To gel or not to gel

I have been continually amending my Beaverton Creek classic style painting for a while now and I am really afraid that one of these days I might go overboard and make it ostentatious.  I suppose I could not gauge for myself whether the painting is 80% complete or 99% complete.  One way to cure this urge and OCD nonsense is to sign off the painting and mount it.

I did just that, in my usual Xuan-Boo fashion.

 Xuan mounted on canvas

I mentioned that I would coat it with a gel medium as a final step, not only to protect the surface of the delicate Xuan, but also to restore the brilliance and depth of the ink and pigment after they have dried.  I remember when I was first starting out, I was so absorbed by the appearance of the painting when wet, only to be disappointed after it is dried, as everything dulls.  What if I find something that will retain that wet look?

My prayer seemed to have been answered by employing the gel coat.  It definitely brings back and depth and brilliance of the original attempts.

 left 1/3 coated with gel

 right 1/3 not yet coated

I've been criticized by people in the circle for doing this.  Perhaps of the glossy finish the gel imparts, or perhaps the look and feel is too non-Chinese?

I suppose some of us use hair dressing in our hair while others don't.   I am at peace with my choice.

Xuan-Boo Behind The Scene

I added another painting to my arsenal for the upcoming school bazaar. 

This is a pretty generic Chinese brush painting of the Xieyi, Birds genre.  A colorfully perched bird on lotus stalk, with a lotus bud as background, and a hint of pond grass to occupy the corner.  A rather non interesting painting, but one that is easy to digest and possesses all the proper "Asian" flavor and tend to be popular with the average visitor.

I decided to mount this painting a la Xuan-Boo style, for ease of display and handling.

It has been 18 months since I announced Xuan-Boo on my blog.  This is a process of mounting the painting of Xuan on canvas.  The finished product can be displayed as a canvas and shows the texture of the canvas.  It is my way of presenting a traditional art form in a more contemporary, western format.

   spreading starch                                        

 

The Xuan-boo process involves all the skills and patience of the traditional Xuan on Xuan.  For such small pieces, the first step is to spread the glue (starch) onto the canvas using a wide, stiff brush.  This brush is normally used on the back of the painting; not only to spread starch, but to brush out air bubbles and creases in the wet Xuan.

notice vertical crease extending from bottom of bird's foot, also parallel lotus bud

smooth surface after brushing out creases and air pockets, top overhang margin tacked to the side of frame.

Next we place the Xuan onto the canvas with the starch applied.  We do this with the help of a narrower, but stiff brush.  This is a crucial step where patience and skill is of utmost importance.  The Xuan gets waterlogged and tears easily when wet with starch.  We are not allowed the luxury of repeatedly peeling off and repositioning the Xuan to take out creases or air bubbles.  The brush has to be handled in a gentle yet firm fashion to lay the Xuan flat on the canvas with minimal crease ridges and air pockets.

After the flat surface is secured to our satisfaction, and the overhanging sides of the Xuan is wrapped onto the sides of the canvas frame, we turn the canvas over onto our fleece pad and use a very stiff  palm tree fibre brush to tap and press onto the back of the canvas.  This is to insure a secure bonding of the Xuan with the canvas.

The mounted canvas is now left to air dry and this process takes 3 to 5 hours depending on humidity.
The slower the drying process, the better the tightening (flattening) effect and the resulting canvas has a taut surface with good texture reveal.

Lastly a coating of gel medium  is applied to protect the surface and to further bring out the color depth.

before mounting                       

 

 

after mounting, brings out color

Mounting is an important, integral part of traditional works done with Xuan.  Amongst other things, it brings out the white balance of the painting.  By looking at the before mounting and after mounting pictures, one can appreciate the subtle, but definite difference in the white balance and the vividness of the image (look at the 2 blue stain dots in the upper left quadrant).   I know this person who wants to be a fast track artist, who was too cheap to learn the proper way of mounting, was trying to mount with raw flour because flour was used in the conversation and the wrong assumption was made.   So learn to mount Xuan properly or pay to have that done for you.  It will pay you back a hundred fold.

Yes this is rather labor intensive.  Next time we pay for a piece of Chinese brush painting, do take into account the time and finesse required by this procedure.