Paintings of Water

I vaguely remembered that my astronomical numbers says my "FATE" is "Wood" based and therefore should refrain from too much "Water", as flood destroys and sweeps away timber.  I believe it is this hazy memory that causes me to be afraid of water, to the point of pinching my nose when showering or else eliciting the reflex of hyperventilating.  Having gills would be numero uno on my dream list.

Yet water mesmerizes me.  The deep abyss with all its might, yet glistens and ripples and glistens.

I love to paint water, trying to capture that fleeting moment of movement, of that sparkle.   Water is a common theme in my paintings.  In fact the way I beguile myself into this hobby was by painting a family of Canada geese swimming by the backyard.  Unfortunately I am often rewarded with frustration but lately I've been exploring this subject matter again.

 this was done in charcoal

Circular ripples are fascinating.  Everybody knows them, but trying to portray them as not cook top heating elements is a different story.

 ink on Xuan                

The difficulty is, in my view, rooted in our innate desire to form and trace the outlines of circles, and ignore ( or unable to ) translate the motion of the ripple.  We should be painting  the energy of the outwardly radiating concentric circles, and not the circles themselves.   I am not happy at all with my attempts, too static!  Forgive me for being a sexist, but this is akin to a nice girl... proper and nice in every way, but ah so bland.  We need to have ripples once in a while.

Note to self:  keep painting these circles until you are sick of them then you'll be released by your bias as to what they SHOULD or NEED to look like.   After these shackles are off, then try again.

Canada Geese Makeover

I used the painting from my blog "Don't Throw The Baby Out With The Water" as a project.  I darkened the neck areas of the sleeping geese and selectively applied titanium white to some of the white patches to increase the contrast; cropped it to fit a 12x12 canvas and I now have a painting that looked quite different from the original copy.  This one is actually presentable, I mused.  I shall call this one "Canada Geese, Impression".

  after correction

*also note the vertical stripes of sieve markings

   before corrections

I entered this piece in a local juried Visual Arts Showcase event, for no other reason than to see if this type of work will be accepted by the "mainstream".  I've often lamented that I don't know which pigeon hole to shackle myself in.  I therefore entered the painting in the mixed media category.  It is Chinese Brush Ink painting on  Xuan, but mounted on canvas and sealed with Golden Gel Medium.
I entered a total of 4 paintings ( the maximum allowed ) and only two were invited into the Showcase.

  not invited

  not invited

Now that the painting was accepted, I needed to package it a little better for the show.  I thought the 12x12 canvas alone was too austere.

I wanted to build a frame for it.  The local home improvement store has the 1 x 3 poplar stock, which is perfect.  The poplar even has the same color as my painting, so I decided to leave the frame nude with clear urethane coatings.  I wanted to leave a wider moat between the canvas and the frame.  I noticed the strong presence of the vertical stripes of sieve markings* on the Xuan paper, so I decided to make the moat backing along the same vein.  I harvested the dried water iris leaves, which the Canada geese would have frolicked amongst in the summer time and glued them onto the back board.

I didn't like the color of the dried leaves; I thought they were too red and ostentatious.  Toning them down with my own concocted color worked much better.  I was able to retain the lines without robbing them of character.

 

the outside edges of the frame is rounded off a little to soften the lines, making the frame more compatible with the dreamy state of the subject matter

When I presented the finished product to my peers, some of them thought it was gimmicky.  I beg to differ.  I thought I was being faithful to Chinese Brush, exploiting the relationship between ink, brush and paper  and was elated to be able to garnish the work with elements from the natural environment of my geese.  I do particularly like how the theme of vertical line is carried out, albeit in a subtle way.  To the nay sayers, I am just taking Chinese Brush to a more contemporary stage.

  finishd product

Geese Paintings...Flight Preparation

I was asked by a local sushi restaurant to adorn their walls with my paintings.  A feather in my hat, why not!

After casing out the set-up of the restaurant, which walls are painted with some intense colors, I decided that my Canada Geese paintings would stand out nicely against a solid red background.

Canada Geese I

                                                                      Canada Geese II

I did not want to encase my geese paintings in this instance.  I thought putting in a frame would limit the visual presentation of freedom.  Besides, my " Canada Geese I " painting had the top goose too close to the upper margin and feeling a little claustrophobic,  therefore framing this painting would further exacerbate this shortcoming.  http://www.facebook.com/tien.c.lohI therefore mounted these 2 paintings on 3-ply plywood.  The plywood seemed stiff enough to handle the job, but after the mounting had dried, it showed a little warping.  I therefore glued spline pieces along the backside edges of the plywood to stiffen and flatten it.  It worked like a charm.

