Flamingo Tango

One of my teacher accused me of unable to Let Go !  Thus my brushstrokes are not deliberate and feel inhibited.  I was told many times to let it all hang out, because I had to go so much overboard just to reach par!

I was cutting up some paper for calligraphy, which I was in no mood to do.  Why don't I doodle, or just horse around with the brush?  Perfect excuse for not doing calligraphy!

Images of a pair of Flamingo dancing came to mind.

Not bad, I thought.  Then I decided to add in a few black areas to signal the trailing edge feathers.
Us Chinese have a saying:  Painting legs on a snake.........................................  messing up a good thing by being redundant and overbearing.  The black lines were clearly an afterthought, and not syncing with the rest of the brushstrokes.

In my disgust, I grabbed a whole sheet of 4 ft Xuan and repeated the process, except this time I figured a way to incorporate the black areas a little better.

I don't dislike it.  I thought it looks interesting.  I could do a better job on the body!  I thought the body on the smaller piece looks better.

I decided to anchor the birds a little better by writing in some darker ink brushstrokes, being careful to display calligraphic characteristics, especially with turns and lifts.

Heron Taking Off

I was cleaning out the attic when I came across a model glider that my son and I had built years ago.
This baby has a 6 feet wingspan and is covered with blue and white mylar at the wings and white on the fuselage.  Somehow it reminded me of a heron.

I wanted to paint a heron taking off, with its dropped nose and neck.  Now I'm thinking about the supersonic Concorde.  These images are good; hopefully they can help lend some emotional content to the painting.

 front of Xuan                     

Heron taking flight would assume a lower view angle, thus framed by grassy weeds.
I first wrote the lines for the stalks, then I turned the Xuan over and retraced some of these lines with alum solution.  As we recall, alum works as a resist.  The reason to do this on the back side is because it is more effective this way.

tracing with alum on the back

Now I painted in the heron itself.  The grassy weeds now have a narrow white margin provided by the alum, thus making a better separation from the heron; creating a perception of distance.

Painted in the shore line and trees to add a perception of distance.  I tried to highlight the heron by darkening the surrounding with a wash.   The best concoction for this wash is the brush bath.  This bath water is the sum of all the colors used for this painting, and is guaranteed to provide the right tone.

   darkening the surrounding

 

       brush bath used as wash

 

This is what the painting looks when dried.

This is an exploratory piece.  I would like to apply what I've learned from this to a few more?

Beaverton Creek (Classic) cont'd

One of my weaknesses is my tendency to "Tu","Mew".  That can be loosely translated as to doodle, to sketch.  In Chinese brush painting, where Bi-Fa is all important, the fact that I muck up any brush strokes is a cardinal sin.  I don't want to show a wad of cotton, but strands of fibers.

Thus I try to be a little more patient, a little more deliberate, try to coax myself into a calligraphic state of mind. 

I just don't like the result.  The imagery look contrived.  I really have not mastered the art nor the discipline of incorporating technique with thought.  The nirvana for me would be to be able to achieve Xieyi without sloppiness. 

All of a sudden, the Xuan appeared to have multiplied in size.  I'm having difficulty filling in the landscape with mixed foliage.  I suppose I would rely on wash and moss dots at the final phases.

 

My original premise was to lay down a wash of Prussian Blue at the top of the paper to give it perspective and interest, as I did with my Xanadu Fall painting, but I didn't quite like it this time around.

It has been almost 4 months since I conceived of the painting and by now cherry blossoms are in bloom.  Why not embellish it with cherry blossoms then?

 

I think this looks more inviting.