a tiny path that leads viewers' eyes towards the boat.

Well, I haven't painted anything for 2 months so I wasn't expecting any spectacular great result... just satisfied and happy that I managed to find some time to paint this.

Here's the finished painting...Half Sheet of Fabriano Artistico Rough 14" x 21", using mostly W&N and Rembrandt Artist Paints.



Hope you like it... Comments & Critiques are most welcomed.... now back to changing diapers... LOL

Woohooo.... Sunbathing, I like!

Hiya fellow bloggers,

Javier came home two days ago and has successfully turned the whole house upside-down. Everything evolves around him. I hardly watch any World Cup match since last week. Before that, I'll watch at lease the earlier matches but after Javier's arrival, the World Cup has suddenly nose-dived to the bottom-pits of my priority list.

He sleeps a lot, so at least we can still catch a breath and do some other things (like blogging).
Hopefully, I'll be able to paint at least one painting this week as I need to submit four paintings this coming Sunday for two exhibitions in September. Or else, I'll just use my old works.

Little Javier has developed very mild jaundice (as most babies do) on his 3rd day in hospital, so we sun him for 10 minutes every morning.

"Look, I can break the law and have a thorough full-body nude sun-bathing! Isn't that COOL?!"

"Waaaaaa, I don't like waters... " (But I'm sure he'll grow to like watercolours.)

"I'm done with my bath, they've put my clothes back and I'm cute and handsome again"

Meet Javier Chew

Javier arrived at 11:59am today (21st June 2006), weighing 2.94 kg (around 6.5 pounds)

We checked into the hospital around 7am and after the registration and paperwork were done, Adeline and I were led to Ward 525 where we settled down and prepare ourselves for the biggest journey yet as husband and wife.

They did some tests on her and the baby and changed her to the green hospital gown. And we waited and chatted....At 11am, she's pushed into the operating theartre to be injected with the epidural while I waited outside...

11.30am, I changed into the hospital gown and was directed to the operating room, seated beside her. She's still fully awake, I held her hand while the doctors started the Ceasarian section.

It went very well.... I have NEVER seen so much blood in my life!!! The doctor asked me several times if I'm okay... sure I am, quite composed and excitedly watching the whole thing unfold right before my eyes... there were lots of blood, so I just imagined it as a pool of diluted cadmium or scarlet red! :D

They cut and pulled, and in less than 30 mins, with a strong push, little Javier came out and he cried aloud... what strong lung he has!

The nurse wrapped him up and asked me to hold him.... now, I have never ever hold a new born baby in my life, but somehow, I just walked over, put my arms around him and carry him as if it's second nature to me! That's miracle of life!

Both mother and baby are fine. Adeline is recuperating and baby is so cute and full of hair!!! They say he looks like me! Droopy eyes and thick hair! :)

21st June 2006 will forever be the proudest day of my life! Nothing will ever beat the birth of your first child and it's just unbelievable what joy a new life can bring to you!

21st June!

This should be the last update before the BIG DAY.

Adeline's pregnancy will reach full term (37th week) next Tuesday, and we have scheduled with the hospital for a Ceasarian section delivery on Wednesday 21st June! Well, we were planning to have natural vaginal delivery all this while until a scan last week revealed that the baby has suddenly gained more weight and his body is fatter compared to the average size of a foetus at 35th week, while the size of his head is still comparatively average.

Our gynae advised that in such cases natural delivery will carry higher risk as the head may come out but body may get stuck due to its larger size. So, she said C-section is a safer way to deliver the baby, and since his weight is already above average, we better not wait till the final 40th week.

However, she asked Adeline to do a glucose test again (the first one done around 7th month was normal) as she suspected Adeline might be diabetic which could have explained why baby grows fatter than average. The test result was out just now and it confirmed that Adeline is indeed diabetic. She said the diabetes will go away after giving birth. The worrying bit is that that the baby might have gotten used to the higher sugar level in her womb and once he is born, he might have difficulty adjusting and end up with low sugar level. Therefore, the baby will need to stay in the hospital for a couple days more for observation.

After that, the gynae refered us to a diabetes specialist and he said it's nothing serious but need to monitor her sugar level for the next few days and see him again on Monday. Adeline just needs to control her diet now based on the advice of a dietician which we were referred to as well.

All is well, just a bit worrying about the diabetes and its potential effect to the baby... it has been a smooth and good pregnancy for Adeline, and I'm sure this little obstacles will pass soon after delivery... So, the date is 21st June 2006, I'm crossing my fingers and toes that everything will go smoothly and you will soon see little Javier Chew (we're still mulling over his Chinese name)
:-)

The Wonders of Technology

Not someone who would go all out to grab the latest gadgets and gizmos (I don't have that much money to burn anyway), I usually can't be bothered by the newest mobile phones, laptops, MP3 players, ipods, PDAs (I still believe in good old memory, a notebook and pen!)and all kinds of tech stuff you can think of.

I was fairly satisfied with my trusted $68 Motorolla that has served me well for more than 2 years until a month ago when I left it in the hotel conference room in my haste to check-out and leave for the airport.

Living in Singapore (or anywhere else for that matter) without a phone for 2 days is like cutting yourselves out of the rest of the world! So, I went to Starhub and bought a Sony Ericsson K750i after reading up reviews after reviews. The salesman asked me to wait for the launch of its latest model K800i with 3.2 mega pixel camera, coming soon at the end of June but I figured it will burn a big hole in my pocket! (and I can't wait that long) So, I chose the former.

K750i, with 2 megapixel camera is really handy for me especially when I see something inspiring and beautiful and need a camera to capture it. Of course, I was skeptical at first, doubtful of the image quality a camera phone can produce. So, I took a few photos of shophouses along Emerald Hill near Orchard Road when my wife and I went shopping for baby products last week.

I was amazed! Look at the pictures below... they are clear, crisp and sharp... check it out yourself! or may be you already knew, I'm just a "a frog under the well"??


The next time I go out for outdoor painting, I think I can leave my camera at home. This will reduce some weight off my backpack for sure. :-)

New face-lift marvinchew.com

It's finally done! I've spent the past 3 weeks re-designing my website and it's now ready for the world to see.
For a start, it has a blue background, instead of previous plain white one and it definitely has a more professional look with better layout, thanks to my webhost 3ix which provide me with many free templates to work on.

The gallery page isn't just for viewing my paintings anymore, there are paypal buttons that I added for secured online purchase of my original paintings and prints. Clicking the paypal buttons will direct the buyers to a paypal shopping page where the transaction can be completed within minutes.

To make high quality prints, I've invested in an EPSON R2400 professional graphic printer that can print up to Super A3 size. I did a few test prints yesterday and the results were absolutely brilliant. I must say they are as good as those you get from professional labs. When I stood at a distance and look at the prints, believe me, even I can't tell the difference between the originals and the prints.

Like all artist and photographers who display their works online, we constantly face the problem of copyrights and piracy of our artworks. I've heard stories of how artworks were downloaded, printed and sold for a profit by people who know nuts about arts. To counter this, I have added a couple of protection features on my images but they can only act as deterrant... If they want to steal it, it will make it a little more difficult, and hope they'll just leave mine alone.

I'm all set and ready... anyone need fine art prints to decorate their walls?