Let The Sunshine In

Traditionally we have  to mount paintings done on Xuan to a substrate for viewing and display.
I have explored substrates like canvas ( my Xuan-boo technique) and Wonderboard to benefit from their textures. 

The matrimony of water soluble pigments and ink and the translucent Xuan produces a lush and ethereal feeling.  One way to exploit this characteristic is to NOT mount the Xuan.  This is best done by allowing light to peek through from behind the Xuan, adding another dimension to the viewing experience.

I did a painting of aquatic and atmospheric scenery.  For the rays, I employed the "minus" technique.
I used a wet clean brush to go over the freshly painted areas repeatedly to take away (minus) from the saturation.

Here is a look of the work in ambient light.

Here is a look of the same work when put against a window.

I used a float frame for this dramatic effect.  Reminds me of the stained class works.

The Frustrated Apprentice

Some people would differentiate art from craft in that the former requires originality on top of the skills which are required by the latter.  Hence learning by rote runs the risk of asphyxiating one's inspirations, and railroading one into unimpassioned styles.
But how else are we going to learn?  Hopefully from the works of great masters.  Here again, " great " is in the eye of the beholder.  We must have a good core before we can sprout our wings.

The following is a glimpse of tree trunks painted by a Ming Dynasty master, followed by the works of a frustrated apprentice.

As we can see, the second photo insert showed basically the same form, yet exhibited no "life" to the brushstrokes.  This is especially evident towards the top of the trees, where little branches are formed.

In Chinese brush painting, the terms "Chi" or "Li" describes force and strength and spirit and energy.
It is a concept that refuses to be explained, especially to the casual observer.  Mumbo jumbo, exclaimed the ignorant.  I often pose the question, what is the difference between a stationary live snake and a dead one?  They both possess the exact same morphology.  Yet somehow the live one portrays life.  Perhaps  the muscular tension exerted to each pair of ribs gave that away, or was it the turgid appearance a living organism, however subtle.   What we are aspiring for is the stored potential energy in a brush stroke.  Each stroke should exude the feeling not of  a wet noodle, but of a drawn bow ready to flex.

Here is work done by a Qing Dynasty master.  The brushstrokes here are rather colorful and free spirited.

Frustration in trying to decipher the strokes, the force needed, and the correct dry/wet brush.  All these considerations dialed in too much damper to the hand and mind machinery, resulting in stencil like babbling.

Getting a little better.

Throw your caution to the wind.  The exact likeness is not there, but the strokes are effervescing with "Chi". 

"So now you tell me, "copying" does not mean "copying", or does it? " says the frustrated apprentice.
"Paint me a live snake", says the master.

The Dark Side

I found a picture of a painting by some artist in the Ming Dynasty.  The painting is deceptively simple, willow branches.  What can be more difficult than drawing lines?

This piece of work is inspirational because of its simple premise..lines, brush strokes.  We understand that Chinese brush painting has inextricable ties to calligraphy.  My  challenge now is to learn how to write this painting.

Examination of the painting quickly tells me two main branches (the 2 with the darkest ink tone) reside at the middle to right of the page,  accompanied by another branch with slightly lighter ink tone to the far left.  The spatial arrangement of these branches is most elegant.  The "Shu" "Mi" ( sparse and dense) contrast is poetic.  The weight of the painting seems to be at the top, since it is tracing back to the virtual main trunks, yet the flow of the juvenile branches are like dancing thunder bolts, emitting tangible energy.  The casts in this painting must  migrate towards gravity, yet be suspended by the lack of which.

The brush strokes are deliberate and expressive.  One can discern the attacks of side-tip strokes by the sharp edges of the delta at the beginning of each stroke, and witness their eventual transformation to straight tipped diminuendos.  So effortless and yet labored with punch.  The artist was able to "write" this regal piece with feathery aplomb.

Typical downfalls in trying to emulate this painting include the following:
(note red circles in the pictures)

An example of overkill, trying too hard to depict the curly weaves

Hiccup strokes, lifting the brush at inappropriate times, too anxious to taper off

Inappropriate line widths, having no control on the pressure applied to the brush, usually a consequence of too much speed

Inappropriate "SHU" and "MI", the branches are too evenly distributed.








