Ripples and waves

I think I have a pathological fear of water.  Some people call that a phobia.  Chinese astrologer has cautioned me about not messing with water, yet according to western astrology I belong to the water sign. Go figure! 

Water to me is the fluid that runs over my head in a shower, the shimmering substance in a river, and the infinite mass of motion and energy out in the ocean.  I still don't understand how water changes its shape to fit into anything, and how it heals itself even when something pokes through it.  I am afraid of it, yet I wish I could live in it, like a fish.  It gives life, and it also takes life; for us terrestrials anyways.  Perhaps I've listened to Rusalka's Song to the Moon too many times.

So I am going to attempt to paint my fascination, water, again.

I will try my luck with alum solution.  Alum is used as a sizing agent to treat Xuan paper, rendering it less absorbent.  It is this particular quality that I am trying to exploit. So I am using un-sized Xuan and paint lines with alum solution.  I mixed in a tiny bit of ink with the alum solution to help me see the stripes better.  I am visualizing the ripples, or little wave fronts as I paint.  I do this on the back of the Xuan paper.  When the paper is turned over, one can see a clear margin forming around the lines painted with alum.  This is the effect I am after.

I then fill in the space between the alum solution drawn lines with ink.  Taking liberty to cover up more or less as desire, and adding new shapes as I go.  After all, water is always changing its form and the ripples are always marching on.  Who is to say that a certain shape or line is correct or incorrect.  

I now have juxtaposed lines of black ink and clear alum, suggesting ripples on a body of water.  I am also painting in some form of a shore or land mass for this body of water.  All these are done on the back of the paper at this point. 

Now I flip over the paper to the right side up, and continue to correct and fill in the ink lines, based on what the paper reveals from the other side.  I am using the backside of the paper as a road map and the top side of the paper for the actual painting.  Notice how the blob of ink on the right is now on the left.  That's because I have flipped the paper over.  I am also giving the shore some structure and texture by amending it with some wild brushstrokes.  They are meant to be ambiguous.  They could be highlights, mist, water, or any combination thereof.  I am rendering the background with slanted brushstrokes, to make the composition more interesting.

Somehow I think the painting needs something to shore up the right side.  I am dabbing in some rough brushstrokes, reminding myself that these are flowers branches from a crabapple tree from my backyard.  I like the interplay of the dabs of petals with the black and white stripes of the water.   That little bit of color is like a garnishing.  

Rusalka

I mentioned that I was listening to" Song To the Moon" from Rusalka when I was painting my rabbits on the moon for our Lunar New Year and somehow I have not been able to clear that image from my thoughts. 

Rusalka as I understand is a character in Slavic folklore and though it has many variations it nonetheless seem to involve spirits of the female gender and it lives in a body of water luring or haunting men, depending on how you look at it.  I suppose it is haunting if the woman died in tragedy and her spirit has not seen salvation or her death has not been avenged.

The Rusalka I referred to in my blog is the protagonist in an opera written by Antonin Dvorak.  The work tells the story about a water nymph Rusalka who falls in love with a mortal prince and bargains with a witch to turn her into a human to accommodate the potential relationship.  The price she pays is that she would be turned into a mute and become a mortal and the prince will die if he does not love Rusalka, who will in turn be damned eternally.  As with all great love stories, tragedy is the only viable conclusion.  Nobody wins in the end, the prince dies and Rusalka is damned.  It makes the song even more haunting.  The libretto of this opera has Rusalka professing her love for the prince to the moon in the opening act and asking the moon to help convey her love.

As I am writing this down, I am reminded of other friendships between the mortals and the immortals that are prevalent in other cultures.  Obviously everyone is familiar with the "Mermaid".

In Chinese culture I can think of at least two very popular folklores that pertain to such a union.  The story of "Goddess Marriage" or "Fairy Couple" (天仙配) is about the marriage of the 7th daughter of the Heavenly Emperor to a mortal who exhibited qualities of scholarship and filial duty.  The interesting thing about this folklore is that it has several different versions, and not all endings are tragic.

In "Legends of the White Snake" (白蛇傳) a folklore that tells the story of how a white python was able to be transformed into a beautiful lady, thus deemed an "unclean spirit" by priests.  The white python marries a mortal and a priest is determined to "exorcise" this mortal's wife, breaking up the union.  This folklore has something similar to Rusalka, in that the relationship between the mortal and immortal is brokered or intervened by a witch, or a priest.  Whilst the story of Rusalka ends in sadness the story of "Legends of the White Snake" has a happy ending.  Perhaps it is a statement that true love gets rewarded and humanity embraces even "unclean spirits".

Enough of a segue, time to paint my thoughts on paper.

My Rusalka is a lady poking her head out of water in a moon lit night, having a pensive moment with the the moon in the backdrop.  Needless to say, this renowned soprano aria "Song to the moon" is playing in the background.  My painting of "Whiter Shade of Pale" introduced me to painting of human forms.  Through those months of paying closer attention to the human body, I have a deeper appreciation of why Da Vinci studied human anatomy.  For me, I find the human neck to be an object of fascination.  I particularly enjoy how the sternocleidomastoid muscle (the 2 big muscles at the sides of our neck) in the neck twists and turns with the head, sometimes highly visible, and other times disappears beneath the skin.  I also enjoy its relationship with the clavicle, and how the depression at the bottom of the neck ebbs and flows with our posture.  A big lovely dimple.

