Milpitas artist Hung-Tsu Chen has taken figure drawing and painting classes here and there, but she considers herself self-taught. After exploring art for a decade, she began to take abstract painting seriously last fall.

Lost and Found, a 40-by-60-inch acrylic on canvas, was selected for a juried exhibition at the California State Fair in Sacramento from July 14-31. Her painting will be available for sale and also compete for awards. There were 1,474 entries (an individual can enter multiple pieces of work).

She describes her abstract painting as emotional self-portraits. Techniques for painting tangible things like apples, clouds, lights, shadows can be taught, she writes, but no one can teach how to paint emotional journeys.

"Only the internal voices that we each sometimes hear guide us in the direction we didn't know we wanted to go. My internal voices guide my abstract paintings."

Last month, Chen was the only artist to represent Milpitas in Silicon Valley Open Studios, a series of weekends in which members of the public visit local artists inside their Bay Area studios.

To learn more about the artist, visit her website at artvenusstudio.com.

Note: The artist and the editor of Milpitas Patch are not related.