I wanted to display the 2 geese works as a pair.  I visualized some degrees of interaction between the 2 pieces, i.e. the relative placement of the 2 pieces to tell a cohesive story.  I came to the concept of displaying them as floats, each with a different ride height, such that the pieces could be overlapped.  The larger piece would be riding higher the the smaller one, allowing a spatial perception of the smaller piece being farther away.  This was accomplished by building collars of different heights and attaching them to the back of the plywood.

Here's how the display looked  in the sushi restaurant.

Racial Discrimination Disquised As Editorial Policy

I have bemoaned at the consequences of rote learning with regards to Chinese brush painting, not expecting to find racial discrimination can also be a victim of  habitual procedure,  even in today's society.

Recently a bunch of us were involved with an exhibition, under the banner of Wang Gongyi and her students.    A press release was sent out to a local newspaper.  This particular agency caters to Asian interests but is published in English, since Asian is such a diverse group.

There were 18 of us in the exhibition. 12 of us are Chinese and 6 are Caucasians.  The following is a copy of what appeared in the paper (defaced to protect privacy)

What was apparent was that none of the Caucasian names were published.  The press release was somehow whittled down to 12 Asian names.  The bleeding heart would cut the editor some slack, "perhaps of space constraints!"  How about just publishing the last names so everybody is included?
To deliberately filter out the Caucasians and label them as " and others" is unconscionable.   I could not find any plausible reason why this editor would commit such acts, other than to adhere to his/her agenda, regardless of how insidious or otherwise innocent it might seem.  I might even go as far to say that the intent was not malicious, but somehow the attitude was inextricably ingrained.

I drafted a letter to the editor of the publication, but was never delivered because it was deemed to be too "in your face" by some members of the group ( is this Asian humility? Sigh )
"As participants of an arts exhibition, we all look to your August 6^th edition with eager anticipation, to catch a glimpse of our names being mentioned as cohorts in this event.

Imagine the disappointment we felt after witnessing your excerpt about us on page 12 under the Arts Culture & Entertainment heading, where only some of us were mentioned, and the omissions appear to follow a racial divide.

The students of Wang Gongyi are comprised of people from all walks of life and ethnicities. In her words, “ I was an office worker, He was a teacher, She was a physician,….. Now, We are bound by our passion for calligraphy and painting”. We had supplied you with the names of all participants for the press release and somehow all the names of non-Asians were conveniently omitted and replaced by the words “and others”. Such editing can be construed as deliberate and nefarious exclusion of non-Asians.

Obviously such malfeasance does not belong to your organization and we are hoping for an explanation from you to put our vetting and concerns to rest. Thank you for your attention in this matter."

I need to vent my anguish by documenting some of the works by these omitted fellow artists. Yes they are Caucasians interested in Asian arts.

P.S.   The reply from the newspaper when asked about the omission (with a less accusatory tone) :

"Thanks for your e-mail and questions. Firstly, yes, the list of artists was prohibitively long to include them all. Secondly, because we are The Asian XXxxxter, the focus of our calendar listings is on artists, etc. of Asian ethnicity. This is a standard applied to all requests for submission that we receive.  

Have a good afternoon."

Well, Mr. Editor, based on your bias, General Robert Lee of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War might be considered Asian !     Furthermore, which of the following last names would you deem to be non Asian: Chan, Lee, Wong, de Castro, Rivera, Aquino,Gupta, Haryana, Bose, Dutta, Mistry, Navarro ?  Are you qualified to identify ethnicity based on a person's last name?

Shame on you Mr. Editor.

 porte

Peony

Had a chance encounter with some peonies earlier this summer.  As I was contemplating on how to paint these flowers, I couldn't help but be reminded of the deeply rooted traditions of painting peony.

Peony is dubbed the "King" of flowers in China and is symbolic for wealth and riches.  There must be a million books on "How To Paint Peony" and most of them are pretty intense and rigid.  They would show us how to load our brush with crimson and white such that each stroke creates a 2 toned swath of inviting curvatures.  Some of them would tutor us on how to roll and dab our brush to achieve the scalloped edges of the flower petals.  Perhaps because of the symbolism, the peony is always portrayed in a  rather regal setting, with vivid and vibrant color and a perfect arrangement of leaves.  Some of the Gonbi style peony would even summon the help of gold lined petals to epitomize riches.
These doctrines can be so stubborn that one of my friend who painted a beautiful Gonbi peony was lectured by an ostensible  peony expert for daring to paint a gentian colored peony with no stamens.  This expert gained his knowledge from his master, who resided in Luoyang ( commonly accepted as the Home of Peony) and therefore unabashedly exerted his inflexible view of what a peony painting should look like.  Here the pundit allowed no room for artistic interpretation or deviation from tradition.  I would be remiss not to  point out that Double Peony possesses no stamens because they have transformed into petals.  There you have it!

