Tim Loh's Paintings

Geese In Flight

2012-01-30T15:43:00.000-08:00

Feeling a little more confident about the brush strokes involved in painting Canada geese, I ventured to do something on a larger scale. Armed with a large and a medium size brush, and sheets of 4 ft. Xuan, I went to work.

Goofing around on scrap paper is one thing, but trying to paint something for "real" is another thing.
I've told myself a million times, it's only paper..........go for it.............the waste basket is only a few feet away........I could always practise my finger tip release and see if I could create a back spin as the wad of Xuan flying towards the can. Only to freeze up when I perceived that something might be at stake. Fear of failure! I can only blame my parents, my teachers and any one who dared to place expectations on me.

Anyways, here are the results.

My next challenge would be to incorporate these into a background.

Goose Me More, Canadian Style

2012-01-13T23:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! 2012 is here, let us all stay healthy, body and mind.

I want to start the year off with a flighty agenda. No, nothing capricious, just trying to pick up painting Canada Geese again, from where I left off last year.

First allow me to show you an image below:

Before I would comment further on this image, let me also show you a picture that I captured:

As part of my new resolve, I decided to get out more and observe more. Around Oregon there are innumerable parks, preserves, wetland habitats to keep a person busy all year long. I decided to take advantage of what the state offers. This crisp winter morning at the Jackson Bottom Wetlands, I inadvertently came up on a Canada goose and the startled bird took off without uttering a single word. I was pretty quick with my lens and captured the above picture.

I've been trying to document the neck and postures of the Canada geese, but so far my renderings had been of the static variety. As I said before, it was the black and white contrast of the bird, and the feasibility of depicting the bird as a calligraphy character that intrigued me. This is the first time that I am attempting to study the bird in flight.

What struck me was the simplicity of the form. A V-shaped pair of wings anchored on a bowling pin with black neck and a white band.

We start out with the body,

The neck is a combination of strake A and stroke B.
The letter V describes the wings:

With that interpretation of the bird in flight, and the picture as a reference, I attempted to create my
Chinese Brush painting of the Canada goose.

This one looks like a sea plane; I had placed the V-assembly too high on the body.

Here is a rendition of the bird with wings in the down stroke.

So what is the deal with the first image I posted on this blog?

If you look closely, you could see pencil tracings on the Xuan paper. I did that deliberately to illustrate a point. That painting had a perfect image, a perfect likeliness because I traced it from my photograph. A few dabs of the brush to delineate feathers and walla.....a Chinese Brush painting of a Canada goose. This is something that
a person who has gone to the Dark Side would have done. A stenciled drawing filled with a few half hearted brush strokes passes off as an attempt at Chinese Brush works. Instant gratification.

It is my sincere hope that by posting the 2 versions of painting, that you will agree with me that there is no quick shortcut to this art form. There is something tangible in Xieyi brush painting, however subtle that might be. The energy is just not quite the same when we trace.

Speaking of birds from the North, I had the pleasure of a Tundra Swan (Whistling Swan) visiting my place. I had mistaken it for a snow goose but thanks to the United States Geological Survey, I learned otherwise. I am posting the video here for all to see.

Silent Protest

2011-12-29T23:01:00.000-08:00

This pond would have a dwarf weeping cherry tree and the Heron would come and stand next to it. Perhaps the bull frog season has ended, the Heron did not find much to stuff through its long neck. The creature just turned away from the water and chose to face the Dwarf; motionless, whilst the wind whipped up its chest feathers, betraying its presence.

I gave the title "ODD COUPLE" to this painting.

The painting was done in a cold tone. I tried to do the neck as a single brush stroke but I failed.   It took several passes to get the shape down. I was hoping to write the neck as a reverse "S". The feathers were side tipped brush strokes. I used a rather dry brush to begin with, intended on bringing out the texture of the feathers but the resulting bird was too harsh. A moistened brush dabbing over the original strokes took care of that. The outline of the bird was done broken style. A continuous smooth line would resemble too much of the Gonbi style and would render this "motionless" heron "dead".

The dwarf weeping cherry on the other hand, was made to look menacing.   The clawing branches and the exposed arthritic roots seem to mock the heron. There is a tension between the 2 subjects. The tension is not of an overt hostility, but a muted resolve of c'est la vive, que sera sera, What ever !! The heron has sought solace from an unlikely source. The tree can't just get up and walk away. It is what it is. How often do we find ourselves in this predicament, an uneasy acceptance of our fate?
I was a participant at a bazaar for arts and crafts, hocking my paintings at a ridiculously low price ( so I was told ).   It was a juried event and I applied as an artist doing Chinese Brush Painting. This venue labeled me as a Sumi-e artist.   Granted my works do use ink and wash, but I am not a sumi-e artist. What is the big deal, you might ask. Let me put it in this perspective: A Chinese is an Asian, but not all Asians are Chinese. What's scary about this ordeal is that the event was sponsored by an arts school as a fund raiser. Imagine how the school would teach sumi-e.

So how did the art form that originated from China ended up being labelled here as sumi-e?   When I was looking for teachers for my Chinese Brush Painting, I came across our local cultural center, whose mission was to bridge the east and the west, and it offered classes in Spontaneous Chinese Brush and Elaborate Chinese Brush. Obviously I was confused. Fortunately I could read Chinese. What the center meant to advertise was that it offered classes in Xieyi and Gonbi styles of Chinese Brush. I objected vehemently to this advertising and was told that the non Chinese would not understand Xieyi or Gonbi. So how do we bridge the east and the west? How do we bridge any culture if we can't even be honest with ourselves. To understand another culture requires humility and an open mind.

Do we translate proper nouns? Would anyone attempt to translate President Bush other than phonetically? Likewise we would not allow Chairman Mao to be translated as Chairman Hair! (Mao means hair in Chinese)

When China changed Peking to Beijing, she asserted to the world that she wants the world to address her as she would address herself. Peking was probably a result of some foreigner trying to emulate Chinese pronunciation of Beijing.   At first I was led to believe that this was pidgin English but later I understood pidgin English was something else totally. Yet during the last Olympics many of the broadcasters in the U.S. ( some of them well known anchors ) would insist on pronuncing the simple "J" sound in Beijing as a "J" sound in French bon jour. The word Beijing meant "North" "Capitol". I am glad that it was not translated literally and only phonetically.   When we insisted on calling Chow Mein by its proper name, people learned to accept it for what it is, just as they accepted crepe and baklava.   Unfortunately us overseas Chinese, especially those of us in the States did not have the spine to insist on calling our fried rice as Chow Farn, thus allowing us to be the butt of the joke for saying "fly lice". I, for one, refuse to believe that Chinese could not distinguish "B" and "P" sounds, or that we are deaf to "R" and "L" sounds. My belief is that we are afraid to "stir up" trouble. We don't want to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

At the bazaar I overheard some Asians telling their Caucasian friends to ignore my booth because my "stuff" was "not Chinese" and they were really "not good". Obviously mine were not museum nor gallery pieces, but neither were any of the other artisans. Did tramping on a fellow Asian elavate us to be more sophisticated and savvy or did it expose our own insecurity?   Would I have felt the same betrayal had the people saying that were not Asians? For the price I was asking for, my works were real bargains, but that really wasn't the issue.
For my town of half a million souls, the population is innocently naive when it comes to Chinese Brush painting, or at least most of the fellow artists that I had dealt with are.    Words like sumi-e and kanji are used generically sans ill will, just as google enjoyed. People are eager to show that they know something of the eastern culture but stumbled in their quest for empathy.
So there is this feeling of injustice, insecurity and ambiguity. Should I continue to voice what I perceive as inaccurate or just tolerate with a patronizing smile. Should I allow myself to be casted as a sumi-e artist doing spontaneous painting on rice paper?   Need I worry that if I insist too strongly then there might not be a role for me to play at all. The fact that local Chinese restaurants that serve Chinese food has few Caucasian clients and the Chop Suey joints here have no Chinese customers speak volume for my concern.   Perhaps what I am serving up on my Xuan-boo is chop suey??
I blame this out pour on the holidays. I am told that people are little moody around this time of the year. . I should know, I am a pharmacist. I must be the Grinch of the X'mas.
Better up my Prozac dosage, and in the meantime I'll protest in silence. Let it be, just let it be.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The 3 Perfections of Chinese Brush Painting

2011-12-05T14:10:00.001-08:00

The 3 Perfections ( 3 Absolutes ) of Chinese Brush painting encompasses painting, poetry and calligraphy. Whereas each of these disciplines is a curriculum by its own virtue, to be able to master all 3 earns the merit of achieving the 3 Perfections or attaining the 3 Absolutes. The inclusion of these 3 elements gives the term Du Hua ( to read a painting, the preferred Chinese term for approaching a painting) a literal zest.

Not being able to produce good calligraphy is the bane of my existence. As a kid growing up in Hong Kong, calligraphy was a necessary evil because often it was part of my homework assignment. To this date I remember burning mid night oil to catch up on completing summer vacation assignments before school starts again in the fall (yes, teachers do assign summer vacation home works), and that usually involved finishing a thread bound booklet of calligraphy. I was so ashamed of my handwriting that I seldom put my name on anything. The pursuit of Chines Brush painting submerged me deeper in this turmoil. The fact that calligraphy is the basis of any brushstrokes kept mocking me. Unfortunately I had a teacher who told me that calligraphy is not important and oddly enough he never signs any of his paintings either.

When I started off this painting it was just that, a simple painting. I felt the need to occupy the upper portions of the scene scape. The thought of incorporating calligraphy came to mind.

In sheer coincidence, I am studying the calligraphy of Su Shi ( pseudonym of Su Dongpo) of the Song Dynasty. He was a scholar, poet and calligrapher amongst other things. He wrote this poem during his exile, lamenting his sad political stature. I took 4 verses of his poetry and wrote them in his style of calligraphy onto this simple painting.

A loose translation of the poem is

The River kept rising and is flooding my abode,
yet the rain would not stop.
You have kept me out by your 9 gates,
and the cemetery is 10 thousand miles away.

Su Shi was describing his bleak situation.

I found the writing describes my painting well..... an air of solitude, minuscule existence, gloom.

Obviously I am no great painter, certainly not a poet nor a calligrapher. I did this piece of work purely by the karma of luck, having the ingredients of the 3 Perfections at my disposal.

Note: in Chinese culture, the number 9 also euphemistically mean 'a long time' or 'countless'. Being kept out by 9 gates describes the abandonment of Su Shi by the Emperor.
Chinese culture then demanded a person to visit the ancetors' grave sites during this time of year, as a sign of respect and remembrance. The fact that he was deposed and exiled meant that his trek to visit the cemetery would be impossible. Ten thousand miles is not a literal measurement of distance, but rather a symbol of infinity. Ten thousand miles meant insurmountable obstacle.

PLAYING WITH VISUAL ACUITY

2011-11-18T13:10:00.001-08:00

I like to people watch in an exhibition hall.

People would stand in front of a painting, and start to bow after a few minutes. They would lean their body forward, closer to the painting. Those with bifocals or glasses would start to fidget with them, before leaning back to the erect position. In some instances, the visitors would approach a painting, then distant themselves, and approach again.

What we are doing is not only finding and adjusting our focal point, but also playing with our visual acuity.

Our vision is unique in the sense that we are always attempting to decode images in the HD mode, or whatever highest resolution our body is equipped with. However, this peak acuity only applies to our narrow center of vision. We might have a healthy peripheral vision, but only the center field of our vision enjoys the high resolution. An example would be if we look across a lake lined with trees, we might only sense them as a curtain of color, especially when we are not focused on them. But the moment we focus on these distant pixels, we can actually make out the branches, and perhaps an eagle's nest perched on top. Thus even when we are looking at a misty fog, it might feel foggy or blurry, but our eyes can actually pick up the droplets dancing in the fog (try driving at night in fog)!

When we paint landscape we are told to bestow a lot of information to the near ground, and blur out the rest, to give focus and perspective. However, it is the behavior of the visitors in an exhibition hall that prompted me to explore the means of adding information to a "blur", to more closely relate to our own acuity characteristics.

In the following example, I was just exploiting the interaction of water and ink and Xuan. By loading the brush ink heavy just at the tip, with sufficient water in its belly, the ink particles will bleed out into little fissure like streaks. This can also be accomplished by selectively wetting the outside boundary of the ink stroke with plain water. The result is a blurred line with structures.

The next example is to take this process a step further. I actually painted branch tips in the bleed zone. The result is such that when viewed from a distance (i.e. when our eyes are not focused on it) the image represents slopes shrouded in fog. Whereas when one gets closer to the image (i.e. when our eyes are focused on it) then one can begin to see the branches clearly, as our eyes will do, naturally.

Wicker Basket Still Life

2011-11-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

I publish my blog on the topic of Chinese Brush painting, but I have to delve into something very personal this time and it has nothing to do with painting.

Today is my birthday. What is significant is that I am not going to encounter this ever again. I was born on November 11. So regardless of what convention you use, date first, month first, or year first, today is 11-11-11, and I am going to publish this at 11:11. Pardon my pensiveness.

My personal experience, and those of other novices whom I have dealt with, is that when we see
skinny lines, we automatically dialed down our grip and turned our brush into a point rather than a brush. The result is the deposition of lines with a boundaries, but possessing no souls.

The concept of transmitting energy through the brush, penetrating the Xuan, past the felt pad, past the desk top is obscure but not mythical. I suppose this is analogous to martial artists focusing past the pine board and punching through. My mantra is let our brush make love to the paper, not just tickling the surface.

For my own practice, I chose to do a still life of a wicker basket. The orderly array of weaves, thrown into this parabolic contour of the container, reminds me of something that the architect Frank Gehry might try to do.

It is important that I still try to write these lines instead of drawing them. I tried to use a dry brush with varied ink tones to render the 3 dimensional appearance. The shading effect is achieved by using the belly of a dry brush. This is a good way to ruin a brush, but is a necessary collateral.
This kind of shading speaks of the T'sa technique mentioned in my prior blogs. It puts down texture and changes light value. The highlighted areas are void spaces.

This is a wonderful way to practice brush stroke, especially center tip stroke, without getting bored.

Bamboo Leaves Tutorial and Brush Pronation

2011-10-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

As I am forced to deal with how to paint bamboo, I am increasing frustrated by my own ineptness in rendering a good painting, and the difficulty in explaining the mechanics of the brush stroke, especially with regards to the leaves.

As I thumb through the "How To" books of painting bamboo, there are vast examples of how to paint and group the leaves in an ethereal array. Sadly, very few of them reveal the underlying brush stroke.

I could only hark back to my days of learning bamboo.....center tip, center tip, fast, sharp strokes.
Fine! I get all that, but how do I add variety to the shape of the leaves?? My relentless practice just adds more clones to my collection, neither rhythmic, nor eclectic. My teacher just kept saying, watch me, do as I do.

So what does pronation ( and supination) has to do with painting bamboo leaves?

Everything !

When we hold our brush vertical with the plumb line, anything added pressure will force the belly of the brush to sit evenly on both sides of the center line. Thus a rather symmetrical leaf shall appear.
If we hold the brush with the shaft pointing towards our body, then more of the brush belly would be making contact below the center line. Thus a leaf with a skewed right flank will take shape. Conversely if hold the brush with the shaft away from our body, the result is a leaf with a skewed left flank.

This discovery prompted me to think in terms of pronation or supination. Evidence of those is very apparent in how we wear out the heels of our shoes. A pronated ankle causes the inside edge of the shoe heel to wear out (most evident for people afflicted with Knock Knees), and a supinated ankle wears on the outside edge of the heel. Supposedly one could tell an introvert from an extrovert just by looking at the heels of their shoes. Anyways, when the palm is twisted towards our body, that is the supinate position, and pronate is when the palm is twisted away from our torso. Therefore for a right handed person, a supinate grasp of the brush will result in a bamboo leaf with the fat side to the right of the vein, and a pronated angle of the brush will have a heftier left side.

The significance of pronation and supination that if we want bamboo leaves to look lively and natural, we should paint them as clusters rather than individual leaves. Let me be more succinct, we are going to paint 4 leaves in a cluster. As we embark on the first leaf (positioned to the extreme left of the cluster), our brush is in a natural supinated position. As we move over to the next leaves ( to the right ) the angle of the brush is incrementally decreasing towards vertical plumb ( true center tip ) and progressing towards pronation as we drift to the right side of the cluster. My assertion is that we should try to paint the leaves as a combination of multiple related, continuous strokes, separated only by lifts of the brush, but no hiccups in flow.

The following is lifted from a "How To" book on painting bamboo leaves and is just a small sample of the hundreds of possibilities of arranging and writing bamboo leaves. The problem with this rote learning, as I come to realize, is that we are so bound by these prescribed imagery that what we do at best is regurgitation of a lifeless pose. What these illustrations do not tell us is the assembly of dance movements that lead to these poses. If only we can paint the leaves not as individual blades, but as a community, and allow our wrists to go through the various and natural angles of pronation and supination, to imitate the natural growth sequence of the clusters, then our efforts shall be a rewarded with dynamic strokes.

The embedded video shall illustrate my attempt at painting the bamboo leaves pictured above, and some of the points that I have opined. Granted the leaves do not look that good (just a frustrated painter, but my theory is still sound ) nonetheless the final product is not without emotional salvage.

Pronate, Supinate, do not Regurgitate !

My new mantra.

Goose Me

2011-10-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

I had painted the Canada Geese a few times before. Back in 2003, before I started to actively pursue painting, I did a family portrait of Canada Geese using water color. In fact I used that painting as my litmus test. That was the permission I gave myself to find teachers who could show me how to paint.

Eight years later, I want to try my luck again at using Canada Geese as my main characters. I am intrigued by the long black necks of the geese. Their necks telegraph so much motions and emotions. Sometimes agitated, sometimes embracing; sometimes curious, sometimes alarmed; yet always interesting. I thought their necks represent a perfect challenge to depict using Chinese calligraphy strokes. I would need to find a way to "write" their necks with meaning and strength. It is with this intent that I embark on my new journey.

First I worked up a general sketch. I've done a painting on zebras ( see my Horsing Around with Stripes blog) and I liked the general composition of that painting. I am going to arrange my birds in that array again.

I worked up another model employing colors that reminded me of patina. I defined the bodies as if they were commas, dashes and dots.

Well, that looked interesting but somehow it lacked the wow factor. I know this was just a quick model, but I can't put my fingers on the missing link.

Xieyi

2011-10-01T02:00:00.000-07:00

Xieyi literally means to write with meaning or expression. The Xieyi style in Chinese Brush painting prides itself in the artist's command of the brush, thus the aptitude to "write" the painting with a freehand, allowing utmost expressiveness.

The concept of expressiveness in a brush stroke seems rather subjective and ill-defined. Allow me to draw an example with the human face. How could the same face portray happiness, ecstasy, mournfulness, sorrow, despair, resolute, anger, frustration, spite, respect, admiration, solemn, disregard, evasiveness, malice, anticipation, frown, et cetera, et cetera.

I am told there are close to 100 muscles controlling our facial expressions. The permutation of these muscles, either as group or individually, is astronomical. We need not understand fully which muscles are involved, and yet we definitely know when someone is pissed at us. The same is true with Xieyi paintings. Wherein the parameter for being "expressive" is obscure, the observer holds the dictum " I know it when I see it".

Painting is an expression, our way of communicating with an observer and we all want to be understood. Our innate fear of failure (to communicate) makes us afraid to let go of whatever we are able to cling onto, somewhat similar to people in abusive relationships. Our faithfulness to rote learning and emulating often rob us of spontaneity. We try hard to be perfect and take solace in mimicking the shape rather than the spirit of the brushstrokes, and there is nothing Xieyi about our work. This is the shackle that I try to be rid of.

