"Building" a wall

The traditional formal gardens in old China is surrounded by a wall, which shields the various pavilions and bridges, ponds and rock structures from the outside.  The structures inside the confines of the wall are often arranged to re-create a "borrowed scenery", to fulfil the imagination and the fantasy of the property owner. 

It is this wall that I find most interesting.  Whereas its main function is to establish a physical barrier, it is often punctuated by framed windows such that people on the outside can take a peep into the garden, a bit of a tease if you will.  I look at it as a fine lady trying to hide her assets, yet strategically revealing just enough to perk one's curiosity.  I am convinced that a half clad person is definitely more intriguing than one in a full birthday suit.

We have such a garden in town.  Lucky me! 

Aside from the intrinsic beauty such wall and window radiates, I like the arrangement for other reasons too.  The stark white wall is a perfect contrast to the dark tiled tops.  The lattice, or pattern on the window casts interesting shadows and creates movement.  I like the simplicity of it.  Contrast, simplicity, elegant lines; what else can I wish for.

I hastily painted a rough draft, to see if I can parlez all these into a painting. The painting would have the dark tiles on top.  The whole upper portion of the painting would be dark and heavy.  This is the "solid", the "yang" part.  The lower and left part of the painting would be the "vague" or "ying" areas; complementing and contrasting.  There should be a strong emphasis of lines, along with the black and white patches, this could pass off as a graphic design also.

I am convinced that this could work.  Armed with that conviction, I sat down to do one in earnest.

 

Two things became apparent rather quickly.  Firstly the "ying" was too much.  There was too much void on the lower half, to the extent that window and wall top seemed to be suspending in air. The painting did not feel grounded at all.  Secondly, the vines were too jumbled up.  They looked like entangled yarns, lacking direction and movement.

The next attempt tried to fix the aforementioned shortcomings.

 

 I put in the lower edges/ground of the wall.  I appointed the main branches of the vine.  One could clearly identify  a horizontal 8 now as the main branches, albeit they were a little too thick.  I've made the black tiles at the top to be in rows of a slight angle and much darker  to break up the monotonous  look.  In fact I made no attempts at all to cover up or fill in my brushstrokes.  I want the ink to breathe.  I also painted in the continuation of the vines behind  the window.  I wanted the audience to sense ( perhaps subconsciously ) the satire that whilst the wall was trying to rein things in, the vines were actually trying to get out..............   This attribute is by itself a notion for the complement/contrast aspects of Chinese painting.  Perhaps more importantly though, especially on an emotional level, this is the half cladding that started my fascination.

to be continued

An old friend re-visited

My formal training in Chinese brush was in landscapes, but I found myself doing a lot of geese, insects etc.  I just paint whatever captured my imagination and more often than not, these critters caught my fancy.

I had done a few  insect paintings in the style of Master Qi Baishi over the years.  The two that I am most fond of was one with a cicada and one with a grasshopper.  I decided to re-visit the grasshopper again.  I want to see if I can show an improvement in my brush.

I found a piece of  triple Xuan measuring 15 x 18.  I wanted a thick paper because I wanted to do it a la Xuan-boo style;  a thicker paper would stand up to the abuse I put it through.   I will be preparing my own canvas and making my own frames etc.    I use the commercial painters drop cloth as my canvas.  I enjoy the more pronounced texture from the drop cloth, over the anemic feel of the canvas frames sold in stores.

The problem ( and the advantage ) of using commercial drop cloth is that the fibers are not always uniformly wound.  Sometimes a few loops go astray and swell inordinately with the application of Gesso.  This apparent irregularity actually adds to the uneven feel and the character of the canvas.

I started out by laying down the stalk with a  coarse brush.  The stiff bristle makes a bone brushstroke that much easier, and the white streaks left at the end of the stroke is very enticing and enigmatic.

I did the upper leaves a different hue from the bottom ones to add dimension and interest.

Using very faint indigo and ink and pencil, I blocked in the shape of the grasshopper.

The insect is coming into life with a fine brush.  This part of the painting is more Gongbi than Xieyi.

A close-up reveals  the interaction between the fabric and the brushstroke.  At this point, no one would have believed that the painting was done on Xuan.  The paper assumed a feel of the fabric underneath.


Made a frame and colored it with dark mahogany.  That dark sultry red tint was a perfect match for this painting.

I do think this work is better than the previous attempt!  My brushstrokes are more convincing now.