So what does all that have to do with my peony painting? 

 

Well I just wanted to try something different.  Something devoid of traditional constraints and rendering.  I was trying for the how I interpretate the plant rather than a sanctimonious attempt at regurgitating what a Chinese painting on peony should look like.

I used to think Xieyi is about jazzing up something.  I realize now that it is about finding something in all that jazz.

Japanese Snowbell

I was doing a still life of Japanese Snowbell.  It was just a simple little twig with delicate white flowers, inserted into a slender bottle.  I didn't have any Xuan with me, so I just recruited some bamboo paper, the kind that I practise my calligraphy on.  The paper excels in its ability to aborb water.  It is actually the glorified version of yesterday's butt wiper.

The way this twig hang off the bottle attracted my attention.  Rather than starting off with the branches or flowers, I just used a very light ink wash to lay down the footprint of the plant and the bottle.  It was the pose that I fell in love with.  It reminded me of characters in Chinese Opera, dressed in costumes with long flowing sleeves.  I wanted to capture that attitude.

I used acrylic white for the flowers.  After the ink painting was done, I went over that with a wash of Blue Label number one.

I used a cement board for backing this time.  I really enjoy the texture of the board piercing through the delicate bamboo paper.  The contrast of the webbing texture of the board with the bleeding of the ink strokes is simply ethereal.

 I am not trying to prostelytize anyone into not using Xuan as backing, but the added benefit of texture of using other materail is worth experimenting.

Canada Geese, A Fluted Look

Of the many geese paintings that I've undertaken, one of them was terminally ruined by my introduction of a couple of blemishes...  my "signature" ink splats.  As one of my partners in crime quipped, those are my calling cards!

I thought of concealing them by painting something over them, perhaps a couple more geese in the distance; but their locations are less than ideal.  Perhaps I could transform them into heavenly bodies, but we  only have one sun on this earth, and UFO's would be blasphemous to a serious piece of work [ sarcasm ].  Then I thought of the Oregon rain streaming down my windshield, causing the image to have a fluted glass look.  I decided to surgically remove the splats, flouting conventional wisdom.

I recently had "sliced" up a geese painting into horizontal strips.  I shall attempt a vertical striping this time.

The painting was basically cut up into strips of varying widths running the north south direction.  By disposing the strips with the ink splats on them, I had accomplished my main objective.  My mistakes were gone!  My next move was to position the strips by sliding them up and down to give the painting a different look, but mainly [ and honestly ] to obscure the missing pieces of the landscape span.  I would even take one strip out of sequence and place it at another location just to dramatize the effect. 

As I tried different schematic arrangements, I would document them with photos.  The juxtaposition of the elements elicited an emotional response that is beyond words.  I wonder if music composers feel the same way; by stringing notes together a song is born.  By varying the musical intervals one changes key.

The photo documentation helped me to decide on a final layout for my collage.  The initial rearrangements were fueled by instincts; now the analytical eye was given a chance to participate.  Here are two examples:   by placing a light colored strip in the left field, the dissonance is acute, yet not unpleasant.  It is like playing a minor chord in a major key work.  The second example is the impressionistic flow of water, or mist on the right side of the painting.  The initial pairing truncated the "flow" of that void space, thus interrupted the feel or the energy of that story line.   By aligning the void spaces, I was able to restore the flow.

( flow truncated)

 (flow restored)

I adopted the final layout with the help of my TV monitor.  I displayed the desired version on my screen and used it as my visual template to glue down the final edition.

This exercise allowed me to

1. eliminate the annoying ink splats
2. create "hooks" or "discords" ( depending on one's point of view ) by juxtaposing
3. shift the pair of geese away from the center
4. accentuate the downward and upward flapping motions of the wings
5. create a fluted glass feel to the painting, rendering a  3 dimensional prism effect.

My finished work:

I totally grasped the meaning of "necessity is the mother of invention" now, and I am so thankful for the times that I had to sit inside my truck to stay out of the Oregon wet sunshine, watching rain streaming down the glass.