The same painting done with expressive brush strokes.

An honest account of a dragonfly.

Same dragonfly done with expressiveness...... a little more Xieyi.

A good brush stroke is comparable to good bowing on a string instrument. When I watch Itzhak Perlman or Yo Yo Ma perform and see them using full bows from tip to frog with their eyes closed, I often wonder how much of that is from muscle memory (rote) and how much is from sensing the
interplay between the string and the horsehair, and using these full breaths to complete their musical sentences. Their cues on the stroke is no longer visual, but tactile. In calligraphy equivalence, we say a stroke is "delivered".

Xieyi does not mean an awkward semblance, but a genuine love-making between a brush and paper.

Salvage Operation

2011-09-26T00:30:00.000-07:00

I was demonstrating how to paint insects; not in the capacity of being the principal in the painting, but rather a supporting role. In my scenario these insects would occupy the role of an ancillary chop, to fill a void without destroying the ambiance of the painting. If done correctly, this space moderator would add to the flavor, as in the use of fish extract in Wonton soup.

The first piece was initially a sketch done at a local nature park. The fern struck me as a ideal subject to learn to "write" a painting. The fronds present themselves as broad stroke lines that taper and convolute with grace. At best, that was almost like a botanical study with calligraphic overtones. I therefore used this sketch as an example of salvaging an otherwise plain painting by adding a little interest to it.

The other piece was a sketch of peony. The original sketch had the floral petals "gou"ed (outlined) . It was an exercise in still life sketching with a brush. I took liberty with the sepals and leaves, for a more cohesive presentation. The coloring of the petals was an afterthought. Unfortunately this is where I biffed. I did painting by the numbers. The outlined planogram tempted me to fill in the boundaries with color. I committed the cardinal sin of blocking in with titanium and not using it as a transitional member. Thus the whole thing as a rather "plastic" feel to it. Perfect candidate for OPERATION SALVAGE. I used it as an example of how to revive your dead painting by adding a smidgen of interest to it, in the form of a grasshopper.

Unto the bad painting, a shtick was given, or was it a straight man?

PS Taming of the Silk

2011-09-23T11:20:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in the last blog, my painting on silk was not colorfast and I had to display that behind a glass pane, which is kind of a pain for me. The reflection off the glass really bothers me and I can't afford museum grade non-reflective glasses.

I thought of using Scotchgard. Unfortunately my local arts supply store does not stock it and a quick visit to Target found them out of stock on that item. Just my luck.

Was cleaning out my garage one day and behind a box of medicine vials, masked by cobweb was a can of Camp Dry. This aerosol can must be 20 years old at least. It is a product used to water-proof boots, tarps etc. for outdoor activities. So I decided to give it a try. What the heck, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. This whole thing about painting on silk was an experiment to begin with.

I wiped clean the aerosol can, followed the direction, 3 applications with 4 hours drying time in between. I sprayed generously onto my painting, not even bothering to test for discoloration or anything.

To my utmost gratification, the result is awesome. Not only is my painting repelling water like a shellacked hull, but the product also made the painting look richer. And the best part is, no glares!!

This pack rat has found salvation.

Taming of The Silk

2011-09-17T22:44:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine , a Hua Yu ( meaning members who paint), gave me a roll of silk for me to paint on. My friend does beautiful Gonbi style paintings, and she was showing me her paintings, and relating how different brands of color and gouache work on silk. She must have sensed my eagerness to try and graciously let me have some.

Unfortunately I always thought I knew better. This is my Achilles Heel. I felt that the silk that was given to me feels too synthetic (feels crispy and looks shiny) so I was determined to find "real" silk.
A few phone calls later checking into the usual craft stores and fabric outlets, I located some silk at the local Mill End store. So here is my friend who knows a lot about painting on silk, and yet I wanted to be my own trailblazer. I must also clarify here that this is not an original work by me. I was trying to emulate some ancient painter (Ming, or Song Dynasty??). I am sorry I can't remember who the arts was, so enthusiasts could trace back to the original and learn from the master also.

My nightmare is about to begin.

The silk I purchased is brown in color ( I want to do paintings with the antique look), soft and feels heavy in the hand. I couldn't wait to take out the fabric from the plastic bag and began to write a few words in ink on it. To my horror, the ink just ran off the fabric, like water on the back of a duck. They must have used something in the dye to render the fabric water repelling, so the silk went into the bathtub, and I poured in a generous amount of denatured alcohol, and Resolve, and detergent. Whatever it was in the fabric, I was determined to extricate that. My bathroom permeated with the scent of alcohol, reminded me of a clinic; a clean smell. I am glad I am not a smoker.

Well that trick did not work. I remember my friend telling me that she had to use a gum and alum solution to size the silk before she paints on it. To me, this was counter-intuitive. Sizing would add to the water repelling property.

For some reason this worked, albeit just a little bit. The fabric would take on ink now, but it required several passes before the ink stroke registered. I like the fact that the pigment in the gouache seems to migrate to the edge of the stroke, leaving a natural border to the stroke. I don't know if I could attribute this artifact to the silk.

Since I had to make overlapping passes with my brush, any brushstroke qualities became virtually indistinguishable. The texture of the silk fabric, tandem with multi-layered strokes, made the lines take on the air of a charcoal drawing .

Bamboo stems, which needed to portray the bouncy tensile, showed instead a string of splinters, reminiscent of a bad whittling job.

This absence of brush stroke would absolutely ruin the bamboo leaves. The blades had to suggest an edge, a point, at the very least. I remembered the "Magic Brush" I bought in Hong Kong. It has a very soft (felt) tip, behaving much like a fine brush, and is fed by disposable ink cartridge. I bought it for use for my plein aire sessions, but it fit the bill quite nicely here. Whatever the cartridge holds, takes to the fabric pretty well.

The final obstacle came when I was trying to mount this silk painting on canvas and discovered that ink and color was coming off the fabric. Back to the drawing board, literally!

I need to use the silk that my friend gave me.

Let The Sunshine In

2011-09-14T10:07:00.001-07:00

Traditionally we have to mount paintings done on Xuan to a substrate for viewing and display.
I have explored substrates like canvas ( my Xuan-boo technique) and Wonderboard to benefit from their textures.

The matrimony of water soluble pigments and ink and the translucent Xuan produces a lush and ethereal feeling. One way to exploit this characteristic is to NOT mount the Xuan. This is best done by allowing light to peek through from behind the Xuan, adding another dimension to the viewing experience.

I did a painting of aquatic and atmospheric scenery. For the rays, I employed the "minus" technique.
I used a wet clean brush to go over the freshly painted areas repeatedly to take away (minus) from the saturation.

Here is a look of the work in ambient light.

Here is a look of the same work when put against a window.

I used a float frame for this dramatic effect. Reminds me of the stained class works.

The Frustrated Apprentice

2011-09-13T16:56:00.000-07:00

Some people would differentiate art from craft in that the former requires originality on top of the skills which are required by the latter. Hence learning by rote runs the risk of asphyxiating one's inspirations, and railroading one into unimpassioned styles.
But how else are we going to learn? Hopefully from the works of great masters. Here again, " great " is in the eye of the beholder. We must have a good core before we can sprout our wings.

The following is a glimpse of tree trunks painted by a Ming Dynasty master, followed by the works of a frustrated apprentice.

As we can see, the second photo insert showed basically the same form, yet exhibited no "life" to the brushstrokes. This is especially evident towards the top of the trees, where little branches are formed.

In Chinese brush painting, the terms "Chi" or "Li" describes force and strength and spirit and energy.
It is a concept that refuses to be explained, especially to the casual observer. Mumbo jumbo, exclaimed the ignorant. I often pose the question, what is the difference between a stationary live snake and a dead one? They both possess the exact same morphology. Yet somehow the live one portrays life. Perhaps the muscular tension exerted to each pair of ribs gave that away, or was it the turgid appearance a living organism, however subtle. What we are aspiring for is the stored potential energy in a brush stroke. Each stroke should exude the feeling not of a wet noodle, but of a drawn bow ready to flex.

Here is work done by a Qing Dynasty master. The brushstrokes here are rather colorful and free spirited.

Frustration in trying to decipher the strokes, the force needed, and the correct dry/wet brush. All these considerations dialed in too much damper to the hand and mind machinery, resulting in stencil like babbling.

Getting a little better.

Throw your caution to the wind. The exact likeness is not there, but the strokes are effervescing with "Chi".

"So now you tell me, "copying" does not mean "copying", or does it? " says the frustrated apprentice.
"Paint me a live snake", says the master.

The Dark Side

2011-09-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

I found a picture of a painting by some artist in the Ming Dynasty. The painting is deceptively simple, willow branches. What can be more difficult than drawing lines?

This piece of work is inspirational because of its simple premise..lines, brush strokes. We understand that Chinese brush painting has inextricable ties to calligraphy. My challenge now is to learn how to write this painting.

Examination of the painting quickly tells me two main branches (the 2 with the darkest ink tone) reside at the middle to right of the page, accompanied by another branch with slightly lighter ink tone to the far left. The spatial arrangement of these branches is most elegant. The "Shu" "Mi" ( sparse and dense) contrast is poetic. The weight of the painting seems to be at the top, since it is tracing back to the virtual main trunks, yet the flow of the juvenile branches are like dancing thunder bolts, emitting tangible energy. The casts in this painting must migrate towards gravity, yet be suspended by the lack of which.

The brush strokes are deliberate and expressive. One can discern the attacks of side-tip strokes by the sharp edges of the delta at the beginning of each stroke, and witness their eventual transformation to straight tipped diminuendos. So effortless and yet labored with punch. The artist was able to "write" this regal piece with feathery aplomb.

Typical downfalls in trying to emulate this painting include the following:
(note red circles in the pictures)

An example of overkill, trying too hard to depict the curly weaves

Hiccup strokes, lifting the brush at inappropriate times, too anxious to taper off

Inappropriate line widths, having no control on the pressure applied to the brush, usually a consequence of too much speed

Inappropriate "SHU" and "MI", the branches are too evenly distributed.

And I give up! Have another drink!

The dilemma is that if we pay too much attention on each brush stroke, we seem to miss out on addressing spatial presentation and spontaneity in the strokes and the result could be quite stoic.
The drawbacks of learning by rote is that we often forget what our mission is. Fundamentally, we need to have good technique and patience. There are no short cuts. After we've acquired the basics, then we can begin to analyse and "read" a painting, understand it and emulate it and learn from the process. I like to take a segue by stating that I've been accused of keeping bad company, i.e. I did not pick good paintings to learn from. I need a cleansing from my rote learning!

I know of people who would lay their Xuan over images to copy them. To them the "authentic likeness" is of sole importance. We must understand that the painting does not represent only ONE moment, but a continuum of frames. My mentor always said painting is like dancing, a string of motions. Don't get caught up in a "pose" captured by the flashlight. That "pose" does not describe the dance.

"Now you tell me", quipped this sophomoric individual. His frustration was obvious, only to have his ignorance fueled by the desire of Ra men instant noodles.

For all of us who appreciate this art form, don't go over to the Dark Side, albeit tempting. Don't be a Faustian, the reward is picayune.

Multnomah Falls Again?????

2011-08-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

It is one of those days, hot and muggy.

As I picked up my feet and placed one in front of the other, dodging the red dragonflies that had wandered into my path, I kept counting, almost audibly to myself, the numbers of switchbacks I had taken. It was a steep and steady climb, perhaps the grades were too much for my silvery brows, they were soaked. Breathe easy, I told myself. Stick your chest out, can't let other people see me panting like a dog. The sign said 11 switchbacks to the top, and I made only 4 so far.

The familiar lapping sound nudged me onwards.

As I closed the distance to the next turnaround, I felt the air charged exclusively with negative ions; there was this freshness that automatically invited my lungs to expand. Out of the corner of my eyes, just beyond my eyelashes, framed by the sentries of trees, a silver ribbon was fluttering downwards; flaunting a few pirouettes before it disappears behind he trees. As I looked upwards towards the sky, the flanking basalt walls were featureless against the sun, decorated with a golden hue around my vision field, exacerbated by my cholesterol deposits around my pupil.

So here I am, back to painting the Multnomah Falls again.

In this attempt, I shied away from using the Falls as my main character. Rather, I am using supporting characters to frame the subject. Thus I did not want to burden the Falls with exacting accounts, but to give it a mere "presence". A presence that is sonorous and delightful. I wanted to hear the choir through the pillars of the hall; I was not interested as much in the faces of the ensemble.

Obviously I stayed away from my past mistake of placing the Falls front and center. To "write" the trees, I decided to use the tried and true techniques of the more classical eras. The near ground trees/shrubs were done using the "outlined" method. I tried to impart different types of leaves to the woods to suggest a diverse vegetation. The shapes of the leaves need not bear resemblance to the real plants; these were products of rote learning. The emphasis was to have an assortment of trees and to be able to establish a spatial relationship of the bodies.

The "outlined" trunks and leaves transitioned to a "boneless" method of portraying for the more distant objects. This technique is used quite frequently in Chinese landscape paintings.

My design was to have a very dark outer ring of details to contrast the empty spaces ( the falls). In order that the darks are not too heavy and covered up details, I layered in my dark values on the back of the Xuan paper. I also wanted to leaves and trunks in the foreground to retain that translucent quality, so the colors were mixed with alum to give them more of a resist property. The tree trunks were meant to be empty spaces, to contrast them sharply with the dark background. Unfortunately the "dark side" was too intense and the "force" was not with me,so now they look tinted, which is still acceptable, albeit not what I had planned.

I had to go over the "outlines" a few times to revive the lines lest they get buried under all the stains. This "going over" is actually kind of a boo boo in Chinese brush painting. This is akin to "touching up" and it takes away the spontaneity and the expressiveness of the brush strokes. I really need to practice on my patience............ do a light outline, just enough to start the painting, and then finish with the dark brush strokes just once, as the final act.

Multnomah Falls Impression

2011-08-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

After my last attempt, which was a more Xieyi (expressive) interpretation of Multnomah Falls, I decided to carry that momentum a bit further. I wanted to express motion and spatial relationship with more of a "presence" than descriptions of details. The following picture was my attempt in this endeavor.

Not everybody has been to the Falls or seen pictures of it. So I decided to play it up a little. I used blue streaks to create the upper cliffs. The streaks were done so that they themselves resemble moving water.

The blue wash was mixed with alum applied side tip fashion onto Xuan. Alum functions as a sizing
agent, helps to delineate the brush strokes; makes the brush strokes more vivid in the sea of blue wash.  Thus we have a laminar flow of blue ribbons, rounding the corner to flow into the hour-glass void below. A grayish overlay is then applied over the blue streaks. The grey wash was again created by using alum solution as diluent.   This was done to prevent the wash from totally blending into one big flat surface. I wanted stroke marks to show up a little better, simulating the horizontal crevasses in the cliff wall.    These marks also helped to suggest interruptions in the stream ( even though the grey area is not the stream ) and gave an illusion of motion.
The actual narrow ribbon of upper fall was again painted with alum first to establish a base layer of resist, to ward off as much unintended seepage of wash as possible. At the head of the upper fall, I just held my brush and waited for the color to slowly bleed out to the desired spaces before moving on.   This controlled osmosis when executed alongside of alum sizing will create some artifacts that will indulge your ocular senses.

The hour-glass void represented the lower fall. Its shape was inspired by the exaggerated proportion of a woman's body. Imagine Marilyn Monroe coming at you with open arms, donning a black cape. Get the picture now?

The lower fall is flanked by bold side tip brushstrokes. This was my interpretation of the near scape of the land. The hour glass shaped lower fall was again defined by the use of alum. I was careful to not make the entire structure black. I took time to make sure I leave some white slivers in them, so they can breathe.

I wish I had done the bridge in a more Xieyi fashion. More nonchalant, more expressive. Right now it looked too stiff.    I was pushing it too much.
There you have it. Multnomah Falls, Impression!

Oregon Coast

2011-07-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

Well this piece is not exactly what one would call Chinese brush painting. The only role the Chinese brush had was to lay the foundation of the jetty, the beach and the sky. I particularly like the effect on the jetty by the way. This was done on water color paper; and I really like the texture. I also helps by laying down the different tones on paper so I can concentrate on building the details.

The brush work was done mainly with ink with indigo for the water and the sky; and ink with burnt sienna for the foreground.

I then work out the details with charcoal. My skill level did not allow me to do the rolling crests on Xuan paper. I had difficulty creating just the right empty spaces for the waves, so I resorted to charcoal on watercolor paper.

I found the eraser to be my Best Friend for this painting!!

"Multnomah Fall" Chinese Style

2011-07-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

It is no secret that I am not happy with my Multnomah Fall painting and have attempted some remodeling to the painting. Yet I am still bitten by the bug.

I've decided to try to depict the fall more as a presence than as a specimen. I employed simple lines.
I created 3 stages, the near, the middle and the far. The learn by rote training came into play. It wasn't too difficult to snatch different scenes from repeated practices.

The near scene enjoys the darkest lines and is shacked with the most details. Trees are done in the outlined style, sort of. The middle stage cradles the bridge and the lower fall, which then empties into the creek. The far scene is staged by the upper fall, flanked by sentinels of straight cliffs. The fog and mists at the bottom of these cliffs are used to push them way back, further away from the rest of the masses. I should note that in the original draft, I felt the width of the lower fall was too wide. I cleverly turned the right edge of the lower fall into a steep embankment, effectively narrowing the spillway.

I kept the color scheme simple. The indigo blue was used mainly for effect. The cold color helped to foster distance, yet adding punch to the painting.

I did the frame a little different from the traditional way. Instead of an assembly of 4 sides, I skillsawed an opening into a plank of pine to accommodate the canvas. The pine is finished in gold to render an "antique" look.

This piece was submitted to a Calligraphy and Painting competition hosted by the Confucius Institute.
Whereas I have not received any notices from the Institute, I am very happy to see my work poted as the promotional piece on their main page under the C and P category.
http://promotion2011.chinese.cn/index.php

Pear Flower

2011-06-29T00:34:00.000-07:00

I must have stared at my Chinese Pear trees for the last 10 years, each year contemplating whether to thin the pear blossoms or not. I was told thinning the blossoms will give me bigger pears. As it is my pears are tiny, but abundant. In fact so many of them fell to the ground each year that it seemed such a waste.
Fortunately the Canadian geese have developed a taste for them now and they are helping themselves to juicy (fermented?) pears on the ground in the Fall.

This year I decided to paint my Pear blossom, ala En Plein Air. As I am also studying Chinese calligraphy, I thought it would opportune myself to "write" each petal. I would attempt to write each blossom with my Chinese brush, with infinite patience, and observation, and different brush strokes.

I am also doing this painting on my calligraphy paper. I was told this paper is made of bamboo fibers and is colored yellow. Not unlike the toilet papers that I remembered growing up. The paper is very absorbent and "honest", in that it captures faithfully your brush stroke. Unlike ordinary Xuan, it is not good in recording shades of grey, but it excels in reporting the sharp edges and streaks rendered by your brush.

I picked this subject matter because each petal is akin to writing a "dot" in Chinese calligraphy. Not necessary round, but some requires you to hide the tip, while others demands a parade of tips and hooks and twists. Intriguing indeed. Thus I spent quite a few days, sitting in the backyard, painting on my picnic table. A tedious process, for I am not a patient individual. A rewarding process, for the finished work is one that I could be proud of.

Finished painting is 16 in x 16 in, mounted on Canvas, ala Xuan-Boo style.

Etude

2011-06-25T00:15:00.000-07:00

Examples of Landscape practice pieces. I intend to use some of these as instructional materail. Why not? Write a blog and be able to use it for teaching...... I guess this is what you would call killing two birds with one stone.

