Building a Chinese garden

I got my hands on some semi-sized Xuan.  This one is very thin and translucent; feels like a giant sheet of onion skin.  I like this kind of paper due to the fact that it allows a build up of layers of ink.  The regular unsized Xuan would not tolerate this practice.

Lately I've been drawn to some of the classical elements of a formal Chinese garden.  I decided to further explore this arena.

I sat down with a pen sketching of a plausible layout

At this stage I was trying to pin down the spatial relationship of the different structures.  I wanted to glorify the sweeping roof lines and use them as a back-drop for the cozy enclosure.  I have not decided on how to treat the pond.  I am inclined to leave it blank, with a ribbon of pond lily as garnish.

I hoped to be able to use the center pavilion as the focal point, but somehow my attention was diverted to the side structures

I kept embellishing my sketch

Never for a moment thought that this would be an exercise in futility, I pressed on.

I started to brush down an outline in very diluted ink, and piled on subsequent  layers to achieve the different tones.

Eventually I established the general arrangement of the structures.

I took a break at this point.  I was having difficulty concentrating.  Actually I was running out of ideas.   I felt like I was manufacturing instead of creating.

I just realized that I stopped because I was bored.  It wasn't fun anymore.

I left this on the table and examined it from afar, from close-up, skewing and tilting my field of vision.  Unfortunately I could not find one iota of emotion in this rendition, not at this stage anyways.
Everything looked so rigid and stoic.

Like Cougars said in Top Gun, " I'm holding on too tight, I've lost the edge"

I was thinking about what I paint, and not painting what I think!

Planting a tree, a cosmetic remedy

I've been looking at my recent attempt at the pavilion, the one with the huge hair-do, the one I conceded to be difficult to amend.

I can't surrender that easily.  Surely there's something I can do.

Why don't I just plant a tree?  Use the foliage to hide the pompadour! ( I used to think it was Pinocchio's nose !)

With the innocence of a child, and the eagerness of going out on a first date, I proceeded to plant my tree.

The ink being so intense, I had to mix in some titanium white to the  Green Label Three to add some opacity to the foliage. 

I also painted in the tiles on the breezeway and the rest of the shrubs on the ground.  This was done to shield  the prominence of the new tree that I planted.  I was actually adding something to the painting to try to take away other things.

I also mentioned that I didn't like the way the rocks by the water edge looked.  I painted a thin ribbon along the water's edge and that seemed to account for the boundary without the original harshness.
I adhered to leaving the body of the pond as an empty space.

I'll sit on this one for a while, like I usually do.

More Pavilion

I did a pavilion painting a couple of months back.  In that attempt, I liked the feel of the pavilion, but not the way I dotted the shrubs.

I also thought the arrangement of the elements was a little too cozy.  I thought the garden should be a bit larger.

My challenge is to set the pavilion up in a more elaborate and spacious environment, but still make the pavilion the focal point of my exercise.


The paper now has a wider aspect, forcing me to stretch out the placement of the different elements.

Right off the bat I thought the painting looked a little cold, too austere and not very becoming.
I also felt the separation of the breezeway from the pavilion was not handled as well as the original painting.  I needed to bring out the pavilion without making it ostentatious.  I mixed indigo with ink and dressed the tiles of the pavilion

That seemed to address the problem alright.  The subdued blue pulled the pavilion out without a disconnect from the background.

The painting did not have enough headroom, especially considering the fact that I wasn't going to paint in the reflections like I did on the last one.  I could have moved the whole thing down a notch.
Also the rocks by the waterline seemed lifeless.  I would try to add in a thin bordered waterline when I have more time to contemplate the remedies.

The tree next to the pavilion was at even height with the pavilion.  This did not speak of a nice contrast of the two, and presented a rather dull relationship of the elements.  This could be corrected rather easily.

But then I noticed a glaring mistake:

The roof ridge on the left ( circled in red ) was too thick, too big and too solid and totally distracted from the focal point, unless I was painting Pinocchio's nose of course.   It should have been a lot lighter and fading out to the sweeping lift, to blend in with the disappearing tiles.

This mistake could not have been corrected easily.  Seems like a new attempt is in order.

(please visit "Planting a Tree" dated 8/18/14 on the follow-up)