Small Wonders

The kids, whom I mentored at their art club  at a middle school showed some pretty amazing works.  We started out by learning a little bit about Chinese brush painting.  They were introduced to the brush and Xuan paper for the first time.  I picked the subject matter of bamboo because it harbors the most basic form of the brush stroke.  The bamboo helps to hone a person's skill on using the center tip; along with varying pressure and ink tone and moisture content, the practitioner can achieve many "happy accidents".

By mentoring these young citizens, I hoped to dispel the notion of China Town art.  I did not want it to be paint by numbers.  Nor did I want it to be stencil work.  At the very minimum,  I wanted the kids to appreciate the techniques involved in using the center tip to effect different shapes.  Of course kids at this age are  a little bit too tender to deal with the so called "virtues" of the bamboo.  Nonetheless, I brought in a live bamboo branch so they could have a first hand tactile connection with the subject.  It is my theory that if you can "feel" it, that feeling can sublime into your work.  My emphasis for these kids was energy over form.  The form would come if one becomes more proficient with the brush, but the spirit still needs to be manifested.

We also did our own mounting of the finished painting.  This allows the first timers to experience the entire process of creating a painting and preserving it.  Interestingly one of the kids  inadvertently tore her painting into halves during the mounting process and was a little distraught.  I was able to mend the halves, perhaps an opportune time to demonstrate how to overcome obstacles, and to remedy mistakes.  Nah, I wasn't that noble, but there is some truth in what I said.

Finally I showed the kids how to cut mats.   I threw in a math problem in the process.  I had the  kids calculate the width of the margins, given the size of the mat and the size of the opening.  I wanted them to be able to at least present their mounted paintings in a matted format, to be able to show off to their parents and friends.  Most importantly, however, is to be able to build a positive self esteem.  To have a sense of accomplishment.  And accomplished, they have!!

The accompanying  pictures are some of the finished works.  (the ones not shown are not because they are not up to snuff, but rather the kids were eager to take them home, before I had a chance to take pictures !)  One must appreciate them not by technical merits ( they had maybe 40 minutes of training ) but from the perspective of a maiden voyage into an alien creative field.

Bamboo Tutorial continued

The painting I took to class was very two dimensional and lifeless.   Somehow it looked like a manikin.  I suppose it was sufficient for instructional purposes.  I figured since I do not paint bamboo that often, I needed the practice.  I ended up with the one shown above.

I attempted with different ink tones to show the spatial relationship of the different stems and leaves.  The bold ink color of the lower vertical stem gave anchor to the painting and helped to defuse the parallel lines.

My painting colleague had this critique............. a weak left flank.

But I had already mounted the painting.  Any alteration now will disturb the sandwiched starch layer and cause the paper to warp.   Oh what the hell, it's only a piece of paper.

Armed with concentrated ink right out of the bottle, and a very dry brush ( really too dry to paint bamboo leaves, but I had few options), I attempted to build on the left side.

One thing is for sure, this painting has more spunk than the one in the last blog.

I had to do another class demo, so I tried my hands at bamboo again.  This time paying a little bit more attention to contrast and harmony.  The more noded stem has denser and adhering leaves, versus the less noded stem with sparse leaves that hang away from the main stem.  More or Less.

Finally, the painting is cropped and mounted on canvas, and I even made a frame for it.

P.S.  For more material on bamboo leaves, please watch video on my blog on Bamboo Leaves and Pronation published on Oct 29, 2011.

Bamboo Tutorial

I admitted to not being proficient in painting bamboo.  My excuse was that this was not my genre of work;  I prefer landscape paintings.  Thus when I was taking lessons, I skimmed over this topic as much as I could.
Now that I am giving lessons and mentoring, the table had turned. I understood that despite its apparent simplicity, the bamboo painting encompasses a lot of the basic brush stroke techniques and aesthetic arrangement and the importance of ink tones.  It is now my job to try to convey and convince others that the simple bamboo is nothing to sneeze at.

I often expressed my dislike for "stencil" work, i.e. painting with all the rules and prescribed composition that the resulting work lacks spunk.  But how else should I pass on the basics of a bamboo painting?
I needed to demonstrate the nodes on the main stems.  I needed to note that the segments are shorter towards the base.  I needed to point out that the little branches grow on alternate sides of each node.  I needed to explain how the leaves are grouped together.  I needed to .................................

Segments grew longer as the plant grows taller.

I had to deal with this dichotomy of being compliant and original at the same time.  I thought the best way to do this is by showing the real examples of the bamboo, rather than someone else's work of what a bamboo looks like.   So I took a lot of pictures of bamboo, all the while trying to categorize the characteristics of a bamboo painting.

