Three friends



The Pine Tree



The Bamboo

Three friends of winter. Three pieces of fruit. Three people. Three is one of my favourite numbers, together with seven. I think that two is good, but for some reason, if there are three things, or something happens three times, it seems more concrete. This weekend, I attended a course led by Suzanne Chong on Chinese Brush Painting. It was completely amazing - I really enjoyed it. I never knew bamboo leaves could be so hard to paint or that getting the 5 petals of a plum tree blossom to look good and even is just as difficult. Apparently, the saying is that a plum blossom takes a year to perfect, but bamboo leaves a whole lifetime. The three friends of winter are the pine tree, bamboo and the plum blossom. These plants are a symbol of getting through the hard times; even flourishing and putting forth fruit in the dead of winter. The trees are depicted as old, with tree holes, as this symbolises longevity, strength and power. I definitely learnt that Chinese Brush Painting can look easy, but as soon as I tried it, I realised that it requires a tremendous amount of patience and practise! I also learnt that Xuan paper (raw) absorbs the ink much more readily and gives such a different result to say, standard A4 photocopy paper, that it is sometimes hard to control where the ink bleeds and to get the wash right. Similar to water colours I think - priority - must perfect the consistency of the wash! Here are some of my humble efforts from the weekend.

The Plum Blossom

I also tried oil pastels this week, together with a household candle as a resist for a water colour still life of fruit. I definitely need to do it again, as I messed up the highlights wholeheartedly (didn't have my head screwed on at all this week by any means) and probably went to heavy on the orange (probably because I love orange so much)!  I promise to try again and do a better job of the highlights and resists :).

The Oranges

Masking

So, I think as I mentioned in my last post I've started working through a book I bought called Painting with Watercolours, Oils, Acrylics and Gouache by Wendy Jelbert and Ian Sidaway. I'm still very much into the early stages of the watercolours section. My most exciting purchases to date have been a mop brush and masking fluid. The mop brush cost a bit but makes me happy so it's worth it. The painting above was a quick exercise I did that they have in the book, using the photo of the vase they've published and masking fluid for the pattern. Sometimes I feel that I am painting a bit like paint by numbers but I know me well enough to know that I tend to learn best by example so it's good for me. I like that the top left hand of the picture captures a bit of Tague's 3D buildings, a kid that drew in my sketch book, together with his sister, one day when I was sketching at the Crags.

 

There was another exercise about painting a turnip and a pear. So, knowing my luck that day at the supermarket, they didn't have a whole turnip but only half. I actually ended up appreciating the half better, because it stood as some kind of sentinel over the pear. I am also finding it pretty interesting watching how quickly it shrivels in comparison to the pear. A strong timeless turnip becomes a withered crinkly one. The shadows and washes are not the best. I'm still finding it quite difficult to mix the right volume of the wash first up, and get the water to pigment consistency right. Next up are resists and oranges - I love the colour orange!