It's all about composition!

During my last painting class, I have tried to work on composition. The different elements of the picture were: a bird (we were meant to do a crane but I found a nice example of an egret instead...), some rocks, and a branch. The idea was that it is ok to 'copy' each individual element, but I had to work on the composition of the picture. It had to 'flow'...
Up to now, I have been able to copy with more or less success some nice gongbi paintings, and as such, I never had to worry about composition. The artist already worked it out 'for me'.
So I started by painting my bird, standing on rocks, and looking at two fish. I even added some ripples. Then the idea was to add a background: some more rocks on the right. And that's where it all went wrong... as they were meant to be in the background, I should have used much lighter shades of grey than the rocks in the foreground. Instead, I got carried away by playing with my brush strokes and adding more and more ink, to reach the final result you can see here.
To try and save the picture, I decided to focus the attention of the viewer on the foreground, by adding a pine branch. For once, I am relatively happy with this branch, but it was not enough to remove the focus from the meant-to-be background rocks on the right.
So one way to get around that would be to cut the picture, while leaving a sufficient amount of rocks on the right so that at least we can still see what was meant to be there. I am sure that the painting would be much improved by a nice seal and some beautiful calligraphy. My Mandarin is unfortunately not good enough yet !

Xmas cards - poinsettia

First silk painting

Snow scene

I should have learnt by now... never outline with black ink. Never.

I have done it again! I think I knew it as soon as I started. Outlining a drawing with black ink is going to completely ruin it.
I came back from my monthly painting class in August, rather pleased with what I achieved that day. I had been doing gongbi, and I copied again a painting from Yu Jigao's album, this one entitled 'Egrets and lotus in autumn'.
Eager to have the finished picture, two days later, I sat at my desk and ... decided that the outlines of those lotus were a bit too faint. Why? I don't know. But here is the result. Judge by yourself!
I was rather annoyed because 1) I spent quite a few hours on it, 2) I liked the choice of colours and thought it blended nicely with the initial wash I did on the paper and 3) despite fearing a disaster while doing the birds, those were not too bad in the end.
But this time I didn't get discouraged, and a few days ago, I started it again. On a much bigger sheet of paper as well. Why? well, this is a mystery as I usually don't feel 'safe' on big sheets. Wait and see!

What a difference calligraphy and a seal can make

Do you remember this painting? When I first posted it I said that the calligraphy was missing and that I should work on it. It was a rather tricky one and I have no idea whether it is readable or not, but what a difference it makes! Adding the calligraphy and the seal seem to have completely transformed the initial painting. And if I decide to mount it, it will look different again. I love that with chinese painting: your painting isn't completely finished until it is mounted. It's as if your painting evolves between those various stages...


The haiku is by Tomiyasu Fusei and reads
'I love the rest of my life,
Though it is transitory,
Like a light azure morning glory'













I do apologise for the poor quality of the photo.. it is quite appalling!
Maybe those two will give a better idea of what I mean (although here the only difference is the seal...)

Gongbi and birds

In April 2009 I traveled to Shanghai to attend a friend's wedding. I was there for 6 days and I think every second day I was walking up and down along Fuzhou road, looking through the myriads of paper/books/paint/brushes shop. A heaven!
One book shop was especially amazing. You could find there everything you have always dreamed about. The choice was so vast that I couldn't get myself to chose one book...
So the third time I went into the shop, I decided that 'that was it'. Now just pick one you like... so I selected the fine brush flower-bird painting album of Yu Jigao.



What a fantastic book! I have since tried to copy 3 of the paintings from the book and I am currently doing the fourth one.
Here they are...






This was the first one that I copied: 'Magnolia and Waxwing'. I started doing the bird during my last group session and when I came home, I decided to try and finish it, adding the magnolias and experimenting with blending lots of colours on the branches. I am actually quite happy with the result.




