Xuan Paper Delight

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

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.