About
Hi, I'm Anqi, a self-taught painter.
I've learned that the most important things are often the simplest, but simple doesn't mean easy. Drawing is hard. Painting is hard. Finding your own style is harder still, especially now, when AI can produce images faster than ever and it can feel like the great artists of history have already explored every possibility.
I'm a beginner. I think I always will be. There's so much to learn, and that's exactly what keeps me here. I love the process of creating: it's challenging and satisfying at the same time. And every painting is my mark, proof that I was here.
So this is an invitation. Come walk with me on a path we both know is difficult, but worth it. Because in creating, we find peace. We find flow. We find our voice. And most of all, we feel alive.
My original paintings are available here. I'm also open to commissions. If you have an idea, a place, or a moment you'd like brought to life on canvas, I'd love to hear about it: hello@anqizhaoart.com
Timeline
- 2026 Summer
Daily Painting
Over the summer, I completed a 30-day painting challenge: one small acrylic painting every day. Showing up daily taught me more than any single piece could. Then in September, I picked up oil paint for the first time and fell in love. Today, I paint in oil almost every day, still a beginner, and still learning with every stroke.
- 2026 January
First Group Show
In January, I showed my work publicly for the first time in a group exhibition at The Stable Art Gallery in Ridgewood, NJ. I exhibited a range of acrylic paintings and charcoal drawings and connected with local artists and collectors.
- 2025
Building ArtLens
After so many hours fixing proportions, I built a tool. ArtLens overlays a reference image onto your phone's camera view, so you can hold it over your paper and check your drawing against the photo in real time. I added the things I wished I'd had while learning, like a grayscale toggle for seeing values and a head proportion guide for portraits. It's free, simple, and ad-free, made for anyone who loves to draw.
- 2025
Learning to See Portraits
Portraits humbled me. With a face, the tiniest difference makes it look wrong, and I spent hours fixing proportions (which is why I later built a tool to help). Along the way, I learned two things. First, choosing the right reference photo matters just as much as the drawing itself. Second, I had to stop listening to my brain telling me “this is a nose, this is hair.” Instead, I learned to see only shapes and shades. Whatever the object or texture, the way to draw it is always the same.
- 2022
Back to the Foundation
For a long time, I resisted starting over. I just wanted to make good paintings right away, but there's no shortcut. During my maternity leave with my first baby, I finally began learning to draw properly, from beginner 001, working through the Charles Bargue drawing course. There was no color, only grayscale, and that turned out to be the lesson: seeing in values trains your eyes to truly observe, not just imagine. Slowly, I began to enjoy drawing, and I decided to keep going so that one day I can draw the people I love well.
- 2017-2021
Where it started
In my twenties in NYC, my best friend Ashley and I took drawing and painting classes here and there. I quickly found that I react strongly to color. Mixing felt fun and natural, and I fell in love with acrylics. But I soon hit a wall: my drawing wasn't strong enough to support my painting. No matter how well I mixed my colors, I didn't know where each stroke should go.