Gou, Chuen, Ts'a, R'an

2011-06-24T00:14:00.000-07:00

Gou, Chuen, Ts'a, R'an are the 4 required elements to execute a Chinese brush landscape painting.
This is a continuation of my last 2 blogs; "Stone Paper Scissors" where we tried to make sense of all the lines that are associated with rocks and mountains, and " What Chuen" where we delved into the application of texture to the object.

The loose translation for these 4 elements are as follows:

Gou means to outline, to scribe. This is the process when we lay down the initial outline of the landscape. The requirement for this element is that the line must not be "drawn", and must be "written." The line must possess the quality of change, from start to finish. The viewer has to be able to feel the variations in brush speed, pressure, center or side tip. Hence "GOU" carries the connotation of not tracing but etching and carving.

After we have the outline done, it is time to garnish it with "Chuen" and this is the process when we can provide a qualitative description of the texture of the landscape. In this particular example, I've used mainly the "AXE" chuen and a little bit of the "HEMP" chuen.

After texture is provided, we provide the the painting with "Ts'a"
Ts'a means scrub or rub. This is when we used a very dry brush to rub the landscape to give it a general sense of texture. This texture is quite generic, unlike the more specific axe or hemp chuen.
The Ts'a process is often mingled with the Chuen process. As one is laying down the more specific texture, one can also add the non specific texture. In a way the Ts'a process can be deemed a prelude to shading. The important thing to remember is the Ts'a still requires the artist to follow brush strokes, paying attention to using either the tip or the belly of the brush, or both. This is definitely not a random, omnidirectional wild circles of shading.

The last element of landscape painting is R'an, which means to dye (wash), to shade. This is the time when we use a very diluted ink wash to accentuate the shaded areas of the landscape, to effect a more 3-dimensional presentation of the work. It is important to note that the R'an process must be done with patience. It is only after repeated attempts to selectively augment the strategic areas of the landscape, each time with different dilutions of the ink solution, does one succeed in a painting that is pleasing to the eye.

This patience has to be tethered with experience for the effort not to be futile. Xuan paper gives off a false and exaggerated saturation profile when wet. For beginners ( and impatient journeymen alike), the wet Xuan seems to function like an abyss, where it will take up a large amount of ink and showed little difference in the apparent "blackness" until it is irreversibly too late.

This is an example of a wet Xuan, The R'an seems more saturated than it really is, giving one a false sense of security.

The above picture is the same as the wet Xuan picture, except that now it has dried. As one can see, the really dark areas are no longer pitch black. Thus for those of us who are not patient, we will try to attain this with one step, one layer of R'an and that often ends up in overkill, and renders the painting rather unnatural.

(example of color added)

At this point, some artist like to give the painting an overall wash, often times with the brush wash, to give the painting a more coordinated look. Many artists dislike this process, for it tends to take away the "punch" of the painting.

If one chooses to add color to the painting, now is the time. Color often is considered a distraction, and is typically not applied until the painting is deemed satisfactory and coud be presented as a black and white on its own merits.

What "Chuen"

2011-05-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

Interestingly enough, when What "Chuen" is translated into Chinese and pronounced in the Cantonese dialect, pronounced "mud chuen", it carries the connotation of WTF......naughty, naughty.

After this tidbit of irrelevancy, let's get down to business and explore "chuen".

"Chuen" can be loosely translated as the act of applying texture to an object (could be tree trunks, rocks, hills etc.). Since the cardinal rule of brush painting says one should apply "chuen" more in the shaded areas, and since the manifestation of light values in classical Chinese Brush painting is less evident, a lot of people mistake "chuen" as the equivalent of shading.

Historically there are many different methods, or styles of "chuen", and "chuen" can be done with dots or lines. The different "chuen" imparts a different description of the object. Let us explore the more common ways of "chuen". Please refer to my last blog Stone, Paper, Scissors to see the relationship between "chuen" lines and contour lines.

First is the Hemp chuen. This is typically a dash initiated with a tapered point. Think of this as a hemp fiber, with one end kneaded and ready to be threaded through a needle.

Hemp chuen

An embellished version of this is the Unravelled Ribbon chuen. This can be best described as a bunch of Hemp chuen in close proximity to each other, as if a ball of ribbons of hemp fibers in unravelling.

The "chuen" can be done in any orientation... vertically, horizontally, sideways, etc.

Then we have the Lotus Leaf Vein chuen. As the name implies, this style mimics the veins of the lotus leaf. It is a effective way of animating the topography of a landscape, giving the viewer a perspective of the ridge tops and valleys and lobes.

Finally, we have the Axe chuen. This style is used to document straight line fractures, fissures commonly seen in granites or lime stone layers. Imagine swinging an axe into a hard surface. The resulting sharp edge and the splintering along the sharp edge defines this method of "chuen". It is done by using a dry ink brush laying on its belly with a sharp rubbing.

To witness how these different "chuen" are applied to a real painting, I like to borrow a magnum opus from the late Master Zhang Da-qian; his Lu Shan painting. (painting of Mt. Lu)

Please click on the pictures to enlarge them so you can see the pasted remarks.

The final picture below shows the segment of the painting where I borrowed as examples to illuminate the concept and application of "chuen".

Hopefully we have all gained a little bit of insight into contour lines and "chuen" lines by now, and we won't be uttering "what chuen" (tongue in cheek) when we are asked to write a landscape painting.

Stone, Paper, Scissors

2011-05-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

I am going to delve more in depth with painting rock(stone) or hills(mountains). I have discussed this topic briefly in my "Ridge top Explained" and I hope to use more illustrations to explain away the fear of tackling this discipline.

Hills and rocks are the backbones of Chinese landscape painting. When we consult the bible of classical Chinese Brush Painting, the "Mustard Seed Garden", we would be told that to paint rocks(hills) we have to convey the 3 facets of the rock. We have to demonstrate that the rock possesses energy(ambiance) to form the backbone of the universe. The ability to express this quality depends on the artist's expertise in rendering the personality of the rock(hill, mountain). Thus the Alps would flaunt the soaring chiseled lines that inspire awe, and the Appalachians with its soft and open embrace. This blog however, is not to discuss how to depict the temperament of the landscape, but rather on how to physically render the lines of a rock(hill, mountain). By the way, a lot of us who learned to paint the traditional way, learned by the method of rote, and our reference book is the Mustard Seed Garden.

In this art form of traditions, it is prescribed as to how to group together multitudes of rocks (or multitudes of hills, land masses). It is suggested that aestheticism is attained if these rules are followed. Therefore when we paint 5 rocks, it would be most pleasing if we place them according to the bottom arrangement.

The MSG (Mustard Seed Garden..... not monosodium glutamate !!) also stipulates that the contour lines of the rocks(hills, mountains) should be done with stops and rests abundant. The lines need to show variations in ink tones, speed and direction. We then adorn the contour lines with "chuen" (rubbing technique, to describe texture) and shading, thus we are able to form the 3 facets of a rock, i.e. a 3 dimensional reveal of the landmass.

To have a clear conceptual picture of a rock(stone, hill, mountain) I used a stack of left over mat boards and cut them into the profile of a hill, hence the title Stone,Paper, Scissors. As I found out these boards are too much of a match for ordinary scissors, so I cheated by using my Dremel. Each piece of mat board now represents one slice of this landmass, and the aggregate stack of all these pieces gives you the 3 dimensional form.

As I carved away with my Dremel, the straight edges represent the center tip strokes of the brush, and the beveled edge exemplifies the side tip stroke. Thus the outline of each piece is analogous to the "contour line" that we shall paint, and the twist and turn of the cuts, mixed with the straight and beveled edges represent the requirement of varied speed, hesitation, center tip and side-tip strokes.

Now with this contraption, I can stack these cut-outs in any fashion I wanted to acquire the desired morphology of the land mass.

By placing a piece of paper ( I used a hardy typing paper instead of the flimsy Xuan) against this stack and rubbing it with charcoal or crayon or just a pencil in this case, I transferred the profile of this structure onto the paper. Each line that is transcribed represents a "contour line" of our make believe rock(hill).

By selectively erasing all or part of these "contour lines" we now have a drawing that is made up of longer, more complete "contour lines" that describes the profile, and short, broken lines (which are remnants of the original "contour lines") now helping to highlight or accentuate the characteristics of the mass, and these now become our "chuen lines".

I shall now go over these pencil markings with ink and brush and the resulting image is more reminiscent of what we see in traditional Chinese landscape painting.

The preceding is an attempt to dissect the construction of all the lines that make up a rock(hill, mountain) and to entertain the relationship of "contour line" and "chuen line" when applied to the subject matter. Obviously we do not paint this way, but this is a good tool for forming a mental image of what we are trying to accomplish on paper. Thus for the novice, the brush strokes have at least a purpose and methodology to it, hence Bi-Fa. And of course for the viewer, a better comprehension of what is involved.

PAIN

2011-04-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

The post at hand is not about Bi-Fa, nor composition, nor methodology, nor scatter point perspective, but is about our conversation to the audience, the emotional content of our work.

I assume we paint for different reasons, fun, self-expression, commercial endeavor. Occasionally we find a piece of work that makes a connection, not only with ourselves, but with the audience. We might be painting something because that is what everybody else is doing, or some great master was doing that in the past and we try to emulate their works, their styles. We might get the technique down, but the work is silent, like a perfect mannequin, well proportioned, great poses, but lifeless.

I did this painting when I was dealing with some personal problems. Yes I did it with Chinese brushes just because that's all I have in my sushi blanket. I painted it on the back side of a piece of paper that came with a frame. The paper that had a generic wedding picture printed on it. My "wants" at that moment was to find a conduit to release my emotions..... the choice of medium was not my concern. (fortunately I did not release that on a person :-

I had absolutely no idea of what I was doing. There was no technique, composition, color wheel, nothing.
I had some faint idea of where to paint in shadows etc. to show the contours, and that was about it. When I finished the "unleashing" process, I found the dabbling to be dark and full of tension. I had no idea that I painted a person of unknown gender and that the wine bottle and glass was not symmetrical and all that. I was not going to make any alterations. I just wanted to let the dabbling stand, as a witness to that particular moment of my life. Perhaps I had given the title "PAIN" to the painting, I was getting some feedbacks, some voyeuristic inquisitions from my acquaintances as to the circumstances ..... but I wasn't going to reveal my innermost secrets.

A dabbling with no aspirations or pretension to be a piece of art somehow is making a few chattering. The only explanation I have is because it is not only raw, but brutally honest. I have also been accused of painting a nude in this painting. If I did, where did I hide it...................................

Remedy for "Multnomah Fall"

2011-03-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

The more I looked at the "Multnomah Fall" painting, the more I was itching to do something about it. As I mentioned in the blog, it was the bilateral symmetry that really bothered me. I made the painting look like an insert for a tourist guide, or something I lifted from a photograph ( those of you who know me, know how I feel about painting from a photograph..... the resulting work is often 2 dimensional; without a soul)

(before remedy)

Since the painting was already mounted on canvas, there wasn't a whole lot that I could have done, else I made the Xuan paper too moist and it would wrinkle again and become separated from the canvas.

I used jet black ink to go over the "chuen" again on the left hand side, to try to increase the density of that area. I did the same for the trees on the right hand side; to add more body to the foliage and to mask the lower black line of the lower fall even better.

At the same time, I added the bright greenish yellow moss on the rock surface. I did that with my worn brush, using the "split hair" technique. The moss added some realism to the scene ( hinted the area of the water spray), but most importantly it imparted a lighter color to the back walls, thus helping to pull the background further away from the foreground.

To add a little bit of drama, I put in a few circling birds. I needed to cover up the messy ink splashes in the sky anyways ( my trade-mark ).

(after remedy)

Now that I am pleased with the remedy, I went ahead and sealed the painting with a gel medium. The gel makes the painting water resistant and as an added bonus, helps to bring out the depth of the color and recovers some the lost vibrancy.

The changes were minor and not obvious, yet they helped to restore some balance to the painting. I am biased, obviously, since I am the architect behind all this, but it is my sincere hope that the correct remedy was applied.

Scatter Brain revisited

2011-03-12T20:38:00.000-08:00

In my Scatter Brain blog, I mentioned that I got carried away from my original premise, which was a blurry vision of a bridge ( I used a Flying Dutchman to describe it) set against a lily pond. Well this brew had been fermenting in my brain for quite a while now. I finally decided to do something about it. This time it will be a little more impressionistic, more provocative than descriptive.

To accentuate the "Flying Dutchman", I decided to use a simple warm tone to achieve an overall personality of the painting. I shall then play with my light values within the confines of this monotone. I shall paint the lily pads with a saturated tone to set against the foggy image of the bridge and the sky. I wanted to take advantage of the high contrast neck of the Canadian geese, which complements the flow of the leaves. Cloud drafts or rain streaks would be used to break up the vast blank space of the sky. I worked out these details on a plain typing paper.

Everything pretty much went according to plan. I was being real patient with the sky/background, so I took my time and stained it quite a few times, intensifying the effect as I went. Rain streaks was difficult to lay down on moist Xuan. The streaks would diffuse out too much, so I was happy to make do with light beams peeking through the low clouds.

(note the flying geese)

Everything went fine until Murphy paid me a visit. Whilst I was being careful and patient with my washes, I inadvertently splashed some ink onto the sky. Normally I could blot that off when it was fresh, but I made

the discovery too late; the ink had fixed. My innovative brain told me to paint something to hide those splashes. But what? How about a few Canadian geese flying overhead; they would tie in with the pair in the pond nicely. The problem is that the ink splashes were so much darker than the sky, so I had to paint my flying geese much darker than I would prefer. I tried to paint in a few dark clouds but they seemed out of place After a few attempts, I decided that I better quit while I was ahead. I felt that I was making the painting worse instead of better, all because of Murphy.

Finally when I mounted the Xuan on canvas, I left all the creases and wrinkles in. The painting had that feel and look of an antique painting, and I believe these minute details addsto the ambiance of the painting, albeit not readily perceptible.

(wrinkled Xuan on canvas)

In the end, I am not displeased with this piece of work. This style of work is particularly suited for the Xuan on canvas mounting. You really get the benefit of watercolor wash/diffuse effect spliced into the feel of canvas. In fact I like this one a whole lot better than my original bridge on lotus pond. Now I just have to get busy making a frame for this piece of work.

Small Wonders

2011-03-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

The kids, whom I mentored at their art club at a middle school showed some pretty amazing works. We started out by learning a little bit about Chinese brush painting. They were introduced to the brush and Xuan paper for the first time. I picked the subject matter of bamboo because it harbors the most basic form of the brush stroke. The bamboo helps to hone a person's skill on using the center tip; along with varying pressure and ink tone and moisture content, the practitioner can achieve many "happy accidents".

By mentoring these young citizens, I hoped to dispel the notion of China Town art. I did not want it to be paint by numbers. Nor did I want it to be stencil work. At the very minimum, I wanted the kids to appreciate the techniques involved in using the center tip to effect different shapes. Of course kids at this age are a little bit too tender to deal with the so called "virtues" of the bamboo. Nonetheless, I brought in a live bamboo branch so they could have a first hand tactile connection with the subject. It is my theory that if you can "feel" it, that feeling can sublime into your work. My emphasis for these kids was energy over form. The form would come if one becomes more proficient with the brush, but the spirit still needs to be manifested.

We also did our own mounting of the finished painting. This allows the first timers to experience the entire process of creating a painting and preserving it. Interestingly one of the kids inadvertently tore her painting into halves during the mounting process and was a little distraught. I was able to mend the halves, perhaps an opportune time to demonstrate how to overcome obstacles, and to remedy mistakes. Nah, I wasn't that noble, but there is some truth in what I said.

Finally I showed the kids how to cut mats. I threw in a math problem in the process. I had the kids calculate the width of the margins, given the size of the mat and the size of the opening. I wanted them to be able to at least present their mounted paintings in a matted format, to be able to show off to their parents and friends. Most importantly, however, is to be able to build a positive self esteem. To have a sense of accomplishment. And accomplished, they have!!

The accompanying pictures are some of the finished works. (the ones not shown are not because they are not up to snuff, but rather the kids were eager to take them home, before I had a chance to take pictures !) One must appreciate them not by technical merits ( they had maybe 40 minutes of training ) but from the perspective of a maiden voyage into an alien creative field.

Bamboo Tutorial continued

2011-02-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

The painting I took to class was very two dimensional and lifeless. Somehow it looked like a manikin. I suppose it was sufficient for instructional purposes. I figured since I do not paint bamboo that often, I needed the practice. I ended up with the one shown above.

I attempted with different ink tones to show the spatial relationship of the different stems and leaves. The bold ink color of the lower vertical stem gave anchor to the painting and helped to defuse the parallel lines.

My painting colleague had this critique............. a weak left flank.

But I had already mounted the painting. Any alteration now will disturb the sandwiched starch layer and cause the paper to warp. Oh what the hell, it's only a piece of paper.

Armed with concentrated ink right out of the bottle, and a very dry brush ( really too dry to paint bamboo leaves, but I had few options), I attempted to build on the left side.

One thing is for sure, this painting has more spunk than the one in the last blog.

I had to do another class demo, so I tried my hands at bamboo again. This time paying a little bit more attention to contrast and harmony. The more noded stem has denser and adhering leaves, versus the less noded stem with sparse leaves that hang away from the main stem. More or Less.

Finally, the painting is cropped and mounted on canvas, and I even made a frame for it.

P.S. For more material on bamboo leaves, please watch video on my blog on Bamboo Leaves and Pronation published on Oct 29, 2011.

Bamboo Tutorial

2011-02-25T11:13:00.000-08:00

I admitted to not being proficient in painting bamboo. My excuse was that this was not my genre of work; I prefer landscape paintings. Thus when I was taking lessons, I skimmed over this topic as much as I could.
Now that I am giving lessons and mentoring, the table had turned. I understood that despite its apparent simplicity, the bamboo painting encompasses a lot of the basic brush stroke techniques and aesthetic arrangement and the importance of ink tones. It is now my job to try to convey and convince others that the simple bamboo is nothing to sneeze at.

I often expressed my dislike for "stencil" work, i.e. painting with all the rules and prescribed composition that the resulting work lacks spunk. But how else should I pass on the basics of a bamboo painting?
I needed to demonstrate the nodes on the main stems. I needed to note that the segments are shorter towards the base. I needed to point out that the little branches grow on alternate sides of each node. I needed to explain how the leaves are grouped together. I needed to .................................

Segments grew longer as the plant grows taller.

I had to deal with this dichotomy of being compliant and original at the same time. I thought the best way to do this is by showing the real examples of the bamboo, rather than someone else's work of what a bamboo looks like. So I took a lot of pictures of bamboo, all the while trying to categorize the characteristics of a bamboo painting.

Branches grow on alternate sides of stem

Bamboo leaves

A live model

These photographs were used as teaching material for my adult students. For my younger middle-school kids I used an actual plant. The tactile experience, along with the visual cues, help the younger audience to comprehend the subject matter a little better.

Sample painting I took to class for middle -school kids

Fortune Birds

2011-02-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

I am just playing with words in Chinese. The pronunciation of "SIX" and "FORTUNE" in the Cantonese dialect is the same. Hence the Chinese Title of " Fortune Birds Singing" rather than "Six Birds Singing". After all, who does not desire fortune, especially around New Year's time.

I chanced upon this photo on the net that showed some finches. I liked the photo because it showed the birds in various attitudes of attention. The picture claimed no copy right and in fact welcome other users to find good uses for it.

So I decided to arrange the birds on a tree branch.