Branches grow on alternate sides of stem

Bamboo leaves

A live model

These photographs were used as teaching material for my adult students.  For my younger middle-school kids I used an actual plant.  The tactile experience, along with the visual cues, help the younger audience to comprehend the subject matter a little better. 

Sample painting I took to class for middle -school kids

Fortune Birds

I am just playing with words in Chinese.  The pronunciation of "SIX" and "FORTUNE" in the Cantonese dialect is the same.  Hence the Chinese Title of " Fortune Birds Singing" rather than "Six Birds Singing".  After all, who does not desire fortune, especially around New Year's time.

I chanced upon this photo on the net that showed some finches.  I liked the photo because it showed the birds in various attitudes of attention.  The picture claimed no copy right and in fact welcome other users to find good uses for it.

So I decided to arrange the birds on a tree branch.

I wanted to capture more than the different personalities.  I wanted to create a subtle tension... the fact that 5  birds have occupied one section of the branch, and the odd bird is off to the side, trying to assimilate, or lure?

So I produced this sketch as my practice sheet.

I painted in the birds first, and completely finish them before I put the branch in.  This way the tree branch can better hug the birds and minimizes the embarrassment of having to make a sitting bird stand!  As a last  step, I used  the brush wash as a final wash for the whole painting, leaving the center brighter, creating a focus area.    Brush wash is used because it captures the colors that I have used, and would be naturally in tune with the painting.  I intend to mount this in the Xuan-Boo style.  I am trying extremely hard to not crowd the painting by adding flowers or bamboos as commonly done.  I want this to be a simple and elegant painting.  Less is More!

As a post-script, when I finally get to make the frame for this painting, I decided to give it an "antique" look.  The painted frame was sanded down to reveal the primer and bare wood.  I admit that this is gimmicky, but it lends itself pretty well to this occasion.  It only took me 7 months to figure this out.

 

Happy New Year Year of the Rabbit

Wishing you a

Safe, Prosperous, and Peaceful

New Year

Multnomah Falls continued

After weeks of piling on more pigments on the rocks an adding "chuen" (texture), I grew more and more unhappy with my lower fall.

Unlike the upper fall, where I was able to reveal some of the spraying and pulsating energy of the water, I have painted in 2 parallel dark lines into the bottom fall.  What was I thinking.

I pulled out my cardboard framing borders and was trying to see where I should cut the Xuan paper so that I could pretend that the mistake never happened.  Then I thought about an old trick that I've described in my previous blogs..... using a transparency.

I fashioned a few trees using white titanium (for better contrast against the dark background) on this piece of transparency, such that I could move this about the painting and see the best placement to obscure the parallel lines. 


 Once I have the location finalized, I can now paint in the trees for real.  This transparency trick allows me to figure out the placement and size of add-ons without having to commit to it.

I've added 3 spectators to the bridge just to warm this painting up a little bit. 

I am not totally happy with the overall feel of this painting.  There isn't enough of a contrast between the front and the back.  I am afraid to make the front look too dark or I would lose the details on the rocks.  The other option is to darken the back, but that would regress my nice rock walls , which I thought is quite dramatic.  Besides, I thought my foreground is too dark for this set-up.   But wait, I have one more option.  Since I am going to be mounting this piece of Xuan on canvas (as in my Xuan-Boo technique), I can play with my canvas gesso colors to see if I can remedy my front to back contrasts.

What I do like is that I have at least tried to establish a yin an yang contrast.  I painted trees on alternate sides of the fall, to avoid a bilateral symmetry.  I've painted the left side lighter than the right and highlighted the trees such that illumination is from above.   I've tried to create contrasts within each sector of the painting.

I'll post my painting again after it is mounted and framed.

Like I said, come hell or high water, I've done it!

Multnomah Falls

Multnomah Falls is a hot spot in the scenic Columbia River Gorge.
I have wanted to paint this image for over 3 years now.  A night scene ?  A snow scene?  How about a perspective from the top?  My apprehension is that I don't think I can portray the Falls with my present stage of craftsmanship.  So I procrastinated.

Well 2011 is upon us.  I am not one to make any New Year's resolutions, but here is one.  I am going to paint the Falls, come hell or high water.

As in most of my work, I lay down the basic premise in medium tone ink.

I am trying for a perspective that is looking up to the top of the Fall.
I have contemplated in doing the scattered focal point perspective that is utilized in so many Chinese landscape paintings, but I must confess that I am having difficulty applying it here.  So here comes hell.

After the basic skeleton is constructed, I am working on "chuen" (adding texture) and shading, to give my work a more 3 dimensional feel.

More shading is done, and also an initial layer of vermilion is deposited.  This works to depict the high lighted areas of the rocks, and also blends well with the subsequent burnt sienna, ink and indigo that I'll be piling on the rocks.

The water itself is the blank space, brought to light by the dark contrasting margins.