THE LONDON CHINESE BRUSH PAINTERS GROUP

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1 THE LONDON CHINESE BRUSH PAINTERS GROUP Newsletter March 2012 William Cai The Chop above translates as Share one s Treasures the motto of our group! Landscape, Wisteria and Grapes 3 intermediate stages and the finished picture... 1

2 William gave us an intensive and excellent workshop on these 3 subjects; his mastery of tone gives amazing depth to his paintings. Simple Landscape The lovely landscape on page 1 was built up slowly using lots of tones of ink to create a picture of tremendous depth and sophistication. First stage - William started with a large brush and black ink for the sweeping strokes of the foreground hill. Then the tree trunks and branches are added with a smaller brush. The pine needles are placed in overlapping groups. On the deciduous tree the leaves are made up of a downwards short bamboo type stroke, again in groups. The technique here is to flick the brush down with the 3 rd finger this takes some practice. The foreground rock is added with slightly wetter ink Second stage the ink is lighter for the middle ground rocks and formed with quick dancing strokes and texture formed with a splayed brush with different tones on the one brush. Lighter ink again is used for the distant mountains. A process of adding texture, with dry brush work and different tones of ink to the mountains now starts, this needs to be built up slowly. Strengthen the ink tones next to the waterfall. Some dots are also added at this stage. Third stage Darker ink is added to the foreground under the trees. The pavilion is added as well as bushes and grasses. Add in distant pine trees on top of the middle ground mountains. Some wet in wet, some wet on dry. Add some light ink as shading behind the tree leaves and light ink on a splayed brush for texture on the mountains, then more dry brush work with very light ink. William uses a full repertoire of brush strokes with all 5 tones of ink, when building up the mountains, twisting, dabbing, and stabbing the brush and using side strokes. Finally a few orchids are added to the bottom of the foreground rock. Now leave the painting to dry then add in darker tones where necessary, add more dots to and darken the crevices of the mountains and add some bushes onto the mountain crevices. Wash with a large brush and very pale ink add an ink wash for mist at the bottom of the mountains and on the foreground and behind the leaves, make sure to leave some white. Wash over the crevices, and next to the waterfall. William also demonstrated some lovely calligraphy. On this small size of painting he just puts his name and chop (which he carves himself); on a larger picture he would add a poem. On page 3 are the lovely wisteria and grapes that William demonstrated. The long calligraphy translates as Yellow mountain through morning sunshine in standard script and the shorter calligraphy says purple wisteria in running script. There is also another example of William s landscape painting. 2

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4 Wisteria Flowers - Using a mixed hair brush load the whole brush with white then mix the tip with indigo then carmine the brush should be dryish. Teardrop strokes from the large petals vary the mix on the brush some more red some more purple. The Background petals are more bluish. The buds are violet or purple. The dots at the bottom of the flowers are mineral blue. The second upper group of flowers are a mix of white, No3 blue (cerulean), and carmine, dots are with No 3 blue. Yellow and white for the stamens in the centre. Stems - Flower stalks are indigo gamboges and ink. The thick branch is a mix of indigo, carmine and burnt sienna. Use the same colour and a small tick stroke to join the base of the flowers to the stalks. Leaves Load the brush with yellow then mix in indigo and tip into ink. The basic stroke is a teardrop side stroke, vary this with some wetter and rounder leaves, some darker, use different shapes and tomes. Tip into red for more variation. Leaf stalks are a mix of Burnt sienna, indigo and ink, adding more ink for variation. Veins are in carmine. For the tendrils load with burnt sienna and mix in ink. Grapes Fruits load the brush with indigo and mix in carmine, change the proportions of this mix for variation. The stroke is formed as if you are drawing a circle leave some white in the middle. Stalks are in a mix of burnt sienna and ink. Leaves and stems Using a very large brush load fully with yellow then mix in indigo then mix in a little ink. The leaf is formed by 3 sweeping slightly curved side strokes, 1 st the central lobe then the outer 2. For the older leaf mix light green through the brush then mix in burnt sienna and ink. Put in the leaf veins while the leaf is still wet with dryer ink. Now add more ink to the brush and put in the large stem with an expressive dancing stroke of variable speed (the fast sections give you the flying white). Add in some younger leaves with less ink in the mix and use a mix of green and ink for the veins. Add in appropriate dots on the stems as this final stage "...landscapes cannot be made by copying but only by the skill of the heart which is superior in the things that it grasps" Mi Fei, "You must first realise the whole thing completely in your mind" Su Tung-p'o, Anush kindly made A4 colour copies of William s pictures for us to work from. We still have some of these left to buy (at a bargain price of 20p)and also a few copies from previous workshops, so if you missed out and are attending future workshops you can collect them and give the money to me (Fiona) or Anush on the day. 4

5 Brush Sale Jean Smith, one of our long standing members, kindly donated some of her superb brushes to the group to sell to raise funds for our charities and the Christmas meal. I am delighted to say that we raised 40 at the June workshop, thank you Jean! I have been using Jean s brushes over the last month and they are an absolute pleasure to use. We have a few brushes left over which will be available to buy at the September workshop. Anush has kindly offered to donate one of her pictures to raffle for our charities so bring some extra funds with you in September! Poetry corner A forum for oriental poetry or just inspirational lines that might give you ideas for your own pictures. From Anush here is another nice paragraph from Tao Teh Ching, Lao Tzu, translated b y John C. H. Wu is the following: A good soldier is never aggressive; A good fighter is never angry. The best way of conquering an enemy Is to win him over by not antagonizing him. The best way of employing a man Is to serve under him. This is called the virtue of non-striving! This is called using the abilities of men! This is called being wedded to Heaven as of old! If you d like to share a favourite inspirational poem, even better one of your own; please it to Fiona at fionaandstevew@yahoo.co.uk Book Recommendations The Chinese Brush Painting Source Book by Jane Dwight ISBN