I wanted to capture more than the different personalities. I wanted to create a subtle tension... the fact that 5 birds have occupied one section of the branch, and the odd bird is off to the side, trying to assimilate, or lure?

So I produced this sketch as my practice sheet.

I painted in the birds first, and completely finish them before I put the branch in. This way the tree branch can better hug the birds and minimizes the embarrassment of having to make a sitting bird stand! As a last step, I used the brush wash as a final wash for the whole painting, leaving the center brighter, creating a focus area. Brush wash is used because it captures the colors that I have used, and would be naturally in tune with the painting. I intend to mount this in the Xuan-Boo style. I am trying extremely hard to not crowd the painting by adding flowers or bamboos as commonly done. I want this to be a simple and elegant painting. Less is More!

As a post-script, when I finally get to make the frame for this painting, I decided to give it an "antique" look. The painted frame was sanded down to reveal the primer and bare wood. I admit that this is gimmicky, but it lends itself pretty well to this occasion. It only took me 7 months to figure this out.

Happy New Year Year of the Rabbit

2011-02-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

Wishing you a

Safe, Prosperous, and Peaceful

New Year

Multnomah Falls continued

2011-01-28T11:11:00.000-08:00

After weeks of piling on more pigments on the rocks an adding "chuen" (texture), I grew more and more unhappy with my lower fall.

Unlike the upper fall, where I was able to reveal some of the spraying and pulsating energy of the water, I have painted in 2 parallel dark lines into the bottom fall. What was I thinking.

I pulled out my cardboard framing borders and was trying to see where I should cut the Xuan paper so that I could pretend that the mistake never happened. Then I thought about an old trick that I've described in my previous blogs..... using a transparency.

I fashioned a few trees using white titanium (for better contrast against the dark background) on this piece of transparency, such that I could move this about the painting and see the best placement to obscure the parallel lines.

Once I have the location finalized, I can now paint in the trees for real. This transparency trick allows me to figure out the placement and size of add-ons without having to commit to it.

I've added 3 spectators to the bridge just to warm this painting up a little bit.

I am not totally happy with the overall feel of this painting. There isn't enough of a contrast between the front and the back. I am afraid to make the front look too dark or I would lose the details on the rocks. The other option is to darken the back, but that would regress my nice rock walls , which I thought is quite dramatic. Besides, I thought my foreground is too dark for this set-up. But wait, I have one more option. Since I am going to be mounting this piece of Xuan on canvas (as in my Xuan-Boo technique), I can play with my canvas gesso colors to see if I can remedy my front to back contrasts.

What I do like is that I have at least tried to establish a yin an yang contrast. I painted trees on alternate sides of the fall, to avoid a bilateral symmetry. I've painted the left side lighter than the right and highlighted the trees such that illumination is from above. I've tried to create contrasts within each sector of the painting.

I'll post my painting again after it is mounted and framed.

Like I said, come hell or high water, I've done it!

Multnomah Falls

2011-01-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

Multnomah Falls is a hot spot in the scenic Columbia River Gorge.
I have wanted to paint this image for over 3 years now. A night scene ? A snow scene? How about a perspective from the top? My apprehension is that I don't think I can portray the Falls with my present stage of craftsmanship. So I procrastinated.

Well 2011 is upon us. I am not one to make any New Year's resolutions, but here is one. I am going to paint the Falls, come hell or high water.

As in most of my work, I lay down the basic premise in medium tone ink.

I am trying for a perspective that is looking up to the top of the Fall.
I have contemplated in doing the scattered focal point perspective that is utilized in so many Chinese landscape paintings, but I must confess that I am having difficulty applying it here. So here comes hell.

After the basic skeleton is constructed, I am working on "chuen" (adding texture) and shading, to give my work a more 3 dimensional feel.

More shading is done, and also an initial layer of vermilion is deposited. This works to depict the high lighted areas of the rocks, and also blends well with the subsequent burnt sienna, ink and indigo that I'll be piling on the rocks.

The water itself is the blank space, brought to light by the dark contrasting margins.

Tradition, Tradition !

2011-01-23T16:56:00.000-08:00

No I am not Tevye. Isn't Fiddler On The Roof a wonderful piece of work!

In teaching my students about the basics of brush strokes, and Chinese Brush Painting in general, I cannot circumvent some fundamental painting techniques. To make my case more poignant, I have to fall back on a favorite subject matter, the orchid. Orchid is tauted as one of the 4 "PALS" in Chinese painting, possessing the virtue of lady like elegance and arrogance.

There is a very hierarchical way of depicting orchid. The insert is a page from my instructional material.

The lower half of the diagram dissects the composition of the orchid leaves. It has to have a "master" leaf and a "slave" leaf and these two casts a general orientation of the plant. The "master" and the "slave" leaves must form a "phoenix eye" at the base. A third leaf ( No. 3 in the diagram) must break out from this "phoenix eye" to dictate the height of the plant. In other words, if these 3 elements are not arranged in this prescribed fashion, then the painting is a failed one, or the artist has not done his/her homework.

Such conformity to "Tradition" in a way stifles the advancement of Chinese Brush Painting. At the very least, it lends to create the impression that Chinese brush paintings seem to copy each other. This is especially confusing with the influx of mass produced pieces of "art". Yet if the artist was to be divorced from this tradition, then he/she could be inviting a brow beating.

My intention here to neither to advocate, nor to destroy adherence to "rules". I am just trying to stir up discussion as to what is deemed "correct" or "incorrect", especially for the new enthusiasts in Chinese Brush Painting. I encourage you to find your own orchids in the library, at your local galleries and research on the net and see for yourself.

Xanadu Part 2

2010-12-15T15:45:00.000-08:00

I've decided to revise my Xanadu painting a little bit. I wanted to see if I could make it less "rigid" and perhaps more impressionistic. I also wanted a wide angle presentation to facilitate a feeling of not being on a leash.

The above picture is my attempt at that goal. The picture was taken when the Xuan paper was still wet, thus the colors were more saturated.

The next photo shows the same painting with calligraphy on it. The writing is better than the original Xanadu, but in touching up a tree in the foreground, I made the lines too busy. Wish I had controlled my OCD

a little better.

O Well.

As the image of hills and streams still churns in my cranium, I very quickly grabbed my brush and used whatever happened to be in my color dish and plotted out a mountainous mass with flowing lines as the liquid companion. I basked in the initial delight of painting something altogether different, but quickly succumbed to the O Too Bland syndrome. Found my split hair brush and started to plant my trees here and there, which ruined the "unleashed" feel of the painting. This need for decoration caused me to write with more distinct edges in my calligraphy. The resulting fonts perhaps seemed more curvaceous, but appeared to be anorexic.

Life is a process of reincarnating events. An initial attempt in painting a tranquil misty coastal forest led me to a chance encounter of a poem that mentioned Xanadu, and now this poem steered me into extracting another painting. My lament is that quite often I grasp the light bulb alright but I could not make it shine. I have maintained that a good painting is the amalgamation of a bunch of good accidents. Yes I am a disciple of fate, and I shall patiently wait my turn.

Xanadu

2010-12-08T16:56:00.000-08:00

20 mph sustained easterly wind. 41 mph gusts. I kept focusing on the pine tree that is listing at a 60 degree angle in my backyard. The swaying image of the scaly red branches is morphed by the streaks of raindrops running across my window pane ........ as if watching an old VCR tape with noise on the picture.

I decided to paint something a little more tranquil!

Needless to say, trees became my subject. A forest of tall firs, punctuated by an occasional alder, bathed in a coastal shroud of fog. An initial groundwork of laying down the tracks of trees proved to be a little too harsh for my imagination. The body of trees seemed too concrete. I had loaded my brush with ink in the belly, green around the torso and bits of yellow on the shoulder for that highlight. As my brush grinds across the paper, the stops became too labored and the result was not "Xieyi" enough. Perhaps my stops were too uniform, too calculated. Something needs to be done about it.

I started to layer more colors and hues onto the green ribbons, hoping to mitigate some of the choppiness.

I have also started to paint in the main harness of some of these firs. I wanted the shape of my brush strokes to suggest a general morphology, and the specific reveal of branches to affirm the recognition. I've also decided the painting is too cold, so I warmed up the fog a bit.

The next task is trying to decide what to do with all that empty space. In my Serene Lake painting I had left the space on purpose...... in fact the whole painting was about empty space and about day dreaming but this piece somehow is not conducive to that task. I almost went for the old formula of painting a faint peak in the distance. For sure K2 would look good.    Here I am appealing to dare to deviate from the prescribed compositions, from the old decoration scheme.

I came upon this poem in my calligraphy class material, and it was written out in the cursive style. Both the font and the meaning of the poem mesh well with the painting, so I decided to use it. A rough translation of the poem is
                   The existence of angels is a myth
                   Xanadu ( or Shangri-la, euphemism ) is a farce
                   But do capture the winding waters and mountains
                   And display their beauties for all to admire

Too bad my calligraphy here sucked, and my Xieyi painting seemed too contrived, but look at this as a down payment for something better.

Southpaw

2010-11-24T22:47:00.000-08:00

Have you played Ping-Pong with a lefty and be victimized by the weird english? Do you think pitching to a left handed hitter is the same as a right-hander? Why does sinister mean left? These are interesting questions to mull over.... until you are faced with it.

My former painting teacher once confided in me his frustration with a student. He could not get the student to use the correct brush strokes, which is the foundation of Chinese brush painting. It took me almost half an hour to coax my teacher to tell me that this student is left handed. So what, you ask.

To those of you who have toyed with the Speedball nibs for calligraphy, you would understand that the natural right-handed slant of the pen, plus the nib's plane, makes the fine and thick lines of the alphabet . A left-hander would be unable to scribe these letters without turning the page 90 degrees to align the slant of the strokes with the slant of the nib.
As I ruminated on the implication of that awkward scenario, my first impression was that the brush should be exempt from that. The brush possesses no rigid plane, thus it is free to script whatever it wants to. There is nothing farther from the truth than this assumption. If we take a look at my last blog; at the picture where it showed a transition from center tip to side tip as one writes a "7", this task is done with ease for a right handed person. The brush would indeed assume a natural right slant, and we would move in the east-west axis to start out with. For a left-hander, the brush assumes the opposite slant, and would be rubbing against the direction of travel, i.e. reverse tip. The last blog "Ridgetop Explained" also suggested that the vertical "side tip" contour line describes the thickness of the object and thus for a right handed person, this is accomplished with flowing ease. For a southpaw however, this is done against the orientation of the brush hair. For a left-hander to do what we do, this person must turn the wrist completely inwards to cradle the brush, in order to achieve the same brush alignment and slant as the right handed person.

(right handed body segments)

To better illustrate this point, I used the painting of a shrimp as an example. The body of this arthropod is done with side-tip strokes; as if drawing a fat arc, with the longer radius to the right.
When I asked a left handed person to do this, the arc is painted with the opposite curvature, i.e. the longer radius now on the left side, despite the same body orientation.

(left-handed body segments)

I must say that I was ecstatic when I observed this. It validated my theory, and vindicated the left handed persons.. ....... the teacher was frustrated because he did not understand the mechanics of the hand .. ...the student was frustrated because she was either blamed for not following directions, or was told to turn the paper upside down just to comply.

What is the remedy?? The southpaw should still learn the basics and be able to execute the different brushstrokes, but also understand that most of the paintings that we take in are done by right handed people, with a right handed bias in their strokes. My solution of teaching the southpaw is that as we learn from emulating the works of ancient masters, we could flip their works along the vertical axis. Thus our right becomes their left !! I am encouraging left handed people to digitally flip the masterpieces, and then learn to paint with the same strokes. In essence, a center tip stroke that started from the left to right, turning downward and transitioning to a side-tip would now be a center tip stroke from right to left (aligning perfectly with the natural left handed slant), and transitioning to a side-tip down stroke.

Confusing? Only for a right-hander. I think the southpaws know what I am talking about.

Ridgetop Explained

2010-11-23T12:19:00.000-08:00

Now that I am done with the Portland Open Studio event and my son's wedding, I have a little more time to write my blogs. Having a student or two to teach has actually taught me a few things. The task at hand now is how to convey in a clear and succinct manner so there is an actual transfer of knowledge. We often harbor a notion, a concept that we somehow intrinsically know, but are unable to verbalize. Since so much emphasis in Chinese brush painting is placed upon Bi-Fa (method of the brush), the "don't do what I say, but do what I do" doctrine becomes an exercise in frustration.

Case in point, when painting rock formations, hilltops, mountain ridges, the beginners often copy the shapes without understanding the structure of the lines. It is not unusual for a range to look like a row of staples or horseshoes. I have sat in on classes where the instructor is unable to convey the concept of "contour" lines.

I am sure most of us have seen and understood what elevation lines represent. When we look at a topography map the elevation lines give us a description of the shape of the land. We know where the ridges and gullies are, and the relative steepness or flatness of the land. In painting a mountain range, we are just tilting the map on its side, so the elevation becomes not the height from the horizontal plane, but the distance to where we stand.

To illustrate my point, I've chiseled out a wooden block into the shape of

a mountain range. Now I have painted the " contour lines " on this block, and these lines describe the shape of the mountain ( as elevation lines describe the heights at different points on the map). When we paint these contour lines in succession, we are in effect transcribing the mountain range.

I have sliced through this block of wood into slabs to illustrate this point. The more slabs I create, the more information I am able to draw ( i.e. more contour lines ), this is akin to having more "pixels", or watching a 1080p HD program vs. the 480 lines old programming. The "chuen" lines that I have discussed in the past i.e. hemp "chuen", is merely a sliver of such a slab; thus showing just a partial contour instead of the entire shape. Therefore one can use a few strategic contour lines to describe the main shape of the range, and the "chuen" or "texture rubbing" lines to describe the minute details of the topography.

As we paint the lines with the Chinese brush, we are naturally in a "center tip" form as we traverse horizontally on paper, and as we turn the corner onto the vertical lines, the natural angle of inclination puts the brush in a "side-tip" mode automatically. That part of the line describes "thickness" of the slab that we are painting, thus unknowingly giving a 3 dimensional appearance to what we have painted.

top photo is center tip( tip is aligned with direction of travel

bottom picture is side-tip (tip is pointed at an angle to direction of travel)

Hopefully these little hints will help us attain a better understanding of Chinese landscape paintings.

Scatter Brain

2010-10-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

In this painting I wanted to paint a bridge next to a lily pond. My original premise was that the bridge is almost silhouette like, swallowed in rolling fog, like a ghost ship in vast sea. It is the lily pond in the foreground that shall work as a lead-in to the scene, and sent up the perspective and the contrast to the vessel in the back.

An issue that I have considered in painting the lily pond is that if I had painted all the stalks of wilted lilies and reeds, the viewer would be bombarded with so much information and will make the scene quite messy. This is along the same vein that I have alluded to in my Feng Sui blog.

Went back to my playbook and deployed my old trick again.....Ancient Chinese Secret Solution (alum solution). As you recall, alum solution is used for sizing paper, works like a resist in watercolor works. I therefore proceeded to paint with this alum solution to form most of the wilted lily stalks and their reflections. After the wash is laid on it, the painted alum shows up as void spaces that hints of the presence of stalks, without these discrete black lines to jam your visual cortex. What I was able to do was to create a "presence" without the usual boundaries, or harshness. I picked a few strategic locations in plant my foreground, my vivid lotus stalks. I thought that worked rather well in this setting.

What I have not followed through was the original premise. Where was my Flying Dutchman? I was too carried away in laying out the dead sticks in the pond, that my fingers toke on a life of their own and started to paint a setting sun, and trees, and a cow and .......

Before I realized it, I had embellished too much onto my painting. I got off on the wrong ramp, and how do I extricate myself now ? This is when I decided to put in highlights on some of the foliage and the back of the cow herder to playoff the setting sun. I can only lament.... what a scatter brain.

DON'T CROSS ME

2010-09-27T23:01:00.000-07:00

I was showing a beginner how to paint bamboo. This person painted quite a few vertical stalks of bamboo, consequently a lot of them crossed each other, and the painting looks like a wire mesh (exaggeration)!
The remedy is to control the angle where the stems intersect. Make those angles acute, and as far away from 90 degrees as possible. Another remedy would be to hide the point of convergence with leaves.

I then used my Blue Heron painting as an example. The blades of grass are bound to intersect with each other. What I did was to deliberately wet that juncture with water to cause the ink to bleed. The diffused ink helps to soften those corners.

To show the effect without the diffused ink, I used "PAINT" program to erase the bleeding ( I don't know how to Photoshop that out). Hopefully you would agree with me that the one with the bled ink looks better.

I then totally erased the grass to see what the painting would present itself............................ well, what do you think?

Ghosts From Yesteryears

2010-09-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

I decided to clean out my pigsty in preparation for the upcoming Portland Open Studios tour and came across some stashed away Opus Magnums from my past. Oh my gosh these were done in 2003. I remembered buying a box of water color tubes out of the blue and a booklet of papers and ventured into the world of painting. It appeared that I made no attempts to mix the colors, not surprising since I did not have a color pallet. It almost seemed like I painted straight out of the tubes. Interestingly I was using aluminium foil as a surface for mixing colors when I first took lessons.

These images are like your baby pictures. So untouched and natural. You can tell that they are infantile, and yet soooooo innocent

.
.
What do I know about portrait painting, or painting for that matter? Absolutely zilch! I just grabbed a pencil and away we go. This work showed a lot of patience

I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if I was to attempt to paint with watercolor again. I could not find my water color supply, so I used my Chinese brush painting pigments instead. However, I did lay this down on water color pad. One thing I do notice is that my pallet has gotten a lot narrower. I am not flinging with as much color as before. Could it be that my eyesight is failing and that my cones are disappearing ?! It is indeed interesting to see the comparisons.

Calligraphy and Painting

2010-09-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

There are people who asserted that calligraphy is the basis for all Chinese brush work, including brush painting. For me, this statement is quite true, especially now that I am attempting to teach people how to paint with a Chinese brush.

I had done some form studies on heron, and I've decided on adding calligraphy to them. The calligraphy will be used not in a narrative sense, i.e. telling a story about the herons, nor is it a poem about herons, but is used as a complementary tool to inspire and to augment the form of the heron.

In this work, the calligraphy is done as a very faint background, so as not to distract from the main pictorial outlay, but its subtleties help to bring out the dance form of the herons. Notice the single leg stance of one, and the ballerina like stance of the other. The motion and energy of the main characters are derived from the calligraphy, and vice versa.

Wanderlust

2010-08-18T16:49:00.000-07:00

Songs and Hymns
soar to the Heavens

This moment fills me
intoxicates me

I surrender myself to wanderlust

The above is a rough translation of the Chinese writing in the painting. This style is called the "grass style" or "sloppy style" of the Chinese cursive writing.

This flowing style of calligraphy matches quite nicely with the very raw and bold form of interpretation of a bird. No attempt was made to hide or ameliorate the brush strokes. This really is the essence of the Xieyi style of Chinese brush painting......concrete thoughts, but free brushes.

Good or bad, let it all hang out

Calligraphy

2010-08-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

translation:

If
LIFE is not witnessed by the present moment
then
when does

Living
is
to be able to
Do As You Wish

Isn't Being Cute Enough?

2010-08-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

In the routine of preparing materials for tutoring, I have to answer a fundamental question about Chinese Brush painting, and that is "Isn't being cute enough?"

The word "cute" can embody a broad interpretation, but I shall use it in the context that it attracts an audience. Case in point is some of the so called Chinese Brush paintings one sees on the net or fair vendors are often crowned with the verbage "Isn't that cute?". I shall use paintings of bamboo to illustrate my point.