Then, I got carried away and decided to copy another one... straight. I picked 'Paradise flycatchers and plum blossom'. Everything was going ok (even if I still preferred the first one), until I decided to mount it... I wanted the little bits of yellow pollen to be really visible in the painting, so I painted them with a quite thick mix of yellow and white. And it was fine, until I applied the glue on the back, and as the glue was quite liquid, my yellow started running all over the picture. You can't really see it from a distance, but still... it was quite a disappointment!


But never mind, I straight selected another one and got started with it. 'Early spring of south of the five ridges'. I loved the composition, the strong colour of the red flowers and the contrast with the two white birds. And I think I did manage to achieve that... I hope!

Morning glory

'I love the rest of my life
Though it is transitory
Like a light azure morning glory'

...well, I still don't really 'get' haikus, but this one gave me a good opportunity to paint some morning glory. Again, the calligraphy is really missing and I will have to work on it (it is a very tricky one as well...)

More haiga

'Against the bright full moon
A hilltop pine tree
Is the image of my rebirth'










'Toddling orphan sparrow,
Come and play!
I'm always your playmate'














'Butterfly in my hand
As if it were a spirit
Unearthly, insubstantial'

A new challenge

As I so much enjoyed illustrating haikus, I decided to set up a challenge for myself. I bought the following haiku book, and decided to illustrate them... maybe not all of them, but I intend to do most of them, little by little...
I have done three so far, and all of them are 'originals'...

Haiku - Haiga

Before the summer holidays in 2008, my art teacher gave us an assignment… I might be too academic, but as far as drawing/painting is concerned, I have always enjoyed assignments. That’s probably why I find it so difficult to get motivated to paint when I am on my own. I do have a lot of imagination, but when it comes to translate this imagination on a canvas or piece of paper… I can’t. So having an assignment somehow forces me to get started.

The assignment was to pick a haiku and illustrate it.

Hmmm… what’s a haiku? Well, I didn’t know at the time. A haiku is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 syllables.

And a haiga is basically an illustration of a haiku. Or, more precisely, according to Wikipedia: a haiga is a style of Japanese painting based on the aesthetics of haikai, from which haiku poetry derives, which often accompanied such poems in a single piece.

So here I was, flicking through a haiku book, searching for inspiration. I finally found one, which was something like

‘Having cut the peony that evening, I felt distressed’

And here is what I came up with – it might not be great, but I love it because this exercise forced me to be creative rather than just trying my best to copy something.
The calligraphy and the seal are still missing. I am working on it!

Painting from Nature – not my forte!

During one of my painting class, we learnt how to apply light grey ink in parts of the painting to suggest shadow.
Once the outlines of the drawing are finished, we applied light grey ink in parts of the picture that are meant to be in the shade, and with a slightly wet brush, we worked on this sort of grey wash to make it blend with the rest of the painting rather than stand out as a dark patch.
We tried this technique while painting from real flowers … and painting from Nature is definitely not my strength!
Nevertheless, I thought it was a good exercise that I am now using on a regular basis, especially when I paint flowers.

Gongbi – Geisha – Kimonos

‘A Chinese brush painting is created using lines and dots, marks made on the paper to produce a likeness or impression of plants and animals, mountains and skies, fish and insect’.

Chinese brush painting is suggestive more than descriptive, unlike westerner’s paintings That’s what attracted me in this technique, initially.

But as I progressed, I was introduced to Gongbi – the meticulous side of Chinese painting. And being highly meticulous myself, I really enjoyed this technique. To me, it is the perfect combination between traditional painting as I know it, and Chinese brush painting.

As I got started with Gongbi, I got very much into a new subject of painting: geishas and their absolutely beautiful kimonos. I loved the fluidity of the kimonos and some patterns are really exquisite.

Here was my first geisha (top left), now framed and displayed at home. I was very pleased with it – the seal is really missing to finish the picture, but I still do not have an appropriate seal. I am working on it…

A few other geishas followed, amongst which those two:

Wrinkling technique

Following the black and white landscape painting, I was introduced to a new technique – wrinkling.