And I give up!  Have another drink!

The dilemma is that if we pay too much attention on each brush stroke, we seem to miss out on addressing spatial presentation and spontaneity in the strokes and the result could be quite stoic.
The drawbacks of learning by rote is that we often forget what our mission is.  Fundamentally, we need to have good technique and patience.  There are no short cuts.  After we've acquired the basics, then we can begin to analyse and "read" a painting, understand it and emulate it and learn from the process.  I like to take a segue by stating that I've been accused of keeping bad company, i.e. I did not pick good paintings to learn from.  I need a cleansing from my rote learning!

I know of people who would lay their Xuan over images to copy them.  To them the "authentic likeness" is of sole importance.  We must understand that the painting does not represent only ONE moment, but a continuum of frames. My mentor always said painting is like dancing, a string of motions. Don't get caught up in a "pose" captured by the flashlight. That "pose" does not describe the dance.

"Now you tell me", quipped this sophomoric individual.  His frustration was obvious, only to have   his ignorance fueled by the desire of Ramen instant noodles. 

For all of us who appreciate this art form, don't go over to the Dark Side, albeit tempting.   Don't be a Faustian, the reward is picayune.

Multnomah Falls Again?????

It is one of those days, hot and muggy.

As I picked up my feet and placed one in front of the other, dodging the red dragonflies that had wandered into my path, I kept counting, almost audibly to myself, the numbers of switchbacks I had taken.   It was a steep and steady climb, perhaps the grades were too much for my silvery brows, they were soaked.    Breathe easy, I told myself.  Stick your chest out, can't let other people see me panting like a dog.  The sign said 11 switchbacks to the top, and I made only 4 so far. 

The familiar lapping sound nudged me onwards.

As I closed the distance to the next turnaround, I felt the air charged exclusively with  negative ions;  there was this freshness that automatically invited my lungs to expand.  Out of the corner of my eyes, just beyond my eyelashes, framed by the sentries of trees, a silver ribbon was fluttering downwards; flaunting a few pirouettes before it disappears behind he trees.  As I looked upwards towards the sky, the flanking basalt walls were featureless against the sun, decorated with a golden hue around my vision field, exacerbated by my cholesterol deposits around my pupil. 

So here I am, back to painting the Multnomah Falls again.

In this attempt, I shied away from using the Falls as my main character.  Rather, I am using supporting characters to frame the subject.  Thus I did not want to burden the Falls with exacting accounts, but to give it a mere "presence".  A presence that is sonorous and delightful.  I wanted to hear the choir through the pillars of the hall;   I was not interested as much in the faces of the ensemble.


Obviously I stayed away from my past mistake of placing the Falls front and center.  To "write" the trees, I decided to use the tried and true techniques of the more classical eras.  The near ground trees/shrubs were done using the "outlined" method.  I tried to impart different types of leaves to the woods to suggest a diverse vegetation.  The shapes of the leaves need not bear resemblance to the real plants; these were products of rote learning.  The emphasis was to have an assortment of trees and to be able to establish a spatial relationship of the bodies.

The "outlined" trunks and leaves transitioned to a "boneless" method of portraying for the more distant objects.   This technique is used quite frequently in Chinese landscape paintings.

My design was to have a very dark outer ring of details to contrast the empty spaces ( the falls).  In order that the darks are not too heavy and covered  up details, I layered in my dark values on the back of the Xuan paper.   I also wanted to leaves and trunks in the foreground to retain that translucent quality, so the colors were mixed with alum to give them more of a resist property.  The tree trunks were meant to be empty spaces, to contrast them sharply with the dark background.  Unfortunately the "dark side" was too intense and the "force" was not with me,so now they look tinted, which is still acceptable, albeit  not what I had planned.

I had to go over the "outlines" a few times to revive the lines lest they get buried under all the stains.  This "going over" is actually kind of a boo boo in Chinese brush painting.  This is akin to "touching up" and it takes away the spontaneity and the expressiveness of the brush strokes.  I really need to practice on my patience............ do a light outline, just enough to start the painting, and then finish with the dark brush strokes just once, as the final act.

