MY SOAP BOX

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, and whether it's on Xuan or silk.  The ink and water 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.  Chinese have a saying that ink should have 5 colors.  Ink and 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; after all, 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 calligraphic brush strokes and how to appreciate them, and not about tribalism as some might counter.

Okay, I feel much better now.

SPEED BOAT

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

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!