Wrinkling is used to provide texture. I crushed the paper to be used into a ball. I then smoothed out the paper and gently run a loaded, not too wet, brush over it, defining the shape of the mountains.

In a little pot, I prepared a rather liquid blue paint that I then poured onto the paper, in the desired location. Once dry, I worked on the ‘texture’ of the mountain, just adding different sorts of trees here and there. I finally worked on the foreground, just with various shades of grey.

On the mounted work, the creases disappear and the texture remains.

And it was also my first two original paintings!

My first exhibition

Only a few months after I started Chinese painting, my teacher announced that he would like to exhibit some of our paintings at the Japanese centre in Cambridge for ‘Japan Day 2007’.

Rather reluctantly, I provided him with some chickens… I can’t help thinking that the plants in the background really look like asparagus and that my seal (designed under pressure) was everything but Chinese.

This however triggered an interest in birds painting and several herons followed… I was quite happy with the one on the black background, especially because I started this painting on a white paper and gradually built up a black wash on the back of the paper to reach this really strong black background.

The power of ink

Chinese favour using black ink on white paper. This combination provides the utmost contrast in the simplest possible way.
‘It is thought unnecessary to crowd a page with colours when seeking to suggest the highest spiritual and harmonious ideals.’
This concept is very different from westerner’s paintings. It is rather amazing to see how ink can suggest every colour – the secret of using ink lies in knowing just how much water and ink to put on the brush. This varies with the size of the brush and absorbency of the paper, and can only be learned with practice. And I still struggle with paper absorbency!
On the left and below are two examples of landscapes painted purely using black ink. I think the result is quite striking.

Wrong start

It’s been a while since anything happened on this blog. I seem to have stopped it after only 2 posts… I guess, not having internet at home played a role and so did moving house and traveling to Shanghai in April.

But I am back now, well decided to keep this blog alive. I have actually been working on it over the past few months and have quite a few posts ready to go. I will probably be posting a few new entries today and over the next few days. In my previous post, I mentioned the four gentlemen: bamboo, plum blossom, chrysanthemum and orchid – the basics of Chinese painting. I went through my old paintings to find an example of each of the gentlemen, and here they are…

First steps in chinese painting

What fascinated me straight with chinese painting was how, in five brush strokes, you can achieve something. My first lesson was 'how to draw a bamboo'. And here I sat, watching my teacher, painting a bamboo in 2 minutes. Unlike watercolours, chinese painting is very much suggestive. And even if you purely paint with black ink, you can do so many shades of grey that the result can be absolutely breathtaking.
Chinese painting courses usually begin with the 'Four Gentlemen' - the bamboo, orchid, plum blossom and chrysanthemum - because the wide range of strokes required to paint each of them provides a catalogue of strokes that can then be used to paint any other subject.

From botanical illustrations to chinese painting

As far as I remember, I have always loved drawing or painting, but I never had any proper class. When I was a kid, probably around 11 years old, I won a drawing contest. The price was a voucher to spend some money in an art shop. I used that money to buy some watercolours... that was my first introduction to this technique.

I have always found old botanical illustrations absolutely fascinating. You know, the kind of drawings explorers would bring back from their travels around the world... an interesting mix between art, science and travels: probably my three passions in life ! So I naturally started painting flowers, with more or less success!

When I was living in Australia (between 2003 and 2006), I enrolled in a botanical illustration workshop over a week end. A week end is far too short, but I absolutely loved it! The setting (a kind of first floor glasshouse within one of the CSIRO buildings in Canberra), the people, the atmosphere... it was great ! And during this workshop, I produced this picture on the right.

When I moved from Australia to the UK in 2006, I started investigating for a similar class... but couldn't find any. Instead, I found a class entitled 'oriental watercoulour'.

I have to admit that I had to do a bit a web search to find out what that was about. Still not quite sure about the content of the class and still not knowing what 'oriental watercolour' meant, I decided to give it a go... and that's how I discovered Chinese brush painting...