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.