I See The Light, the verdict

After looking at the pinned painting on the wall for a couple of weeks, I couldn't think of what other changes I could make to it.  I personally thought the effect was quite dramatic.  I had mulled the painting from near and afar.  I would look at it from 10 feet away, to see if it hit me in any way.  I would examine it from 2 feet away, looking at minute details and brushstrokes.  I wanted the painting to have a visual impact that could reel in the audience, then smother them with fine details, like reading the pages of a fine novel.

I would walk into the room with my eyes looking away and then turned my attention to the painting abruptly, just to see if I could get a rise out of it.  Some Geek, I know.  But that's the joy of painting, for an amateur like me anyways.

Before I got too indulged in my own work, I decided to solicit the opinion from the pros.

The first pro is a famous artist who studied in China and France and is well versed in both Chinese and Western arts.

The artist did not like my using of the alum, or gouache or gesso at all, which was really surprising to me.
"Dirty" was the comment. It looked unnatural and smudged.  Too much covering up.  Try to paint by leaving voids was the advise.

However this artist really liked my treatment of the trees in the background.  It was subtle, full and yet not cluttered at the same time was the encouraging comment.  Again urging me to rid the contrived highlights.

I took the painting to another professional painter for critique.  This artist studied in China and is well versed in charcoal and oil, doing landscapes and portraits.

I told this artist about my reservation and ambivalence in using gouache and gesso and alum since these are rather unconventional ways for painting on Xuan and the reply was that I need to paint the way I see it.  My only concern should be on how I express myself. There is no right or wrong in painting so don't let my own ignorance shackle myself.

This artist had exactly the opposite opinion from the last pro.

This artist didn't think there was any problem with the alum etc and the painting was not "dirty" as the other pro would have put it.  This artist thought my use of the highlight was quite effective and gets the point across.

The problem however was with the background.  It was felt that my repeated washing and re-adjusting of my black/grey areas rendered the painting too "heavy".  Thus the ethereal feel of ink and water on Xuan was  lost.  I had forsaken the translucent, fragile feel for this heavily caked look.  The advice was to brush up my perception of the values and just do it with simple aplomb and certainty rather than repeated staining.

This was especially refreshing for me to hear, coming from a artist who normally deals with canvas and heavy stock paper, to have such an insight on the feel of the paper itself.

I have forgotten that the Xuan that I painted on is an integral part of the work, and not just a passive substrate.  It too could effervesce a nuance into the overall presentation of the piece.

My saving grace, hopefully, is the fact that I had planned to frame this piece of work using my Suliao Xuan Ban method to allow the painting to be shown via back-lit lighting.  I am convinced that the translucent virtue of Xuan would still come through.

We shall see.