6 A wonderful small format spiral bound book with over 200 different elements including lots of flowers, fruit and veg, insects, animals, birds, fish and some landscape elements and people. At the end there are some example compositions. Each motif is illustrated with detailed step by step instructions. Jane s style is fresh and colourful and copying these little motifs work equally well for making cards as for building larger pictures. Another essential book for your library and one I use very frequently. If you have a book recommendation to share please it to Fiona at fionaandstevew@yahoo.co.uk Lotus inspirations... Some thoughts on painting by Chang Ta-Chin, one of the great Lotus masters: Probably in the depiction of a certain subject, neither true-to-life resemblance nor the purposeful avoidance of such resemblance yields the best pictures. It makes little sense to draw a subject as faithfully as possible, because painting could never be as faithful as a camera; it sounds absurd to paint anything at all if we don t want the picture to resemble the true object. Therefore, a good painting depicts the subject in a manner somewhere between true likeness and unlikeness, so that the spirit and natural beauty of the subject are captured. Such is the art of painting, and what the ancients mean by discarding form and reserving the spirit. Anush has kindly provided some inspiration for your summer painting. Above is one of her lovely lotus paintings. There is also some calligraphy from one of Kaili Fu s workshops, it is running script and translates as out of mud comes purity, a traditional quote often associated with lotus paintings. Finally there are some thoughts from one of the great lotus masters but equally applicable to all painting. To fully render the spirit of lotus it would be best to study and sketch it in the flesh and you may be able to see them in Kew Gardens in the Princess of Wales house and the waterlilly gardens best times are usually late July, but their timing is variable so check first with Kew before making a special trip.. Failing that (just type lotus 6

7 into the search bar at the top of the home page) is a good source for lotus pictures or copy Anush s lovely version. Happy painting... 7

8 Make your own sketching roll for outdoor sketching during those long hot Indian summer days... For those of you brought up on Blue Peter this should present no problems. The advantage of making your own roll is that you can tailor it to your own equipment and when you are sketching outdoors you don t have to rummage around in the bottom of your back to retrieve rumpled equipment. The roll can be made either from felt or a mix of sturdy material (in blue) and felt (in yellow) as I have. If you use material you need to use a sewing machine or be patient enough to stitch it by hand. If you use felt you could assemble it with fabric glue (better to sew if you can). You also need half a metre of narrow ribbon. The dimensions of my roll were 23 x 30 cm with a fold over at the bottom of 10cm to make the pockets. Leave 1 cm of extra material round all the edges to make a neat turnover. If using material I zig- zag stitched my edges to stop them fraying this is not necessary with felt. The felt flap is 29 x 11 cm, if you are just using felt throughout you could just cut extra felt and fold it over for the flap. The advantage of my felt flap is that it absorbs the water from the brushes. Tailor your pocket sizes to fit the pens etc that you want to carry you can use pins to test the sizes first. My roll contains a variety of pens, waterproof and water-soluble, pencils, a pencil sharpener, small piece of J cloth (instead of kitchen roll) a water brush (for the water-soluble pens) and brushes. Make sure your roll is wide enough for the brushes you want to carry, allowing for attaching the felt flap you can see that mine is a bit short for the bigger brush. If using felt you can use glue to stick all you seams or sew, which is better for the material version. Attach half the ribbon to one edge of the roll and the other in an appropriate place to tie up when you roll up the roll! If you need clarification on the instructions or other advice please me at fionaandstevew@yahoo.co.uk The next LCBPG meeting is on 8th September with Maggie Cross. Maggie will also be coming on the 13 th October and over these 2 workshops she will be demonstrating flowers, birds and washes. Please make sure you send your cheque to arrive with Anush at least 7 days in advance to book your place, we only have 18 places and workshops are now very popular. Please note the increase in time from 5 to 7 days, this has been extended after the problems at the last workshop with members cheques arriving very late leaving Anush little or no time to contact people to tell them that the workshop was full! What can we say...please, please get your cheques in early to Anush! If you can book for several workshops in advance so much the better. Anush Sarkissian Rookwood, Quarry Road, Oxted, Surrey RH8 9HE 8

9 Cheques payable to The London Chinese Brush Painters Group Workshops are held on the 2 nd Saturday of the month except July and August. Workshop times are prompt start till 4.30 Tea and coffee is free at the workshops but individual donations to the Animals Asia charity and Starlight would be welcome. Starlight brightens the lives of seriously and terminally ill children to distract children from the pain, fear and isolation they can often feel as a result of their illnesses. Animals Asia work to free the lovely Moon Bears kept in barbaric conditions in the bile farms in China and South East Asia. They also provide sanctuaries for these beautiful animals. If you have any articles, dates for exhibitions or courses etc. for the newsletter please send them to Fiona at fionaandstevew@yahoo.co.uk The images in this newsletter are the copyright and property of the artists and should not be copied without the permission of the artists For further information about the Group please contact our membership secretary, Norma Kennedy Tel norma@familykennedy.co.uk The other committee members are; Anush Sarkissian (Chairman and Treasurer) anush.sarkissian@gmail.com Judy Wright (Committee member) thewright.site@virgin.net Fiona Williams (Newsletter) fionaandstevew@yahoo.co.uk 9