Bamboo is one of the 4 required proficiencies for people studying the floral theme in Chinese Brush painting (the others are plum flower, orchid and chrysanthemum). Bamboo is a study of many virtues in the Chinese philosophy. It is stiff, yet flexible. It bends but does not break. It is strong, yet hollow. It symbolizes an ideal personality, being forthright, without being conceited. Being flexible without being manipulated. Appears to be hard and cold, and yet has the room inside and the capacity to accept.

Thus the proper way to paint a bamboo is always straight up, stern and yet not overbearing. It must show the virtues, then one goes about the business of composition, where to park the leaves and the branches. Bamboo is a plant of the grass family, and yet the branches and the main stalks are always straight or bow like, ready to bounce back, and never bend and twist like noodles. The segments are usually painted using the bone method, usually using straight tip. The rings around the segments are very specific in the sense that it shows the remnant of the sheaths of the shoot. It also tells you whether you are look up or down the bamboo by whether is arch is an upward bow or a downward bow.

My experience with painting bamboo is very limited. I've only done my obligatory homework pieces when I was taking lessons. I used bamboo as a teaching subject because it truly is the most fundamental way to learn Chinese Brush strokes. It teaches one how to hide or show the points, straight tip, twisted tip, press and lift and all that jazz. In essence, one does not "paint" a bamboo, but "writes" a bamboo, because it requires the application of all the basic methods of the brush. Every segment of a bamboo painting can be broken down and reassembled in some Chinese calligraphy. It is like a basic Kata in martial arts. One has to learn a few basic moves to execute the Kata.

The left picture is the "cute" visualization of the bamboo, but is very unbecoming of the brush art because it answers to all the bad qualities of a bamboo painting. The branches and leaves are twisted, looking more like true grass than bamboo. The segments are not done right and the rings are feeble attempts to point, press, draw and lift. Yet these types of bamboo drawings are quite prevalent in greeting card stores, book markers. Yes they are cute, albeit not done correctly with the Chinese Brush strokes.

The picture on the right is the more accurate way of painting a bamboo using the Chinese brush. It showed the bone structure, the correct brush stokes and a gradient in ink tone. However it also has a lot of boo boos, i.e. the thin branches failed to separate and the nodes fused together, looking like a rope with knots on it. The leaves on the left hand side should be pointing downward instead of up.

So the six million dollar question is..... can "cute" and "proper" co-exist? I suppose this is not necessary an ideological debate. In our vernacular, does the word cute mean more than being pretty and fetching? More importantly I suppose, is "cuteness" what an artist seeks?

I suppose this is my fervent attempt to bring to light what Chinese Brush painting is about and ask all of us to be a more educated audience, so that we can all truly appreciate the art form, without the facade of being "cute".

Artist Trading Card

2010-08-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

Part of the upcoming Portland Open Studios experience involves the creation of artist trading cards. I have done those before but I stopped short of affixing the image onto the card itself. Duh!! Trading cards without the cards, rather innovative!

Anyways now that I've been set straight, I applied gesso onto the back of the cards and all of a sudden they have a life of their own. They curled up like cooked shrimps.

For ease of application, I used rubber cement for paper instead of my starch concoction. This procedure did not correct the shoehorning of the playing card.
Fortunately a rolling pin did. I used a wooden rolling pin on both surfaces of the cards and this was done when the cards were almost dry. I then slapped on a thin coat of satin varnish to protect Xuan paper surface.

Classical Landscape

2010-08-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

This landscape painting is portrayed in a rather minimalistic fashion. The lack of color forces one to devote all their attentions to the composition and the line structure.

The painting is inspired by the Columbia River Gorge. The work was first done last year but I needed to change a few things. The opposing walls of the gorge is characterised by the 2 rows of serpenting land masses, obviously an exaggerated vision; nonetheless sets the stage pretty well in this application.

The trees in the foreground are painted in the classical sense of tree representation. Thus the leaves are circles, horizontal lines, and slashes of various shapes. This is very common practice in describing a mixed species woods.

The little skirts at the bottom of the hills is decorated with dots. These are there to represent shrubs, structures like posts, boulders, but the main function is to break up the lines so that they are not continuous ropes....... a no no in Chinese Brush painting. The "churn" method is the hemp line style. Churn lines are used to describe the texture and the topography of the hills.

Perspective is achieved by the obvious fading out of the land structures, with no discrete brush marks of whether it is water or fog or whatever. This is the all important "blank" space in the painting. Perspective is further achieved by the relative saturation of the ink. One can tell very easily that the near subjects are much darker than the distant destinations.

The one big failure in the painting is the bottom boulder, which assumed a different persona from the rest of the painting. The lines are too entangled, rendering it much more jagged than the others. The dark lines also give it a dirty/solid look, which is very uncharacteristic of this painting.

A painting like this is quite easy to consume, I think. Right off the bat you know that it is Asian. The downfall is that it pigeonholes what Chinese Brush painting should look like. This is due to the fact that all these "classical" rules or methods of painting is followed and it is easy to give the impression that all works have the same look and feel to it. This style of endowment have been around for at least a thousand years. Whereas it is important for us to study the techniques and basics of the Chinese brush, it is not necessary to keep on repeating or try to reproduce the styles that was popular way back when.

Evolution of a Heron

2010-07-13T10:56:00.000-07:00

Months ago a giant array of feathers visited my backyard. As it descended it momentarily interrupted the rays filtering through my window; that was how it caught my attention.
So I wanted to paint a heron.
The photos tell the story of my attempt. I started to draw out what I recalled as a heron (top photo).
Obviously it looked rather awkward, in fact I had problems deciding what length of its legs should be; hence the two different lengths. As we go down the line, I was trying out the brush stroke styles and the ensuing image takes on a better resemblance of a heron. I have a little bit of practice now. I must point out at this point that my failure in depicting a heron not only lies in the fact that I knew very little about the bird, but I really did no know what I wanted to paint. I was more like a field biologist, wanting desperately to record its features. What grabbed my attention were those seemingly long legs and that gaze.
As the bird frequented my place more often, I realized what made it a heron was not its features, but its poise. The heron's neck seemed to tell all the stories.
With this new understanding I arrived at the third photo attachment.
The outlined drawings (4Th and 5Th photo)are perhaps more "classical"; in the sense that it is how most herons are painted. A smattering of colors, correct proportions to say that this is a heron and not a goose.
Last week the heron stayed for over an hour and was almost oblivious to my presence.
I decided to try my hands again in painting, this time using the brush to paint the forms, rather than relying on lines to define the boundaries. My emphasis now is totally on the neck, which narrates the heron so eloquently. The bottom picture is a record of that encounter. I like the motion and the energy this painting emits.
It seemed raw, but is so honest!

Bi-Fa (pronounced B-Fa)

2010-06-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

A reader was a little taken aback by my comments in "What Brush Stroke". The quibble was about my tone of the language. I seemed to suggest that only Chinese Brush Painting pays attention to brush strokes. Whereas I know very little about other brush works, i.e. watercolor, oil, acrylic etc, I do know that Chinese Brush Painting places foremost emphasis on Bi-Fa, the method (discipline) of the writing instrument. Calligraphy and painting is about the same foci, Form and Bi-Fa (brush strokes). In fact, many teachers in Chinese Brush Painting would insist that students "write", and not "paint" the lines.

The Chinese Brush owes its characteristics to a round body with a pointed tip. I am told that there are 8 basic techniques in applying the brush on paper, utilizing not only the tip, but also the belly of the brush. Couple this with various speed, angle, degree of dampness, and whether the point is split or solid, the permutation on the possible ways to reveal with a Chinese Brush is endless.

The picture insert shows the start of a line with a point at the top line. The second line started with a rounded stroke, which is accomplished by travelling the brush in the opposite direction to begin with.

The importance of understanding the basic premise of the brush, is to understand how to take advantage of the brush. In this example I am trying to paint a "line" of various thickness. As I traverse the brush across the Xuan paper, different pressure is exerted, and the brush responded by spreading( or condensing ) its coverage.

Now we shall see how this "line" applies to painting. In the example, I am painting a dragonfly.

The picture on the right shows the result done with this proper technique. The "wing" is a line written with various thickness. It is all about the control of the brush. The wings look natural, and possess "Chi" (energy) and have "Li" (strength)

The picture on the left is done with the wrong technique. I blocked in the color. You might say that I "painted" the wings instead of "writing" the wings. Upon close examination, one can observe the border that I had painted around the outline of the wings, and then filled in with color. Obviously they look like wings, but they are devoid of the "Li" and the "Chi" shown on the other dragonfly. Perhaps it is the small imperceptible irregularities in the brushed shape, versus the static intentionally painted outlines that bestows the energy. I suppose this is the argument about hand tailored suits and hand stamped Ferrari bodies.

One might argue that to the casual patron of the Chinese Brush Painting, what is the big deal. The big deal is whether it matters to you or not. If you accept the premise that Chinese Brush Painting is about Bi-Fa, then you must learn to appreciate that.

You can play a G arpeggio on a violin using all 4 strings, but you can also play the G arpeggio using only the G string. To the untrained ear, they are the same notes. However a violin patron could tell the difference in the timbre of the notes and appreciates the skill level of the performer, lest not forget the composer's expressive intent in having all the notes played on the one string. Same dictum can be applied to the understanding and appreciation of Chinese Brush painting. It is not necessarily a matter of whether my art form is better than yours , but where the emphasis lies.

To Be or Not To Be

2010-06-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

In a perfect world, under ideal conditions, we work on a painting, from start to finish, everything as planned, eyes to the heaven, say THANK YOU.

Reality is, we often sway from our original sketch, be it conceptual or physical.
Artistic expression, or any expression for that matter, is a dynamic process. This light might suddenly pop up in our head, or our own tentacles of curiosity might drag us into saying...WHAT IF ?

I usually resort to one of two ways of deciding which path I should follow.

The first one involves a transparent sheet of material... could be a plate of glass, acrylic, overhead projection transparency or a sheet protector. I would then lay this transparency over the spot where I am dubious as to what should be done, and I would do a rough sketch on it. Thus I am able to see the effect of before and after, without ever committing myself.

In this example, I have a painting of 2 fishermen working at night. I was trying to capture the reflection of the lantern and the moon in the water. Where I failed was the composition... I had the fishermen and the Beacon Rock all lined up in a straight line, and this is visually awkward. So I wanted to see if I could cover up the bottom fisherman with silhouettes of tree tops. Well, the jury is still out on this one.

The other trick I use is to just paint it out in plain water. Xuan paper is so absorbent, plain, clear water will leave its' traces, long enough for us to consider and reconsider. Note of caution, the brush should be on the dry side.... just wet enough to leave a mark for us to see the spatial relationship. In this example, I am trying to see if there could be a dialogue of trees and the bridge.

Since any brush mark on Xuan paper is almost indelible, the above tricks are most useful before you attempt on that part of the painting. It does not bode well if your intention was to totally change or substitute something after the fact.

Gesso Tricks

2010-05-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

One of the attributes that I can exert some further control in working with my Xuan-Boo, is the matter of white balance/contrast.

Depending on the type of Xuan paper one uses, the "white" ( or blank space ) space is anything but white. While it is not necessary, nor is it critical, for me to display true white, nonetheless I would welcome the opportunity to modify my shades of white if possible. On top of that, my style of Chinese Brush painting requires the help of shading quite a bit.

Work done on Xuan paper loses its vividness once the pigment dries and before it is mounted. The depth of this brilliance is restored once the paper is wet. It is therefore paramount for a Xuan artist to not correct his/her work when the paper has dried up. I always wet my work first before I tidy up my work.

To facilitate in varying the contrast in my work, Xuan-Boo offers an unique avenue.... I can manipulate the gesso. By laying down a differentiated map of gesso, according to my needs, I can accentuate or tone down a particular area or color of the painting. I can actually affect the overall presentation of my mounted Xuan.

Example on the bottom picture shows the dried painting before it was mounted. To the left of that painting is the canvas with my custom gesso. Notice I painted the gesso in a gray scale according to my need.

The picture on the top shows the finished work on Xuan-Boo.
One can observe that the hill on which the gazebo sits on is now more 3 dimensional, thanks to the increased shading offered by the custom gesso. The staircase shows off better because the tree to the left of it is now darker and offers better contrast. The black roof tiles on the house is now more saturated.

Granted all these changes are subtle, but nonetheless palpable. I think it can be a very useful tool to remedy a "flat" painting.

Presenting my Xuan-Boo

2010-05-18T22:33:00.000-07:00

As a kid I remembered looking up at the radio that perched on top of our 5 drawer dresser. Each time my dad would put his fingers on one of those big black knobs my breathing would stop for a second. I wanted to catch the magic. The magic of the front glass panel on the radio lighting up. A few minutes later I could hear high pitched whistles rising and ebbing, and then music or voices would be discernible amongst the interference. Turning another black knob left and right brings the program into clear. "Where did the voice come from?" I would ask. "There is a man inside the box!" said my father.

I remembered climbing on a chair, behind the dresser, looking through the perforated backing on the radio, to find that "man". Instead, I found several "light bulbs" inside the box; I could "smell" the heat emanating from these bulbs. As my dad turned the dial knob, I could see a string hooked up to a spring, which was attached to a slider on a track, and a needle moved. The whole thing was so mesmerising.....I can still smell that heat. I can still feel its radiance.

As I grew older, there is a new addition to our family. A much larger cabinet with a tiny gray window in the front. After the black knob was turned, this cabinet gave out a extraterrestrial high frequency hum, and after what seemed like eternity, a gray and white picture appeared. It took a another life time for the picture to get brighter and became "watchable". We had television. Again I somehow managed to get to the back of the cabinet, looking through the perforated backing, to look for the bulbs, and to "smell" the heat. The moments of anticipating an image appearing on the screen, and to have events happening in expected sequences,from the transformers humming, the capacitors charging up, to the flickers, and finally having my senses satisfied, are moments that I still cherish today.

Painting for me is very similar to the experiences I just described. There has to be awe, curiosity and appreciation. I paint because it is not instantaneous, no immediate gratification at play here. There is a process of going from conception to finished work, all the while filled with anticipation.

When we paint on Xuan paper, the overall appearance of the work changes as the work dries. Wetting the finished work restores most of the original saturation, hence mounting Xuan paper on another piece of Xuan paper is mandatory not only to give it stiffness, but to restore the brilliance and color accuracy. After days, sometimes weeks of working on a piece, we then spend hours on affixing it and hanging it up to dry. We really don't know what our work looks like until it is all mounted and dried.

My curiosity led me to explore new ways of mounting. Hence I invented this process/medium I called Xuan-Boo. Along with this new platform comes new challenges and that led to my making my own frames. I kept thinking how turning the knob made the dial move. Perhaps that is why I am not satisfied to just paint, but I want to be involved in as many facets as I can. I enjoy the complete process from laying down the first stroke, to hanging the work up. Today I am presenting you with the first batch of Xuan-Boo.

Of course the end is gratifying too, sometimes. There are some works that I would really hate to part with, because I had invested so much of myself in them.... "Every time you go away, you take a part of me with you!"

Every so often, after the National Anthem has played, and the TV station has signed off, I would still be watching the Station Calibration Wheel. There is nothing to anticipate now,nothing to be awed about, but at least I know the damn set still works.

Student Works from Hong Kong

2010-05-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

The Municipal Park in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon hosted a painting exhibition by students ( grade school and high school ). The paintings have to use the park as a theme.

Most of the nominated works are displayed in page protectors in a binder, therefore difficult to take photographs of. The few that I have posted here are on bulletin boards., i.e. the top 3 mentions.

The ones on top are from high school students, the ones on the bottom are from grade school kids.

Their works are so inspiring that I feel compelled to post them to share with readers of my blog

Crying Fowl

2010-05-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Hong Kong !! I thought it would be interesting to lay down a couple of blogs while I am visiting Hong Kong, my birth place. Like a salmon returning to the river where it was born, I have followed the the scent of the water and my instincts and landed here a few days ago; not to mate, but to enrich my life cycle, I hope.

I am happy to say that I escaped the jurists' waste baskets and have gained my place at the Portland Open Studios tours again this year. I have decided that the majority of my new works would be in the Xuan-Boo style, and I have picked the heron as my entry piece.

This painting was done on fibrous Xuan paper. The sizing on this paper is a little bit different ( not as absorbent ) and the color presentation is not as deep and saturated as the normally sized Xuan. However when mated to canvas, the apparent texture it imparts is particularly suitable for our feathery friend here.

I am trying to keep the color scheme really simple here, after all I am not creating a document nor an accurate depiction of the bird. However the characterisation, the mannerism of the bird is vital. My mission is not to let color overrun my pictorial essay. The simple creature is then garnished with a few blades of leaves.

One of the challenges is to describe the feathers without actually drawing them out. I have allowed a controlled bleeding of strokes along the frontal side of the neck to give it that feathered look. A brief outline helps to define the physical structure.

Intersecting leaf blades is a real headache as far as composition and presentation goes in Chinese Brush Painting. I have placed a few drops of water at strategic points of the cluster so that ink disperses to a much larger extent along those fronts. This is not a blemish, but a controlled artistic technique, a la moss dots in many of the traditional works.

Finally, instead of allowing the background to be blank, I used a Mosaic of nondescript patches of colors. I find great similarity between this and a photograph with a shallow depth of field. Perhaps this is an instinct carried over from my hobby in photography.

I must mention that for this piece of work, I stretched my own canvas, and built my own frame for the canvas. My only debate right now is whether to finish the frame in the traditional black color, or to leave it as is, with the gray primer only.

COLLABORATIVE PAINTING

2010-04-22T00:34:00.000-07:00

I have another collaborative painting to share with you.

my reasons for selecting the piece is as follows
1. quite characteristic of Guilin landscape
2. a new way of "churn" ( texture) that most of you have not attempted before. looks easy, but requires real Xieyi movements
3. wet staining of clouds/mist
4. distinct ways of showing perspective, shading. ranges from relatively colorless foreground, to "splash ink" method of distant hills.
should be a lot of fun.
The above is a direct quote from the e-mail I sent out to the group.

The image on the bottom is the original work that I lifted from a publication. The image on the top right is our work.

The original work is almost monochromatic with distinct separation of foreground and background landscapes. The brush strokes are deliberate and yet expressive. Succinct and yet interpretive. Tidy and yet free. I find myself transported to this serene Shangri-La., allowing myself to be immersed in this magical mist, floating as my spirit directs me.

Before we arrive at how our work turned out, let us go through the process of painting.

As I pointed out in my e-mail, the "churn" (texture) method in this work is different but quite common in a lot of the Guilin landscape paintings. It is basically a series of L shaped brush strokes stacked on or intersecting each other.
It could be done with straight tip down and side tip across or vice versa. This gives the lime stone land mass its cracks and shows the thickness of the slabs.
If these were done too orderly, you end up with a brick wall.

Black dots denote vegetation, but they are used to soften up the contour lines and corners. Green vegetation dots need to have titanium white mixed in them to stand out.

Mists are done with the wet wash method. It takes a while to get used to the idea that as you are painting the bottom of the rocky masses, you are actually painting the mist/cloud ( blank space ). Therefore the blank space as a real space is almost like a novice flying a on coming RC plane. Left rudder turns the plane to the right!

Color is witnessed by laying down several layers of pigments. Imagine staining a tissue paper with one pass of color. It is not substantive. We first lay down our shading with various shades of ink. Then vermilion is used as the base coat, followed by burnt sienna and purple around the dark areas. Finally mineral green is used as the top coats. Its opacity drowns out the foundation colors. By moderating the number of layers of the opaque colors, we can achieve the different hues of the landscape. The coloring is done after all the shading and churn is done. Coloring is akin to putting on your clothes. You do that after you have clean underwear, showered, shaved, put on your make-up, then put on your clothes.