Multnomah Falls Impression

After my last attempt, which was a more Xieyi (expressive) interpretation of Multnomah Falls, I decided to carry that momentum a bit further.  I wanted to express motion and spatial relationship with more of a "presence" than descriptions of details.  The following picture was my attempt in this endeavor.

Not everybody has been to the Falls or seen pictures of it.  So I decided to play it up a little.  I used blue streaks to create the upper cliffs.  The streaks were done so that they themselves resemble moving water.

The blue wash was mixed with alum applied side tip fashion onto Xuan.  Alum functions as a sizing
agent, helps to delineate the brush strokes;  makes the brush strokes more vivid in the sea of blue wash.  Thus we have a laminar flow of blue ribbons, rounding the corner to flow into the hour-glass void below.   A grayish overlay is then applied over the blue streaks.  The grey wash was again created by using alum solution as diluent.   This was done to prevent the wash from totally blending into one big flat surface.  I wanted stroke marks to show up a little better, simulating the horizontal crevasses in the cliff wall.    These marks also helped to suggest interruptions in the stream ( even though the grey area is not the stream ) and gave an illusion of  motion.
The actual narrow ribbon of upper fall was again painted with alum first to establish a base layer of resist, to ward off  as much unintended seepage of wash as possible.  At the head of the upper fall, I just held my brush and waited for the color to slowly bleed out to the desired spaces before moving on.   This controlled osmosis when executed alongside of alum sizing will create some artifacts that will indulge your ocular senses.

The hour-glass void represented the lower fall.  Its shape was inspired by the exaggerated proportion of a woman's body.  Imagine Marilyn Monroe coming at you with open arms, donning a black cape.  Get the picture now?

The lower fall is flanked by bold side tip brushstrokes.  This was my interpretation of the near scape of the land.  The hour glass shaped lower fall was again defined by the use of alum.  I was careful to not make the entire structure black.  I took time to make sure I leave some white slivers in them, so they can breathe. 

I wish I had done the bridge in a more Xieyi fashion.  More nonchalant, more expressive.  Right now it looked too stiff.    I was pushing it too much.
There  you have it.  Multnomah Falls, Impression!

Oregon Coast

Well this piece is not exactly what one would call Chinese brush painting.  The only role the Chinese brush had was to lay the foundation of the jetty, the beach and the sky.    I particularly like the effect on the jetty by the way.  This was done on water color paper; and I really like the texture.  I also helps by laying down the different tones on paper so I can concentrate on building the details.

The brush work was done mainly with ink with indigo for the water and the sky; and ink with burnt sienna for the foreground.

I then work out the details with charcoal.  My skill level did not allow me to do the rolling crests on Xuan paper.  I had difficulty creating just the right empty spaces for the waves, so I resorted to charcoal on watercolor paper.

I found the eraser to be my Best Friend for this painting!!

"Multnomah Fall" Chinese Style

It is no secret that I am not happy with my Multnomah Fall painting and have attempted some remodeling to the painting.  Yet I am still bitten by the bug.

I've decided to try to depict the fall more as a presence than as a specimen.  I employed simple lines.
I created 3 stages, the near, the middle and the far.  The learn by rote training came into play.  It wasn't too difficult to snatch different scenes from repeated practices.

  The near scene enjoys the darkest lines and is shacked with the most details.  Trees are done in the outlined style, sort of.  The middle stage cradles the bridge and the lower fall, which then empties into the creek.  The far scene is staged by the upper fall, flanked by sentinels of straight cliffs.  The fog and  mists at the bottom of these cliffs are used to push them way back, further away from the rest of the masses.  I should note that in the original draft, I felt the width of the lower fall was too wide.  I cleverly turned the right edge of the lower fall into a steep embankment, effectively narrowing the spillway.

I kept the color scheme simple.  The indigo blue was used mainly for effect.  The cold color helped to foster distance, yet adding punch to the painting.


I did the frame a little different from the traditional way.  Instead of an assembly of 4 sides, I skillsawed an opening into a plank of pine to accommodate the canvas.  The pine is finished in gold to render an "antique" look.

This piece was submitted to a Calligraphy and Painting competition hosted by the Confucius Institute.
Whereas I have not received any notices from the Institute,  I am very happy to see my work poted as the promotional piece  on their main page under the C and P category.
http://promotion2011.chinese.cn/index.php