Red Cliffs Nostalgia I, The Stonehenge

Now that I have the calligraphy in the bag, I can proceed in earnest to work on my painting.

As I mentioned in my last blog, the verses are from the famous Song Dynasty scholar/official Su Shi (Su Dongpo) when he visited Chibi and was being sentimental while reminiscing the historical events that happened some 800 prior.  The Battle of Chibi ( English translation Battle of the Red Cliffs) was about a naval war between  adversaries and the outcome depended on a change of wind direction.  Which way the wind blew was vital because fire was employed as the tactic in this conflict.  Whoever could predict and take advantage of the change of wind direction became the victor.  The exact location of Chibi is still highly debated, but suffice to say that it is along the Yangtze River.

The Columbia River Gorge in the Pacific Northwest is a designated National Scenic Area and the town of Hood River has the distinct honor of being the Windsurfing Capital of The World.  This section of the gorge compresses the east-west wind and amplifies its magnitude.  On windy days tourist would venture up to the Vista House on top of Crown Point and try to stand up unassisted in the 70 mph winds.  When the east wind blows, we get dry heat funneling through from the east in the summer, and cold frigid winds in the winter.  Westerly wind brings moderation and weather system from the Pacific Ocean.  Present day Gorge is dotted with wind turbines now.

Farther east from the Vista House, we have the famous Falls area, Multnomah Falls being the most well known.  Beyond that near the cities of Mosier and The Dalles lies the serpentine stretch of Historic Columbia Rivery Highway, where cyclists and motorists alike enjoy the challenge of the winding blacktops.  At the end of such switchbacks is the Rowena Loop, which is a circular drive at the Rowena Crest Viewpoint where one can enjoy the Columbia River down below.  Spring wild flowers and birds harnessing the updraft from the cliffs for take-offs make this Viewpoint a popular respite for travelers.  Thirty minutes car ride east across the river from the loops  gets one to the Maryhill Museum, Maryhill Winery and the adjacent Stonehenge replica.

What if I utilize all these vistas and the Columbia River as a backdrop for my painting?  I think it is a perfect setting for reminiscing and it reflects the spirit of the meaning effused by the verses from Su.  I also find a special connection with and relate to the wind in the river gorge.  I can definitely visualize a battle involving the use of fire being carried out here. 

I am making up some rules for me to follow in doing this painting.  One is I shall not hurry. Two is I shall try to present the painting with more classical means of depiction and brushstrokes.  Three is I shall incorporate each of the four vistas mentioned and each vista can be viewed as a painting by itself.

I am starting with a sketch of my main points of interest and the general layout of the proposed painting.  This makes it much easier for me to work on individual sections later.  Somehow I feel more disciplined this way, and more apt to take my time in developing the details.

First come the Stonehenge, occupying the lower left hand corner of the painting.

I am defining the light value first.  I find this helpful when I render my "Chuen" or texturing brushstrokes. 

A more developed painting, with light values and initial texturing.  Notice the classical presentation of foliage.

Continue to develop the left side of the painting:

This is how the left side fits in with the whole painting:

I can square-crop just the left side of the painting, with the calligraphy and make that a painting.  So far I am adhering to my own rules.  

Bane of my existence

FaceTime and WhatsApp are indispensable apps these days, thanks in part to the pandemic.  Regardless, these apps dissolve the physical distance between people and the audio/visual combination makes the virtual visitation experience credible.  Kudos to whoever made it possible for multiple people to connect at the same time. 

My ensemble of siblings is situated on 3 different continents and in 3 different time zones; so we usually meet at a time which would not inconvenience any one of us too much.  During a recent visit, one of my siblings started to recite a verse from some poetry.  That verse was somewhat familiar to the rest of us, yet we couldn't identify the origin readily.  Thus the source of the verse became the conversation for the next half hour.  The sibling who uttered that poem said it was from the collection of the Three Hundred Tang Poems.  

Tang Poems was a subject that each one of us in the group had to study as part of the school curriculum.  That was at least half a century ago. The amazing thing was that we were all able to produce our own copy of the Tang Poems and proudly displayed our book in front of the camera and the conversation quickly turned to a bantering of who owns the most "antique" edition of the publication, as if that really mattered.  Obviously we all considered the collection of Tang Poems a worthy addition to our library.  

Some days later, I was with another clique of overseas friends online and one of them mentioned something about how some of the Chinese hit songs borrowed verses from well known Chinese literature and turned them into part of the lyrics or part of the title.  The topic that day centered around a poetry that dealt with the historic Battle of Red Cliffs.  I won't bore you with the historical facts.  It is easy enough to find it on the internet.  I am not a total stranger to this poetry, since the author was Su Dongpo.  Su was visiting the Red Cliffs, which evoked in him a sentiment of inopportune times and not earning the respect he deserved. 

I decided to do a painting based on Su's writing of  "The Red Cliffs Nostalgia" and I would be putting calligraphy on my painting.  I will be paring down his poetry into a more manageable length, not only to save space, but to save grace.  My grace.

The bane of my existence, and there are two.  I wish I could properly play at least one musical instrument; I wish I have good brush calligraphy.

I had labored over Su Dongpo's calligraphy during my course of learning Chinese Brush.  One that I studied and emulated extensively was his Cold Food Festival writing.  Since it was learning by rote for me, I never internalized the calligraphy.  In other words, I have horrible handwriting, in the absence of the Te.  In order not to "ruin" my painting, I decided to do my calligraphy first.  I won't start my painting process until I deem my calligraphy "presentable".  That is how much I dread my own calligraphy.

I started my practicing routine.

The gist of the pared down writing is:

"The incessant waves urge the river eastward, taking with them all the accomplished people.  Such picturesque landscape, how much history have you witnessed.  Perhaps I am being too sentimental, reminiscing the days gone by.  Life is but a dream; allow me to scatter my wine, ode to the river and the moon."

I finally took a deep breath, threw my hands up and settled on this edition:

I find such resonance in these words, hence the motivation for my new painting.