Based on the fact that this was done with many people, all with varying degrees of craftsmanship, this is indeed an awesome piece of work.

How does that compare with the original work?? Obviously our brush strokes are far inferior. Our contour lines lack the controlled thickness, our side tips were too broad. Our rocky spires seemed too symmetrical when compared to the original. Many of our trees grow sideways instead of opposing gravity. Our mountain goats had the wrong thorax to abdomen scale and therefore look more like dogs than goats. The branches on the bottom left corner lacks the tensile feel of a whip. Brush strokes tapered at both ends and is fat in the middle and lacks "chi" or spirit. Contrast that with the ones on the upper right hand corner. The tree branches here show interesting angles, are not tapered and fat in the middle, and has tensile strength. I have no way of knowing who painted which tree, but this is a grand example to demonstrate the importance of brush strokes in Chinese Brush painting. This style of painting is all about Bi Fa. (method of the brush)

Our work is not so much monochromatic, so it imparts a different feel to it. This presents a strong argument for supporting emulation as a way to learn to paint. The image might be similar, but the results are distinctly different, and it is a teachable moment to be able to discern and describe the differences.

The original work is done by a famous contemporary Chinese artist by the name of Bai Xueshi. ( Bai is the last name, first name is Xueshi) For those of you who are interested in this artist, you can find a wealth of information on the net about him. Even U-tube showed videos about him.

Xuan-boo

2010-04-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have been following my blogs you know that I have been working on the process of mounting Xuan paper on canvas.

Xuan paper is translated as Rice paper in English. It resembles a piece of tissue paper. Paintings ( or calligraphy) done on Xuan paper has to be mounted on a substrate to make it either as painting ready to be framed, or as a scroll, ready to be hung. The mounting serves several purposes. The most obvious is to beef up the thickness of the painting so that it is more durable. The second purpose is to take out the wrinkles, so the painting is stiff and flat, devoid of creases. The third factor, which most people often forget, is that mounting adds the "white" backing to the translucent tissue like Xuan paper. This brings out the saturation of the image and makes the painting more vivid. The art of "mounting" Xuan paper is a craft in itself, and it contributes directly to the grade of the finished work.

By mounting Xuan paper on canvas, I can present a different feel and texture that is subtle and yet very perceivable. By applying varnish on all or part of the finished work, I can alter the "depth" of the colors which is not feasible with ordinary mounting of Xuan on Xuan. By applying my own gesso I can effectively control my "white balance" and this is most exciting. I am now offered a second chance to manage the overall "mood" of my work.

I am constructing my own canvas and building my own frames on my table saw and miter saw. All of a sudden, I am free from almost all restrictions. I no longer have to worry about dimensional proportions or finding a right sized frame or go to these astronomically expensive frame shops for custom frames. My only restrictions are my paper size, which comes in 4 ft widths and my imagination.

Since I am the pioneer of this process, I am going to coin it Xuan-Boo. Xuan meaning Xuan paper, Boo means canvas cloth.

So Xuan-Boo it is. We shall see if it catches on. I do Chinese Brush painting on Xuan-Boo.

FENG SHUI

2010-04-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

This is not a painting about Feng Shui, nor do I know anything about Feng Shui. However, one of the concerns about this painting has to do with that....... so bear with me

In Xieyi style painting, it is imperative that your brush strokes flow with expression. Each stroke should lead towards an arena of thoughts and meanings, not merely occupying space. Chinese landscape painting traditionally depict soaring peaks, dreamy streams, bold rocks, wind bent centenarian pines. Visions of immortal beauties. The Xuan paper could look real busy if the artist does not create a focus, a mood, a statement. Hence blank space is vital..... we call that space "breathing". It can be used as a divider, or as a conduit, depending on the need.

In this piece, the blank space presents itself as a foggy mist; rolling down from distant ridges, creating distance, yet guiding your attention to the center of the painting. The water features are flanked by more detailed "cheun" ( applying texture ) of the rocks, as a contrast. "Cheun" in the center, where the butte stands is a lot more definitive.

The foreground is done with bold orchestration of color and branches. I used this scheme to make the painting appear less "busy". Thus, I break it down to basically a Chinese Brush painting with ink, augmented by red wavelengths to make a statement.

A comment from an art teacher was that I should paint a tunnel to accommodate the suspension bridge. He has missed the point totally. The bridge is there to link the butte with other land features, and to hint that there might be a river underneath, downstream from all those water falls. Xieyi is about imagination. It is definitely not about photographic accuracies. I did the trees in a "U" shape to cradle, to receive the "flow" of contents from above.

The stairs leading up to the vista is obscured by fog mid-span. Chinese culture does not prefer a long, straight staircase. Folks buying a 2 story house would prefer not to have a straight staircase at the front door. Chinese do not want a Jacob's Ladder in their dwelling. The superstitious labels this as "Feng Shui". The rational would tell you that it is better to have shorter sections of staircases with landings, to break you fall in case you tripped.

Cheers to "Feng Shui"

WHAT BRUSH WORK

2010-03-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

Part of the bargain of being in the Visual Arts Showcase was to function as a docent for a few hours. I picked up a couple of shifts and it was a very rewarding time. Rewarding in the sense that I was able to explain to people what Chinese Brush Painting is about. In this part of the woods, many savvy artists had the slightest of idea about Chinese Brush Painting. The overriding concern was whether it was water color done with a Chinese Brush. I guess this is as relevant as whether God Save the Queen was played on a sitar. As I had mentioned in my "Soap Box" blog, certain knowledge about the art form is mandatory in order to really appreciate the art form.

I had guests pointing out to me other works in the exhibit that were very Chinese Brush Painting-ish. I did not want to offend them by pointing out their ignorance. I simply emphasized what to look for in a Chinese Brush painting and how to appreciate the quality of the brush strokes. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Hence I am going to use 2 samples to again illustrate my point.

Of these 2 patches, which one is better? They are both results of collaborative painting. One is done by a group who has varying degrees of expertise in the craft. The other one is done by visitors at the art show, where a piece of Xuan paper and brushes are provided and people are encouraged to contribute their marks. I am not going to distinguish which one is which. I hope the difference is obvious.

I am going to further support my argument by providing an analogy to calligraphy, Western calligraphy. This is a page taken out of a Speedball manual. Here we see the study of form, shape, angle of slant and nib placement in order to effect the broad and narrow widths of the strokes. A non calligrapher will use the same nib but produce totally different results.

It seems frivolous to denote so much on the mechanics of Chinese Brush painting and not mention the emotional impact of this art form. Here is where I shall submit that I cannot prescribe a sensory illumination , instead, I am trying to provide a basic appreciation of the tactile attributes.

A New Beginning, 2010

2010-03-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

The

City of Portland proclamed that the 2nd and 3 rd weekend in October as the Portland Open Studios weekends and to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Portland Open Studios, the City of Portland honored this organization by having a First Thursday event called the 10x10., I guess it meant 10 th anniversary in the year 2010 ?? Portland Open Studio artists were asked to submit work measuring no bigger that 10x10 to be exhibited in the City Hall during the month of March.

For some reason the image of 2010 left a fluorenscene in the synapses that no amount of Prozac could erase. I was so obsessed with 2010 that I was going to incorporate that into my painting, regardless. Perhaps I have this very personal desire to start out this year with a clean slate, free of old baggages.

I had wanted to paint something Asian, but inexplicably I reverted back to images of the Portland Westhills. I wanted to paint a cityscape at night, with a huge X'mas light that says 2010. I thought about painting downtown buildings at night with a bright marque screaming 2010.

After conferring with a few friends, I decided to forget about the Chinese motif, have to be honest with how I felt at the moment.

I chose to paint a dark, still night hushed in snow. I recall something about the darkest hour is right before dawn, so my painting is a euphemistic representation of my longing for a new beginning. I was able to show my fixation of 2010 as a mail box number.

The snow again was laid down using my Ancient Chinese Secret solution. I have developed enough confidence to use it in conjunction with ink, to create layers of gray, and that added so much to the 3 dimensional presence of the snow accumlation. By using undiluted ink around the buildings and in front of the conifers, I was able to really bring the snow out. I did the sky in a "streaky" wash to hint of inpending change, to create some motion in an otherwise still painting.

Mailbox number and box flag was done in red to add interest, and to match my chop.

2010, A New Beginning !!

Serene Lake

2010-01-23T21:18:00.000-08:00

This is one of those projects that took me a long time to finish.

In my mind I wanted to paint something serene, peaceful; something to day dream with.

I know I wanted to use a very simple color scheme. I do not want a palette of colors to distract from the feeling of the painting. I want it to be vast, something that can fully occupy one's visual field, such that one can be totally immersed. The only thing I did not know was what to paint!

In a way, that might be a valid way to proceed. The abstract thought of the work superseded the physical entity, and painting is just the process when the artist translates that thought onto a medium.

I finally settled on water. I must confess I am fascinated by water, and yet I am very much afraid of it. When I look at a body of water, I feel its presence, its inertia and its infinity. In this painting, I wanted to capture the feeling of being there, with a sense of peacefulness, with a underlying yearning to explore, to anticipate.

I know that the "void space" will take up the majority of the space. It is however, through this "void space" that I must communicate. I shall therefore summon the help of the shore line as the white lines on a black top. I put the shoreline one-thirds way across the paper, vaguely remembering the rule of thirds from my school days. I faded out the landscape from right to left, directing the observer's attention to the yonder. To add interest on the landscape itself, openings in the trees were made, to admit light from the other side to come through. This little window of illumination helps to play out the dance of the reflections. I thought it added tremendously to the life of the painting, without being so loud that it disrupted the tranquility.

The boats in the water are there to create perspective. The five dots on the left of the horizon represents boats so faraway that you can barely see them, thus helping to create the vast spread of the water. I had originally deployed only 7 vessels but my Chinese roots tell me that even numbers are preferred, thus one more dab of the brush makes a total of 8 vessels. Hm, interesting!

I had wanted to paint in some flocks of birds but decided against it. Too "formulary", and disruptive, I thought.

Alright, I am now on the water, and ready to traverse this lake, and let my mind drift.

After the completion of the painting, I wanted to mount it on canvas and not on tradition Xuan paper. Wow, I had no idea about the difficulties that I would encounter. With the help of my good friend Sandy, we embarked on this mounting project. Several hours into this, it was one disaster after another. Too wet, too dry, paper was not lined up properly (this painting is 4 feet long, not very forgiving about misalignment), too many air pockets, too many wrinkles. Sandy and I literally waited for the mounting to become dry so we can see the final product. We now know what "watching the paint dry" means. After all is said and done, we were very pleased with the result. The 4 foot wide piece of Xuan paper on canvas looked and felt right. Awesome !

But alas, several days after it was hung in my studio, the whole piece started to warp really
badly. The shrinking process in mounting exerted uneven forces on the canvas frame and is pulling a warp that you can't believe. My remedy was to shell out for a custom frame to beef up the canvas frame. Ouch! But now it really looks like a piece of art work.

This painting by the way, got invited by the Visual Arts Showcase sponsored by the Beaverton Arts Commission. It will be on display in the Beaverton Library starting Feb. 6, when there will be a Gala reception that evening.

Land Of The Falls

2010-01-11T22:21:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year !!

I am fortunate to have 2 pieces of work accepted into the Beaverton Visual Arts Showcase this year. I submitted 3 pieces of work for jury.

They are "15 Zebras", "Land of the Falls" and "Serene Lake"

The "15 Zebras" piece unfortunately did not meet the standards of the jurors. "Land of the Falls" and "Serene Lake" did.

This painting was inspired by the Iguazu Falls ( Cataratas del Iguazu ) in Argentina. It was one of the most awesome sights that I have witnessed. In my rendition of the Falls, I was trying to exploit the translucent property of the Xuan paper to bring out the water. All the bodies of water in this painting are nothing but voids, empty spaces. The trick is to define these "voids" and to give them characteristics of vapor, spray, and flow.

Painting the land mass in a very saturated color scheme helps to bring out the water. This intensity is definitely a departure from the traditional Chinese landscape painting. The edges of the upper falls have a sharper margin, to give the ribbons that knife edge feel. The hill sides are inundated with silvery swords of water. This gives the painting energy and aura. I've added burnt sienna to the sprays to denote wash off of sand and silt.

The real Cataratas is a stretch of hundreds of falls hanging off a rim that is miles in length. I chose to condense a few falls into a plateau in this case, as if to put the falls on a pedestal. The trailing serpentine river gives reference to where the water might come from, and adds depth and distance to the scenery.

The rocky spines in the distance stand as testimony to erosion. Vapors run along side, sandwiched by the two land masses; hinting the presence of rapid waters?

I originally painted the foreground with light color rocks, but that scheme interfered with the voids of the falls. I remedied that by making the foreground even darker than the rest, and painted the rocks with the lush mossy feel. Throw in a few bamboo cultivations and stands of banana leafs, I made this painting credible.

Interesting side note, I had this old bamboo motif frame with non-reflective glass around and I thought it was perfect for this format. This painting is approximately 11 x 22 inches, a perfect 1:2 ratio, which is a standard ratio for Xuan papers. This is more conducive to landscape painting than the western frames. In fact I have picked up a few 15 x 30 canvas and I plan to do more landscape works on the Xuan paper on Canvas set up.

PERSPECTIVE continued

2009-12-27T15:33:00.000-08:00

With my new understanding of "perspective", I am itching to put that into practice.

What I have done here is sort of cheating, well, not exactly. By that I meant I have changed the characteristics of the landscape. I have chosen the type of landscape that is more conducive to revealing the birds eye view perspective.

I have chosen to paint precipitous bluffs with flat surfaces that I can more easily depict an upward orientation.

I have chosen to hide the water leading to the fall with mist and vapor. This void space also helps to create distance from the hills in the back.

A bridge is painted way low to augment the depth of the structure. I wish I had extended the waterfall (void space) below the bridge before the darker shade of vapor.

Bodies on the bridge showed wider shoulders and skinny legs; a distortion that helps the mind to assimilate that this is a view of looking down from above.

I found a piece of sketching to further illustrate the view of "perspective"

In this piece of work, the gazebo showed the underside of the roof, therefore the observer is looking at it from below.

The hill it sits on is at eye level.

The buildings in the lower foreground show their roofs and shingles, thus the observer assumes a higher vantage point than the buildings.

The rock formation in the foreground showed extended flat surfaces. The front contour lines are replaced by light value shadings. The observer can appreciate the and feel the structure as one that the observer can set foot on!

The use of "perspectives" in this painting is more akin to the western practice. We have the upward view, the level view and the downward view, and also, to the left and to the right. The "virtual" position of the observer in this painting is well established.

SCATTERED FOCAL POINT PERSPECTIVE

2009-12-25T12:07:00.000-08:00

I was presented with a piece of work with the emphasis on perspective. In this instance, assuming a downward looking perspective.

Before I delve into this topic of perspective in Chinese paintings, let me address the concept of scattered focal point. As we thumb through "HOW TO" books on painting, we often find the terms horizon, vanishing point, etc. In Chinese Landscape paintings, the concept of scattered focal point is introduced. As you look at objects at different elevations, and I am using a building as an example, conventional wisdom will tell you that if you see mostly roof, then you are looking at the house from above. If you see mostly foundation, or the soffit then you are looking at it from below. A lot of Chinese landscape painting however depicts the buildings at various elevations as if one was looking at them from level ground, and this is the concept of scattered focal point.

The attached illustration makes that observation.

When the uninitiated individual looks at a Chinese landscape painting, one might notice exotic ways of representing mountains, hills, rocks and streams and vapor etc, but one can't quite put the finger on what else makes the painting different. This is almost like looking at a flat map of the world instead of the spherical map

Having said that, the artist can choose to deviate from this format, and utilize perspective to add to the overall feeling of the painting.

When I looked at the presented work, I had a strong feeling of discord. I will shy away from discussion of composition, but I will

try to address what I see is wrong, and it all has to do with perspective. The work pretends to present a view from above, thus the observer is looking at the top of the gazebo. Unfortunately nothing else suggests that. Everything else in this painting has the scattered focal point presentation.

I used the following indicators:

I should be able to see the water leading up to the fall on the left.

The water falls ( the artist says those are water falls ) on the right looks like streams if this was the perspective from above. They do not show a downward movement, just a north-south direction.

The contour lines on the hills are those of a typical observer at the same level, i.e. the contour line defines the ridge.

The artist did not accept my observation well. Perhaps

the artist is too entrenched in the Old School of copying

and did not do much observing. I asked the artist to paint the same landscape, but using the traditional scattered focal point practice, to show me the difference his view of " from above" vs that scattered focal view and the artist was not able to do that. I then realized that his inability to do so stemmed from his lack of true understanding of "perspective".

I spent a couple of weeks attempting to present my case in a different fashion. I tried to draw the same painting by using my understanding of perspective, and I failed. I found that his type of landscape does not lend itself well to make my case.

I finally resorted to building models to illustrate my point. I crumbled a piece of paper and built my own mountain. I fashioned my gazebo top using a tiny square of paper, resting on a pin. Set up my light source to the right, above my "mountain" to simulate the sun, and took pictures from above and from eye level to get the 2 perspectives. I labelled the typical contour lines A,B,C,and D to show how these same contours, or land features, are different when viewed at different elevations.

What is readily apparent is that in the eye level shot ( gazebo top is in perfect side view), the contour lines pretty much defines the highest point of that feature, therefore a line defines a hill. Whereas in the birds eye view, that line has crept forward, followed by an area showing the "thickness" of the feature. This thickness can be addressed by light values and not by lines. One needs to add real estate beyond the contour line !! To make an extreme case of this, a tree at eye level shows the trunk and the crown. The same tree in the birds eye view will be a round circle of leaves, i.e. the "thickness" of the crown.

I showed these photos to the artist, and now he understood the point I was making. He asked to borrow the photos for further studies. This is why I am posting this, as it had been a consuming topic for the both of us, to explain and to comprehend.

I have certainly learned from this exercise. I had a concept that I could not verbalize, nor execute. At least now I have a better understanding.

HORSING AROUND WITH STRIPES

2009-12-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

Garble Garble, hope everybody had a wonderful turkey day. I had to work that day, but all these years of working retail had taught me to look at any day as just another day! How can one be disappointed when one does not have any expectations.....hmmm, something Confucius might have said.

In preparing for the Portland Open Studios, I wanted to paint something that is high contrast and black and white, something that reminisces of a black and white photograph. I came upon a picture I took of zebras at the Washington Park Zoo and I proceeded to plan this painting.

The second insert is the finished product ( before it is mounted on Xuan paper backing and framed ) and I named it 15 Zebras. It measures 26 x 17 and was priced at $ 475. My intention was to paint a herd of zebras, but only their striping would show. I wanted to show only the upper body of the animals, asserting that the limbs would be hidden by tall grass on the Serengeti. I wanted this presentation to take on a contemporary, quasi abstract kind of feel.

I started out by trying to emulate a famous Chinese horse painter by the name of Hsu Bei-hung.( see top insert ) but somehow the horse's body does not translate too well into zebras. I started to sketch with my brush, using ink only, and I did quite a few models. When I was researching through pictures of this animal, I noticed the brown stripes amidst the black ones. Oh xy?! is what I uttered, now my images would be too busy....... would not be that high contrast, austere look that I was hoping for. Now I would have black and brown stripes!!!! I settled on using the brown color as my shading.... and it seemed to work for me. I cut off a piece of my studio practice piece ( close-up of two zebra heads ), cropped it and sandwiched it in a glass block frame.