Coffee, Ink and semi-sized Xuan

I was just finishing my 2 days old coffee.  I admit to leaving unfinished coffee on my desk and drinking it days later.  No belly aches, no vomiting, no problems.  McDonald's had raised their coffee price from 30 cents to a dollar and 30 cents.  I was baited, and got reeled in.  I blame my parents for not making me smarter.  So, I am not about to waste any coffee.

I don't often work with semi-sized paper, but the few times that I had tried it, I fell in love with it.
For me, the paper is more forgiving.  It won't bite me back when I misjudged my water load in my brush.  Yes the brushstroke loses some acuity and the stroke floats a little bit before sinking in, sort of like a delayed reaction,  but I feel emboldened to be a little reckless. 

I found a nice piece of classical work to study.  The artist's name escaped me, but I really liked his way of addressing each stroke and defining each line.  I thought the semi-sized paper would be particularly useful for this study.  I could take a little more time in putting together this jigsaw puzzle and not worry about if my brush was too wet or too dry.

The semi-sized paper was able to faithfully record different ink tones

Each brushstroke, no matter how faint or delicate, showed a presence.  The audience is encouraged to read the painting, as more clues are revealed upon each cast of the eye.

The painting was finally finished with my days old coffee as color, filling in shades and  shapes.  Literally an exercise of good taste.

Good-bye

Good-bye Mrs. C
You're finally freed
free to soar the beach that you loved

I miss you

Pavilion

Having to do a themed exhibition right after a trip overseas while I was in the stupor of jet lag is definitely not fun.  It's amazing what adrenalin does to a person.

After the anti-climax, I needed to get back into the swing of things again.

The brush felt so foreign.  I have not touched it for a while.  Could the heart grow fonder after the short absence?  I shall find out.

I decided to reacquaint myself to the brush by doing some doodling.  Well, sort of. 

I did some grass style calligraphy; just to get the blood flowing.

I talked about appreciating the brush stroke during my spiel at the exhibition, so I decided to pay extra attention to  my brushstrokes.  I want to work on my center tips.

I deem the lines of a Chinese pavilion interesting.  I want to portray the high sweeping ridge line.
I want to capture the emotions emanating from the dancing soffits.

I started out with a brush saturated with ink to write the arching ridge line.  I wanted a moist, wholesome look to the lines to reflect on the massiveness and the energy that these lines give off.
This is going to be a pavilion in a lake, a la classical gardens for the rich bureaucrats in the old days.

 

Using light ink, the surrounding covered breezeway was put in place.

Writing in the tree, paying attention to leave a little space between the branches and the pavilion, to establish  perspective.

Using Green Label 3, I dressed the branches and the waters edge.

I know it's a cliche but I just couldn't resist painting the reflections on the water.  I tried to be scant in the details.  I restrained myself from using more color to the painting.  I wanted to keep the airy, impressionistic feel of the paining.  I surmise that my cinnabar colored chop will add that speck of punctuation that I was look for.  It had to be strategically placed.

My dots seemed too evenly spaced.  They were restrained and not interesting.  This is something I need to work on.

Wassup

Just wanted to drop by and say Hi !

Relationship, no, not that kind

Since I had quite a few pages left on my drawing pad, I thought I would fill some pages with quick charcoal sketches.

Armed with this sample drawing, I went on to painting with brush on bamboo paper.  I really like the texture and warm color of this paper.  There is something very organic about this piece of fancy butt wiper.

I don't know why I truncated the bodies into halves.  Perhaps I thought it was a more interesting composition?  Perhaps I thought the relationship of the two geese were intriguing.  Were they chatting, greeting or quarreling?  Who knows!  In my mind their necks seemed to be the story teller.  Their  body language  was  translated into neck language.  This is a plausible explanation for painting just half a goose.

I wanted to explore this relationship by humanizing the geese.  What if one goose tries to playfully sneak up on a dozing partner?

I thought the leaves were too big for this composition.  I don't know if this was a painting about leaves or geese.  I can't sense any goose/goose or geese/leaves relationship in this work.

What if I moved the geese closer to each other.  That will form a relationship for sure.

Well the leaves still stole the thunder.  They were too overpowering. One goose seemed  to be giving the other one a cold shoulder. There was too much size disparity between the 2 geese.  Was the sleeping one much farther back to have appeared  smaller?   If so, I need to perhaps paint it in a much lighter tone?  Or separate the two with blades of grass?  I really have not established the relationship of the 3 items in this painting at all.  Something to remember in my future trials.