Thus I shall attempt to showcase the neck of my water nymph. Try anyways.

A study drawing

I am using a very fibrous heavy Xuan.  I like the fact that this paper allows the color to float and disperse on it momentarily before fully soaking it in.  Hopefully it will help embody the ambience of a night scene with less than well defined lines; with the visible fibers strands adding to the ambiguity.

I am making a very pronounced presence of the sternocleidomastoid muscle through shading.  I am not too worried about the correct color of the face at this point.  My plan is to correct everything towards the end of the painting and I trust the paper I am using will allow me to make these alterations without ill effects.  

Before I continue on with the rest of my nymph, I am blocking out the ripples in the water by using the alum solution.  I am doing this so that when I paint in the hair and her clothing, I can somehow convey that they are submerged.

I also assign a position for my moon.  After all, this is a painting about Rusalka's song to the moon.  

To set the framework that Rusalka is in the water, contemplating the possibility that she might be residing on land as a mortal,  I am assigning that reference to some classical Chinese architecture.  

Eventually all these incidentals will be swallowed up by the dark night, hopefully.  I am therefore not too concerned about accuracy. I am augmenting the night scene with a few moon lit tree trunks in white.  I am hoping the lights in the buildings will eventually contrast with the dark night sky and make the painting interesting.  I suppose I just want a presence more than anything else.  My goal now is to plot my settings, create a mood and see if things work out or not.

The far shore of the water is painted in

So now I have the nymph, the worldly reference, and the moon.  Next chore is make the night fall!

Launching my Year of the Rabbit painting

I am feeling comfortable about my rabbits and the 22nd of January will be here before long so I better step on the gas and put some rabbits down on paper for real, or else I won't have a greeting card for Chinese New Year.

When I think of the astrological Rabbit I inevitably look to the moon.  I suppose this has to do with my culture and what is instilled in me.  I grow up learning about the legend of Chang'e, our goddess of the moon, and the rabbit is her faithful companion up there. 

In our Chinese mythology, it was said that there used to be ten suns and they were causing unbearable heat to our world.  Chang'e was married to an archer, who went out and shot down 9 suns, leaving just the one we see today.  For his valiant effort he was given an elixir of immortality by the Emperor of the Heaven.  He didn't wish to be immortal all by himself so he gave the elixir to his wife Chang'e for safe-keeping.  One day someone was trying to steal the elixir and Chang'e in an attempt to prevent the elixir from falling into wrong hands, drank all the elixir herself.  She thus became immortal and chose the moon as her residence, leaving her husband behind.  The Emperor of the Heaven caught wind of this and granted Chang'e the ability to meet her husband annually, on the 8th full moon of the year.  Hence the August Moon Festival.  A quick check on the internet shows there are many versions of this legend and what I am telling might sound different from what other people have learned.  I suppose the only real significance is that we believe Chang'e is the goddess of the moon, and the rabbit keeps her company.

I suppose it is not difficult to conjure up stories about beings on the moon, especially when the moon surface is represented by unknown shadows and shapes.  That floating luminous object that changes from a ball to a sliver in the night sky is in itself an object of pondering and bewilderment.  I need to confess, the music of Rusalka's  "Song to the Moon" is playing as I am writing.  It is also interesting that the same moon appears different when viewed from different parts of the world.  

I took a picture of a full moon in the States:

and the same moon viewed from Australia:

Notice the orientation of the shadows on the moon.  There is a 90 degrees shift.  

Now that I've convinced myself that the moon is the proper staging for my zodiac Rabbit, I intend to somehow incorporate my rabbits into the shadows of the moon.

I must also mention that the name given to the rabbit on the moon is Jade Rabbit.  Jade comes in many colors and white jade is a symbol of purity.  

I am using my fibrous Xuan again; it shows interesting strands of fiber.  I suppose the craters on the moon aligns with my fixation on the texture of the paper.  The native color of the paper has a beige straw tint to it, perhaps it can pass for the illuminated surface of the moon?  We shall see. 

The back of the paper seems more fibrous and rough, and I happen to like it.  So that will be the side I paint on.

I am drawing a circle of about 13 inches in diameter; a size that would fit on a 16x16 canvas when mounted.  I am settling on painting 2 rabbits.  Somehow two is more interesting than one, and it is easier for me to coax some sort of a sentiment from posing two animals.  I am also not trying to paint the legend of Chang'e, as the rabbits are the real protagonists, thus whether it is one or more rabbits is not critical. I am leaning towards painting my rabbits more as a silhouette, scant in details but hope to tie in with my shadow  on the moon theme.

Perhaps I am thinking of the aventurine jade too much.  My rabbit has a greenish tint to it.  I am going to tone it down with a heavier dose of titanium white. 

A cute couple!