Now that I have a better grasp of what I am painting, I started to paint in earnest. After I was done with it, I hated it. It was too austere...... too much white spaces... so destitute. It literally slept on my floor for 3 mouths. So many times I had the urge to cut it, crop it into smaller piece(s) to salvage it. After all, I've spent many a sleepless night planning this nightmare.

Finally a good friend of mine gave me some inputs.... "why don't you paint in some grass?" What on earth ?? This is like putting rosary beads on Buddha.... how dare you.

A couple more weeks went by..... end of September was drawing near, I could smell October.... I could taste Portland Open Studios, oh what the hell, I've got nothing to lose, so I begrudgingly dappled on grass, and brown shading, and wait a minute, now I see a "S" pattern to the composition ( in retrospect, I should have done a "Z" formation for zebra ) so now I am legit, I know how to frame my composition !

With renewed zest, I darkened the stripes on the front pack, I really emphasized the manes of those animals to make them stand out from the back, to create distance. I used brown shading to add to the roundness of the animals' bellies. Named my piece 15 zebras. I wanted the visitors to count out 15 animals in this painting.

Sure you can pick this painting apart... some might even say the zebras look like asses, or worse yet, there is a lack of "Chinese" flavor in this endeavor. All points are well taken... my response is....I had FUN doing this. This Prozac worked for me.

OIL, ACRYLIC, OR MIXED MEDIA

2009-11-19T12:04:00.000-08:00

I had mentioned that I am experimenting with making some of my works have an "oil painting" feel and I had posted an example on my last blog. Here is another example of that. I am biased of course, but this is so far my favorite. The subject matter and the composition is akin to the western painting feel and this piece of work lends itself very nicely to this transition. I took this picture off center to show the gleaming quality of the paper/canvas/varnish.

For those of you who are familiar with mounting Xuan paper, you know it is delicate work. I shall describe a little bid of my process of mounting Xuan paper on canvas.

When we mount paper on paper, the difficulty of the task is to be sure that all the wrinkles are out so that we have a piece of perfectly smooth and taut painting when dried. As we lift the wet Xuan papers with glue applied, we just have to be careful in the lifting process, so that we are not tearing off the corners by mistake ( I've done that, and I found out how many swear words I know). Papers you can lift, but how do you lift a framed canvas ?

As you recall, my first experience was with the work submitted to the Audubon society when they asked for a 6x6 work on canvas. Since the framed canvas is small, I could easily lift the entire frame from the mounting surface without too much problem. As the frame gets bigger, the task becomes exponentially more difficult. A large, wet, flat surface creates so much suction and the fact that is frame is rigid and not flexible like paper, makes it almost impossible to lift the canvas frame. What I have done is I used small piece of clear acrylic ( any hardware store should have it.... this is better than glass because it is light, and safe to handle) and as I am ready to lift the canvas frame, I turned the whole thing over, i.e. so now the clear acrylic is sitting on top, over your painting, which is wet and glued to the canvas frame. Now I can slide the acrylic off the painting, with care of course. The clear acrylic allows me to see if I am sliding too fast to create tears in my work. The acrylic also has a little flexibility in it, so I can bend it a little bit to break the vacuum.

After the acrylic is removed, then I worry about brushing off any inadvertent air pockets and now I shall wrap the edge of the Xuan paper around the canvas frame to give it that wrap around look.

After drying the painting should be flat and taut, no different from Xuan paper on Xuan paper.

I now brush on either satin gel or gloss varnish according to my desire.

The problem now is what do I call my work, or how do I label my work. Is it oil, acrylic or mixed media? Any suggestion??????????

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

2009-10-31T22:07:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty successful open studios with the Portland Open Studios tour. My number of visitors were down from last year, but interestingly enough, a lot of my visitors this year are people in the trade. I actually learned at lot from my visitors.

As was publicized in the Asian Reporter, and I had posted in my blogs, the new "direction" that I am exploring, is to mount Xuan paper on canvas. I feel that this allows me to exploit the dispersing and diffusing property of the Xuan paper and also the texture of the canvas. My signature piece this year was "Come Up Here" and it was a compilation of these 2 substrates. I have also posted a piece titled "Snow Scene", where I was also trying out my ancient secret Chinese solution, and that work was also done as Xuan paper on canvas. Both of these pieces were sold during the open studios, and this format was received with positive feedback.

I had expressed the wish of finishing my work with some coating so that it will have an appearance of an oil painting. Well I've received numerous suggestions and I've been experimenting with these suggestions and the results are fantastic.

The bottom image is a close-up of the varnished Xuan paper on Canvas. It absolutely has the feel and look of real canvas work. The top 2 pictures are side by side comparisons. The one in the middle is the original painting. The one on top has the varnish finish. Notice how the coating brings out more color depth and detail. I LOVE IT !!

Beyond Exposure, Understanding

2009-10-14T00:16:00.000-07:00

All of us have been exposed to Chinese Brush Painting. So what is Chinese Brush Painting. Does the painting have to look "Chinese"?? Can a "western" motif painting done with Chinese brush be called Chinese Brush Painting?? How do we appreciate Chinese Brush Painting??

Chinese Brush Painting is an art of form and lines. Well that sounds pretty generic. Chinese Brush Painting is all about " Be Fa", the method of the brush. It is closely linked to the practice of calligraphy. Chinese calligraphy is not just a bunch of symbols or characters, but each stroke has characteristics of "press", "turn", "lift","hook" etc. Each line is like a human body, it has a head, a body, bulky at some places, and skinny at the other places. A bad line is like a bad body shape...... that's the only way I can explain it. With these attributes, then you assemble the lines not only in the form of the character that you intend to write, but assemble it in a pleasing manner! There is a belief that if one cannot do good calligraphy, then one can never be a good painter. Perhaps that's why I am having a hard time with my paintings...... I am a disaster when it comes to calligraphy. You rarely see any writings on my work This is in stark contrast to a lot of the current pseudo Asian art, especially in mixed media, collages, where people clip off prints or newspaper with Asian characters ( Chinese, Korean, Japanese) and paste them into their work and pawn it off as "art". As far as I am concerned, this is a huge disrespect and shows complete lack of understanding of Asian calligraphy. Calligraphy on Chinese Brush Paintings usually involves the title of the painting, and perhaps a poem about the painting. There could be narrations on the occasion for which the painting was done.

Chinese Brush Painting in the classical sense involves a lot of "rules" and "formulae". For example in the Flowers and Birds genre, we are taught how to paint bamboo, chrysanthemum, peony, ,orchid, plum, blue birds, etc, etc. There is a certain, dictated method and strokes that one does these themes. Go to the library or bookstore and look up Chinese Brush Painting and you'll find all kinds of prescribed methods of how to arrange rocks, how tree branches should be arranged. In other words, there are "poses" that we subscribe to. None of the teachers that I've ever had showed a real example of the subject matter. Sketching is totalling absent. The down side of this training is that all works look alike, they are all "templates". A lot of the Chinese Brush Paintings in the "tourist" districts fall into this category. It is exotic, yet familiar, easy for the palate. Unfortunately this has led to the wrong impressions about this form of work. Again I would have to equate this to when the uninitiated considers " chop suey" as real Chinese food.

When I say Chinese Brush Painting is an art of lines and forms, then one has to appreciate it from that perspective. I'll use some landscape topics to illustrate my point.

The insert where there is an example of 2 rocks, the top one is done with quite a few different techniques, and compare that with the one on the bottom . Both have shading applied, but the top one is definitely more interesting. These 2 are basically of the same form and line frame, but because the characteristics of the lines are different, hence the effects are different. The bottom image resembles line sketches. Lines that are uniform, uninteresting and lifeless. Yes, there are those of us that considers pixels as an art form, therefore one can argue that an image from newspaper magnified a hundred times to show extreme pixelation as a piece of art, and therefore lines, no matter how mundane, serves the purpose. Well, I beg to differ.

Now look at the other 2 images. One is the image of a rock laden with lines, boring lines. The other one employs the brush to do its thing, giving "life" to the lines. Can you tell which one is which? And which one do you prefer??

These examples are devoid of color on purpose, to emphasize the one most important aspect of Chinese Brush Painting. It is not about color, it is all about the characteristics, the persona of the lines and brush strokes. It is about "Be Fa". It is about painting, not drawing, lines with feeling.

It is about whether the brush stroke is heavy or light, fast or slow. Is the line painted with straight tip, side tip or broad tip and how wet or dry is the brush.
Again, using a stringed instrument as an analogy, many people can enjoy violin music., but it takes knowledge of the techniques of vibrato, fingering, harmonics, double stops, staccato,
playing at the frog or at the tip, whether it is up bow or down bow to truly appreciate the virtuoso.

Maple Bridge Mooring At Night

2009-10-04T01:38:00.000-07:00

When I was preparing the "One Person One Stroke" project, I was using a painting from the late Master Qian Sonyan (1899-a985) as an example. I had tried to paint it just to show my group that it is a "do-a-ble" project. I just dug up my copy and mounted it.

I am posting all 3 versions for you to observe and appreciate.

The one on the bottom is the original work by Master Qian.

Top middle one is the group effort version.

Top top one is my rendition.

Click on the image to enlarge them, and pay attention to the line qualities. See if you can pick out the differences.

Xuan Paper Delight

2009-09-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

The title of this blog sounds like one of those dishes you can order from your local Chop Suey joint....... Yuk !

Anyways, in preparing for the Portland Open Studios event, I am trying to "merchandise" my goods by providing alternative ways of "packaging" . Here again, I am trying to exploit the translucent property of the Xuan paper.

I have done these small 5x7 paintings and instead of the traditional mounting on Xuan backing, I just slip them inside a 5x7 glass block or acrylic block. This way the painting can be viewed from front and back. This is especially interesting when the frame is placed against a window, and it offers a different flavor when viewed in direct light or in transmitted light.

The top 2 pictures are frames placed in front of a shop neon, hence light is transmitted through the Xuan paper. The bottom frame is the same painting

viewed through normal, direct lighting.

Camera work here does not do justice for discerning the different effects. I think the photo voltaic activity tends to average out the curve too much...... but you can still see the difference a little bit.

Xuan Paper on Canvas

2009-09-07T22:10:00.000-07:00

This is another attempt in painting the Columbia River Gorge, the same vantage point as the "View from Woman's Forum State Park". I moved the furniture in the front to give it a cleaner look. I decided to clawed the edges of my Xuan paper to give it a "custom" look. I inadvertently splashed a couple drops of ink on the paper ( my friends say this is my trademark....being sloppy. Guess I should change my name to Joe) so I covered them up with flying geese. It works !!

Readers of my blog would recall this image from my "RICE FIELDS" post. This is the mounted version. I mounted my Xuan paper on a 18x20 canvas. If you click on the image to enlarge it, you can see the texture of the canvas coming through. My technique enables me to exploit the transparency of the Xuan paper and fortified it with the texture of canvas.

When I attempted this painting, I only had Mt. St. Helens in mind. I wanted to paint the meadows coming back; in contrast with the downed timber. After I was done with the meadow, I ran out of steam, so I kinda blocked in the rest of the painting....... I guess technically I would have classified this one more like a water color than a Chinese Brush Painting.

This painting tried to emulate the antique style of the more traditional, classical Chinese painting with faint, almost monochromatic color scheme. This one was one of my practice pieces, but Portland Open Studios is staring me in my face ( October 17,18) so I might as well include it in my portfolio.

View from Woman's Forum State Park

2009-08-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

This is the finished piece of the sketch from the last paint out. Let me begin by saying that I don't like the painting as a whole. I can't quite put my finger on it. Perhaps the frame needs to be wider to capture the grandiose feel of the Columbia River Gorge, ala a wide angle view. I was trying to make the foreground darker and present the effect of looking into brighter skies to show the depth and I failed miserably. It all has to do with my bad habit of laying down too heavy a stain to begin with. Patience is a virtue I must learn. The overall effect of the painting looks "dirty", the lines were not deliberate enough. I guess I have gone over these lines one too many times !!

But aside from that, let us look at other merits of the painting.

The cliff rocks showed up quite nicely with that 3-D effect. This was helped by the dark and dense vegetation around the rock formations. The branches and leaves on the fir were done with an old brush that had lost its point, and is perfect for this "split brush" technique. I had to go over the green parts quite a few times to give it the required color saturation, so that we know these are objects in the foreground.

The mist not only softened the harsh hill lines laid down initially, but it helped to create the meandering effect of the river. The gorge itself is very wide, but such a wide body of water would make the painting less interesting. Depth is achieved by the detailed depiction of the cliffs and the saturated color of the trees, contrasted by the lack of details on the distant hills.

I have moved the protruding rocky formation in the distance to the middle of the painting and made it darker so that it would give us a distant focal point to look at. I decided that the body of water was too bland, so a few sail boats/wind surfers were in order.

Chinese Brush Painting embodies the philosophy of the Ying and Yang, and in the Chinese lingo, it is coined the "Shu" and "Mi". "Shu" means vague, empty, light" and "Mi" means solid, heavy and real. In short, it demands contrast; the solid and real versus the vague and emptiness. The artist is judged not only by his/her skills in the brush strokes ( brush line and point quality, as in calligraphy), but also by how he/she manages the opposing forces, the dark/light, hard/soft, tall/short, motion/stillness etc. This sounds like mumbo jumbo to the un-initiated, but it is after all, a philosophy, a discipline.

Landscape paintings perhaps do not demand strict adherence to this philosophy as floral/birds paintings do, but somehow the artist still has to manifest it; if not in the whole painting, at least in each sub-groups of artifacts. Thus the distant rocky formation is darker than its surroundings, albeit a distance away and should be lighter. The two trees in the original draft now numbers 3 !! A third, faintly visible tree is added to balance the "Mi" with the "Shu". So within that group of 3 trees, there is a relationship, a differentiation of solid vs vague. The brush marks on the bottom of the trees are left not filled in, to contrast with the colored vegetation on the right. So, are the trees the on the same level of brush marks, or are they on a slope beyond the brush marks??

This is for you to figure out, or is this really important ?!

EXPLOITS

2009-08-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

Today I need to vent. Sorry, nothing about paintings here. Thank you for your indulgence.

I am incensed about what happened to me the last couple of days, but perhaps I am more infuriated by how people "PRETEND" their "INTENT", and hide their personal agenda under the buzz word "HUMANITY"

The founder of Coloredpencils was looking for artworks for Midland county clinic ( clinic that serves refugees and immigrants of Oregon) to buy. This founder needed digital images of 3 art works, priced very attractively as the Clinic had only limited funds to purchase art works. These images should be accompanied by the artist's bio, photo, price and size.

I submitted my works as per request and received the following e-mail. The founder needed my ethnic background and family history. Went on to say that the works will be displayed in clinics that served mostly immigrants/refugees community and that "WE" must make connection some how here.

I can understand the desire to have certain genre of work to appeal to a specific audience, but I do not understand the need for me to reveal my family history. So my answer was that I am Asian and I do not share my family history with strangers. I further stated that art itself carries a voice, which transcends all racial barriers. Art is a medium where the artist can bear his/her soul. Any attempts to pigeon hole an artist on racial grounds is not acceptable. I therefore would not be part of this propaganda and withdrew my bid for the Midland Clinic.

For this I received the following response
"by letting newcomers know a little of you we showed them that it wasn't bad to have to immigrate here.......We want to show them that many of us, our grandparents, and parents are adjusting and doing well. We want patience (patients) from afar to feel at home and inspired by many whom arrived and thrived. We handpicked the most talent artists and we used art that familiar from home by our own people (not white American who try to do our native art) to heal patiences' (patients') hearts while the doctors care for their bodies. Thank you for submitting your amazing art work. We regret that you no longer wish to be part of this humanity work."

How noble a mission ! So these refugees must look at their own people's arts to feel at home.
Should we have arts from Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Laos, Philippines, Russia, etc etc to shore up the Clinic? I certainly did not know that selling art works to these clinics is considered " humanity work."

As an immigrant myself, I loathe the idea of these condescending attitudes. This new shore is about new opportunities, new surroundings a chance to acquire new knowledge. Whereas I shall seek my own comforts and familiarity I'll do it on my own terms. I especially do not need these faux do-gooders to help me, all the while fulfilling their own agenda, camouflaging their own shortcomings. These are your closet racists; snakes in the grass.

An interesting side note, the solicitation was for an Asian Art Association for which I am a member . Incidentally, we have several "White Americans" in our club. Had any of these "White Americans" submitted their work, would that be a automatic rejection?

Paint Out at Woman's Forum State Park

2009-08-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

At the location paint out, I was demonstrating how I do my drafts with ink.

The points that I emphasized were that we did not have to paint everything we see in the frame, and conversely we could add objects to the frame, as per our mantra gather what you see, note what you know and paint what you like. In this sketch the trees on the left were borrowed from another frame, and the rocky cliffs were presented at a different angle from the real scenery.
I wanted the trees to frame the left side of the painting, and I wanted to
give more weight to the rocky cliffs. My drafts were to be done with medium light ink, but for the purpose of demonstrating, my lines were way too dark. I painted in the rocky surface to show the group how to render a 3 dimensional feel using the Chinese brush, and how to lay down contour lines. I did the trees this way because I was trying very hard to steer the group away from painting fine needles on the firs, as was usually done in class. My mission was to show the group what Xieyi style painting was about....( paint the meaning/feeling), so we could dispense with a lot of details. The distant ranges were all done too heavily...but that was good too, gave me an opportunity to show how to amend an otherwise failed painting.

Traditional Chinese Brush Painting does not place too much emphasis on
light values, and here is how I differ.
I use shading to augment the "chun"
I rendered on the cliffs to give it that 3-D look. I wanted to leave the tree trunk and the cliffs light to create perspective.
The "way too heavy" lines were remedied by painting in mist using the wet wash technique. I've lengthened the small flanking tree a little bit. Notice the upper trunk is not done with solid lines. They were done in an interrupted fashion, and yet one could clearly make the visual perception of the trunk. It is important because the smaller tree is farther away, and clear solid lines would not have shown distance between the two trees. This "broken line" technique is very important in Chinese Brush painting, and is considered one of the virtues of this art form. This is what Chinese meant by " broken lines, connected meaning/images"

One thing I needed to point out is that the addition of color helps to integrate the painting, but color itself cannot cover up flaws. In all my paintings, coloring is the last step; after all the contour lines, "chun" lines and shading is completed.

I shall go over more in the next posting with the finished painting

Renee's Watercolor Works

2009-08-12T00:07:00.000-07:00

As I had mentioned in my last blog, our on site paint-out was hosted by Renee Lin, a fellow art club member and an accomplished water color artist. She has travelled all over the world to paint, and is currenty enjoying her solo exhibition sponsored by the Beaverton Arts Commission.

Renee is kind enough to give her consent to allow me to post her plein-air sketch on location that day.

Readers of my blog can now appreciate the 2 different art forms;
i.e. water color and Chinese Brush Painting, albeit with slightly different subject matters.

I also found another piece of Renee's work on
snow. Her painting was done in 2004. Again, I thank Renee for letting me post it here.
Readers can go back to my blog on Snow Scene and see the different effect rendered by my
ancient secret solution!!

