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!
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...
