COLLABORATIVE PAINTING

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

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

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 your fall in case you tripped.

Cheers to "Feng Shui"