Crystal Springs Pond

2009-08-11T22:58:00.000-07:00

I've taken a little hiatus the last 2 months. I had to cover for vacations, plus I took a vacation also, visiting places like the Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, the California Red Woods and the Oregon Vortex.
Come October I shall have the Portland Open Studios event, which means I better get busy and get some works ready for the show.
In July our little art club did an off location paint out at the Crystal
Springs in the Rhododendron Garden. One of our members is an accomplished water color artist, and she was showing us her craft. I am hoping to get her painting of that day and post it here. Hopefully this will happen in the near future.
Right now, I just want to share with you my rendition of the site. I am taught 3 mantras for on location painting: 1. Gather what you see 2. note what you know 3. create what you like. What that means is that if you just paint exactly what is in your view, then you might as well take a picture with your camera. You need to compile all the different surroundings, views from different angles ( note what you know) and re-arrange the different elements into a cohesive painting of interest.
Here I was captivated by the low hanging branches of a tree, forming almost like a canopy of an amphitheater. There were lots of ducks frolicking, but they were not at the location that I had preferred. So I decided to fit various groups of ducks into this amphitheater and showcase their activities. I had all the branches swaying to the left with the longest branches to the left, to create motion; thus the canopy is heavy but not suffocating. The center pair of ducks were chasing and evading, to contrast with the others who were being nonchalant. The one on the right was made to be a female, with light brown color to contrast with the bright green necks of the male. Instead of painting in the true color of the leaves and reeds I chose to adorn the painting with a warm brownish hue. The tunnel vision like bright center helps to focus on the subject matter and to create energy. One thing I don't like about this painting is the water.... it looks awkward to me now. I wish I had kept it simple, without the crisscrossing crests.

The branches are done in the "double outline" fashion in the Chinese Brush Painting doctrine. The outlines were further emphasized with ink and Burnt Sienna.
Foliage on the branches were given different shades of brown and yellow to create clumps of leaves, following the morphology of the branches.
I could not decide on whether to paint the lower left duck male or female, so the plumage on that duck was somewhere in-between. Oh well!
The color of the rock and the duck which sits on it was left pale to denote foreground.

The branches are now augmented with side branches to make it look full. Otherwise the tree would not look natural.

The water reeds gets several build-ups of body., all the while leaving gaps and empty spaces to show reflected light.

The painting starts out with basic skeleton of the tree canopy, the reeds and the position of the ducks.

Note in subsequent steps my attempts to create motion and serenity at the same time, by selecting a warm temperature and a narrow range of hues., coupled with light value control

SNOW SCENE

2009-06-07T21:32:00.001-07:00

I am having so much fun with my

Ancient Chinese Secret Solution that I am itching to try different things with it, especially when given the proper provocation. The opportunity came when I was shown how to use the alum solution to paint. I did not agree with the application of the technique, nor did I like the paintings, so I've been experimenting some more on my own.

I used straight alum solution. There are a couple of things that I am doing differently this time. Number one, I am painting on the back side of the paper first. Number two, I am mixing ink and color to the alum solution for subsequent detail work to create the layered effect.

So I started with the snow on the trees. Turning the Xuan paper over, start laying down the alum solution where the snow is. Of course I have to have an image of the trees first. While the patches are still wet and can be easily spotted ( unlike the ones I did on the Speedboat painting), I started to layer over different ink tones ( mixed with the alum solution). When these are close to being dry, I turn the Xuan paper over to the proper side, and lay down alum solution with blue (or ink) for detail work. The snow on the ground is done with big fat brush, side tip fashion. I did the water with dark ink to bring out the contrast and make the snow stand out more. Again, the final touch is to use my brush washing water as a wash for the entire piece. Sure it dulled the snow somewhat, but I think it added that intangible dreaminess to the work. What do you think?

MY SOAP BOX

2009-05-21T02:34:00.000-07:00

Recently I had a chance to do a bit of Chinese Brush Painting demo at a trade show. The audience is obviously polite and enthusiastic, but the most frequent observation, before I started my demo, is that " Oh you do water color". In submitting work for juried events, the pigeon holes are whether you do acrylic, oil, mixed media or water color. Whereas these are the western ways of categorizing based on the medium one uses, the Chinese Brush Painting often separates the medium to water/ink or ink/color. The former plays off the intricacies of ink tones and the techniques in arriving at those tonal varieties. The terms splash ink, break ink, building ink are all techniques that we study, and appreciate and can be readily identified in an artwork. Ink/color involves using both ink and color pigments.

Then we have the different genres of painting, i.e. figure, flower/bird, landscape. Within these categories, there is the distinction of Gongbi (precise, tidy style) and the Xieyi (brush strokes with expression) styles. The works that I do are all Xieyi style paintings.

I am not a "water color" artist and I am certainly not qualified to discuss water color techniques. But once "water color" is mentioned, then all the principals of western art applies, i.e. color wheel, light values, composition, "pigment sedimentation"?? comes into play. Whereas in my learning of painting with Chinese Brush, the craftsmanship, i.e. the use of the brush, assumes utmost importance. The characteristic of the lines, whether it is continuous, broken, moist, dry, straight tip, side tip, the different dotting techniques, and "chuen" techniques, all seem to play a more important role than what "medium" one works with. I am certainly not down playing the importance of the medium; afterall, we do have a variety of pigments, papers, brushes for different thematic subject matters, and even different inks for painting or calligraphy.

I am using an analogy of comparing the same music played with different instruments. The melody is exactly the same, and most people do enjoy music, but it requires intimate knowledge of the musical instrument for one to truly appreciate the differences. If the listener knows nothing about string instruments, then techniques such as vibrato, pizzicato,harmonics would mean absolutely nothing. This person would not appreciate the need of playing with finger position vs. playing on an open string.

I am not trying to be a snob here, but for a person to appreciate Chinese Brush Painting as an art form, one should be equipped with discerning knowledge and not assumptions. If I might use music to illustrate my point again, there is a famous Chinese violin concerto with the title "Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto" and obviously it was written for Violins. Well the same piece has been adapted for performance with Erhu, a Chinese two-stringed bowed instrument, and the effects are very different, albeit the same music. It is the instrument, Violin vs. Erhu, Chinese Brush vs. ??, that makes the difference, and to equate Chinese Brush Painting with water color is a mistake.

I fervently hope that for those of us who are new to Chinese Brush Painting would stop looking at the art form as "water color". It is about the Brush strokes and how to appreciate them.

Okay, I feel much better now.

SPEED BOAT

2009-05-16T00:08:00.000-07:00

I showed how I laid the ground work for this painting using my Secret Ancient Chinese solution, to establish the wave crests, followed by meticulous filling in with different ink tones to construct the "waves". Then I painted in the boat and the human figures. Before I go too far with this, I must first declare that this is not an original composition. I was trying to emulate the work of another artist and I have stated that with the labeling on the painting itself. What I was trying to explore was to employ my own method to create my style of "wave" effect. A few more flicks of the Secret Solution to the left, and then painted in the boulders and by george, if the water wasn't pounding on them rocks!!!!

In the process of painting in the waves and having the crests show, I rendered too dark a color. This gave the painting a nasty, fierce look but I would have preferred a lighter tone.

After looking at it for a week or so, I decided that the only first aid I could administer was to add a little bright color to the painting. I made the front and back person wore red hats, as if they were the guides and the middle couple were the passengers.

I must say this was a fun project..............

When I have time I would try this one again, with a lighter tone, and different figures.......

Toying with Ancient Chinese Secret Solution

2009-05-03T22:43:00.000-07:00

Ever since I had some success with my Ancient Chinese Secret Formula ( refer to my blog on "SPLASH"), I've been itching to embark on another project using the same technique.

I found the work of a contemporary Chinese artist and I liked the way he represented a boat slipping through white waters so I decided to emulate his painting.

I am faced with the challenge that what I am doing is Xieyi, the painting style where expression and ambiance assumes utmost importance. My downfall is that often I am so caught up in details that I lose sight of the big picture. So how do I re-create this energy of white waters amidst all the intricacies of painting waves.

I know I wanted to use my alum solution for the white, foamy part of the churning water, so I started out by positioning the boat on my paper, and penciling in the crests of the waves.

The reason I had to pencil in the highlights is that once this solution dries, I don't know which spots I have laid the elixir, so it would be very difficult for me to draw a cohesive painting. I also mixed some salad dressing with my secret solution to give it a thicker consistency, so that it is more visible.

All this time I am taking extra precaution to be not too cautious!! What an oxymoron !!!!!!

I don't want the water to look or feel static and stagnant. I want it to come alive!

I now wet the entire paper with light ink solution. The areas where I laid the secret solution now shows up as white greasy marks. This is almost like working in darkroom in photography, to see the image emerging from your developer. Here is an exercise in patience and creativity....... to define the outlines and the shapes of the white waters.

My solution laden spots did not show up prominently enough so I decided to augment them by laying on more layers of that solution. I raised my paper against the light so I can see those bare spots better, and I went to work on adding extra layers of this solution to those areas.

Now that I have the white foamy crests down, I need to darken the surrounding areas to create the contrast. I am having problem visualising the "structure" of these crests. I know I can treat them like rows of hills, as if I was doing Xieyi landscape painting. So leave the ridge bright, "chuen" the rest, and shade the valleys..... piece of cake. Alas, I have never seen so many little hills undulating and moving in front of me........ it couldn't be the Syrah that I am drinking, could it? Information overload, my hard drive hangs!

One Person One Stroke Finished Product

2009-04-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

Ta Daaaaaaaa Here's the finished painting.

It is safe to say that every one of us had a Great time and new gained confidence.

We learned that we need to go over the painting many times, and that it is an evolving process. We were faced with a "boo boo" when the left support of the bridge was deemed out of scale and had the wrong orientation.

What did we do? We extended the foliage to cover the "boo boo" and this is a hands-on experience that is invaluable.

We retained the original title of the painting, but in place of the poem that was on the original work, we had everybody sign their names.

The following link lets you see some of the highlights of the event

http://gallery.me.com/akwan#100012

Rice Fields finished product ?

2009-04-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

Received word from Portland Open Studios that I am " IN " this year, suffice to say, I am elated. Went through my pile of paper on the floor, picking projects that are half done and see which one might have potentials to be Open Studios material.

Back to the Rice Fields again. Like any good Chinese Brush Painting student, I finished composing my work, did the necessary "chuen", laid down my shading with light ink etc. We were taught that coloring does not make your painting "better", it merely brings into life what we have laid down on paper. In other words, everything needs to be finished first, and coloring is the last step.

After several layers of colors and washing, I ended up with the painting on top. I must say that I did not like it at all. I have tried to soften the roofs by applying a dark plum color to it, using side tip brushing. This did make the roofs less "harsh", less "rigid", but the entire housing compound seemed totally detached from the painting. It lacked "connection", it did not belong. I looked like an island in the sea. The trees and shrubs/woods at the bottom of the painting look like two flat ribbons. The rigid lines at the lower left corner of the housing compound looked out of place, and wanted to lead you away from the painting; a most uncomfortable feeling. Perhaps the corner is too harsh?

I let the painting dry and looked at it for a whole afternoon, thinking. Trying to understand what I have put down on paper. It finally dawned on me that I was too busy recording, and forgot about creating.

I started to back lit the trees, because light is coming from behind the paper.

I high lighted the shrubs and trees into distinct clumps to add dimension and shape to the "flat ribbons". I re dotted the dark areas with ink and dark plum ( I love using dark plum color; it helps to transition between dark and light areas ) to make the high lights work. All of a sudden the foreground looked a lot more interesting. The void on the lower edge of the painting was meant to be just voids, because I did not apply color there. But because of the color

bleed from applying the dark plum and green pigments, the bottom "void" took on a feel of a glassy surface of a pond. So I added a reflection of the tree on the right, to make it look like a pond.

This was a happy coincidence. The pond was not in my original thoughts. It just happened, and I think it added a lot to the painting. Now I have a foreground, the edge of the pond, then the commune, then the fields, then the distant hills, then the smoggy skies. All of a sudden, everything seemed "connected" I also softened the lower left "corner" by adding a couple of trees on site and by laying down reflections of the houses on the flooded fields. I also darkened the lower fields and gave the entire painting a green wash to integrate the colors.

Doesn't the painting look a lot better now?

Rice Fields

2009-04-14T08:28:00.000-07:00

Bought some new paper lately, Korean Hemp Paper and I've been itching to try this out.

The paper is very unlike the Xuan paper in that it behaves almost like sized paper. Has a waxy feel to it and does not absorb water readily. I found that out when I splash some brush washing water on the paper ( my bad habit) and I was able to blot it up.

I wanted to paint the rice fields in China, flooded with water and surrounded by columnous hills that are quite characteristic of the southwestern part of China and Vietnam. I also had photos as references for this endeavour.

The composition is not your typical Chinese painting with the scattered focal points. My painting here has a vanishing point, definitely speaks of the western genre. I wanted to have a play of light values, by showing the reflections of the distant hills in the flooded rice fields, such that the massive fields behaves almost like water surface. I wanted the geometric array of roofs of the village commune to be contrasting with the strange looking hills in the background.

I painted the distant hills with wet wash, and when they are almost dry, I went over the contour with darker ink. The ink diffuses out and gives one the effect of vegetation. If I was to add silhouettes of trees etc on the hills, they would look too deliberate, and takes away the Xieyi feel of the painting. The fatal mistake I made in this painting is that I was " filling in " the roofs with concentrated ink, almost like painting by the numbers. Whereas this looks neat an tidy, but is totally devoid of any artistic feel to it. This is what happens when we use a 2 dimensional photograph as reference. Somehow we still need to portray a 3 dimensional look. I've often talk to other beginners about the shortcomings of looking too closely at a photograph, and this is a good example of what NOT TO DO. We need to be able to digest the image and translate into our own interpretation.

Two Ancient Pieces

2009-04-08T17:58:00.000-07:00

I took one of my finished works to Hong Kong for mounting. Our local craftsman here lack the skill in silk mounting. Just got this back in the mail and I was so excited that I had to post this right away. Showed a head shot to reveal the size of this painting.

This piece of work is suppose to emulate the old classic style of Chinese Brush painting. The emphasis is with the lines, with scant use of color. My theory is that in the old days, illumination

is not great in a typical Chinese dwelling, even during daytime. So color scheme is simple and sparingly used. Artists showed their craft by displaying superb line qualities. Moist vs. dry, side tip, straight tip, fleeting strokes and hesitations are all used in a harmonious way to illustrate the aesthetic qualities of the painting. The "chuen" ( rubbing technique) is typically the "hemp" style, i.e. ala hemp fibres.

The land masses on the left has totally different characteristics from the right. The left is of multi-lobed hills, so the " hemp chuen" is used to define the quality of the slopes, the convolutions of the hills. The "hemp chuen" gives a rounded, definitely not jagged feel to the land features. The right hand side speaks of drama. Bold, protruding granites form the main features. Here the "chuen" is more of the "axe" type. Bold, discrete side-tips with lifts to give the harsh texture. Of course shading adds to the strong 3-D feel of features to the entire land mass.

The left and right is joined by a transitional spit, via a bridge. The willows on the spit bends to the right, answering to the left bending willows on the right side of the painting. Water space is left blank, with a very faint hint of the same brown color of the hills (integrating the overall color scheme of the painting)

This painting failed in the sense that the color was too heavy and too bright. I would have preferred a more subdued hue, especially that awful green with the willows. The mountain streams should be left with just a hint of color. The plateau on the left, behind the ridges is showing the wrong perspective..... showing too much of the top. The shore line on the right scurries upwards instead of staying at horizontal...... I must be tired.

Well, these are areas that I need to correct, if I have to redo this painting. I actually have sized another length of paper and I wanted to paint this again on sized paper, to see if the sized paper would give the painting a less saturated look, therefore coming closer to the "antique" feel of the painting.

ONE PERSON ONE STROKE PROJECT

2009-04-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

On April 18th, I shall entice a bunch of Chinese Brush Painting enthusiasts to embark on a group project. I shall name this project One Person One Stroke. These people love the art of Chinese Brush Painting, but feel shy about painting anything of substance. I suggested this concept of a group painting. We shall each take our turn to lay down a few strokes, thus none of us would have to bear the entire cross. I wanted us to copy some one's work to begin with., working with a template, if you wish. I wanted our group to understand what the painting is about and why are certain things done the way they were. For without comprehending the meaning of the painting, then our copying would be in vain; we would not learn anything from our people's work.

This piece of work is loosely translated as Night Anchor by the Maple Bridge. The Maple and the bridge is self evident. The maple is done with the "dotting" technique and is ideal for a group of 12 to 15 people, for each of us would have ample opportunity for "dotting". The dotting involves different ink tones, and different color hues, would be interesting to see how it progresses.

The bridge seemed simple, yet is difficult to master. First of all, the aesthetic proportions of the structure is difficult to achieve. If one magnifies the image, one would see that the lines are not solid, continuous lines. They are undulating, broken lines. Solid, continuous lines lack character, and look stagnant, as if they are formed by moulding. Chinese Brush Painting is all about the quality of the lines, so this is something we need to address.

Where does the " night " scene come from?? From the reflection of the moon in the water. By painting the moon as a reflection in the water, the artist makes the audience think, therebyentertains the notion that this night scene is more poetic. It can also be said that if the moon was in the sky, then the upper portion of the painting might be darker, and creates a sense of heavy on the top, not a virtue of a good painting.

Anchor is evidenced by the 2 boats that are tied up by the bridge, only half exposed.... adding to the security that these boat owners must have sought. Anchor can also be evidenced euphemistically by the birds that are resting at the tree branches on the right.

The maple trees are not all solid with dotted leaves, but spaces between branches are quite evident. This is what is known as "breathing" in Chinese Brush Painting.

The reflection of the bridge in the water is handled in a very low key fashion... barely a hint. It just adds to the dreaminess of the work, and harks a nocturnal theme.

I am really looking forward to the finished product, painted by a group of students, many of us are novices. I shall post the finished painting when we have it.

ABOVE THE CLOUDS

2009-02-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

I've decided to try the Portland Open Studios again this year and try my luck again. Above The Clouds is one of the entries I submitted for jury. The subject matter and technique is quite traditional Chinese Xueyi Landscape, using the wet wash method for clouds. One thing to note is the choice of color in this painting. I've conveyed a fossil-ed feel to the rock columns to show the hardness of the masses. This is done to offset the relative lack of "chuen" (meaning rubbing, usually to impart texture) on some surfaces. I've used a little titanium with the opaque greens to make the trees really stand out, to contrast with the hard landscape. I've also positioned the gazebo on the lower peak on purpose. The upper peak had steps along the flank of the hill, but leads to no obvious structure, unlike the hill on the bottom, where the serpentine trail leads to the gazebo. Perhaps the vista on the top hill is obscured ????

How "Splash" was created

2009-02-12T17:52:00.000-08:00

As discussed in the last posting, I am experimenting with my techniques/methods. I am trying to describe water sprays/splashes when it hits a rock, a boulder. I am trying not to attenuate the energy of that flow. So I employed my own SECRET ANCIENT CHINESE recipe of a masking fluid and delivered it onto the paper in a controlled and deliberate fashion. Now I can fill in the background, first with light tones to define the splash, then gradually building up the peripheral barriers to the water. This was a challenging and yet fun project, it all started when a classmate of mine and I were small talking about masking fluids, and whether Chinese Brush Paintings utilize it or not.

SPLASH

2009-02-06T23:36:00.000-08:00

The Beaverton Arts Commission had an open call for artists to submit their works for an exhibition at the Beaverton Library. I had submitted 4 pieces and this is the only one accepted.

This was indeed a new experience for me. I was experimenting with the style and technique of my art work.

The style is kind of abstract.... it is Xueye ( paint with feeling, thought) for sure and the technique is to paint around the voids. I was experimenting with my own concoction of a masking solution. I settled with alum and milk. The painting was created with controlled flicks of the masking solution on Xuan paper. I then painted around the splashing, forming my water and rock and boulder. Title of the piece is called "SPLASH" and I am quite happy with the impression of movement, and a palpable sense of energy. I am especially gratified that I could still paint the rock and boulders using traditional Chinese technique. I feel that I have amalgamated pretty nicely the East with the West.