Fiction

Sea of Ink – a slim book of impressions of the very famous Qing dynasty artist Bada Shanren

The Ten Thousand Things – a novel about Yuan dynasty painter Wang Meng

Brushstrokes in Time – a novel about The Stars Movment, which includes CBPS’s honorary president Qu Leilei

Factual

The Upright Brush – life and work of great Tang dynasty calligrapher Yan Zhenqing

Repentant Monk – about the wonderful Ming figure painter Chen Hongshou

Shitao – monograph about this very famous Qing dynasty painter

Fu Shan’s World – Fu Shan was one of the famous Qing dynasty calligraphers.  If you saw the Three Emperors exhibition at the RA, you will have seen his calligraphy alongside Bada Shanren’s

Modern Ink – the art of Qi Baishi

A Chinese Artist in Britain – an illustrated retrospective of Qu Leilei’s work.

There are lots of print makers influenced by Oriental Art.  Pat pointed to the work of Adrian Holmes.

Laura Boswell‘s prints use Japanese woodblock methods, including her elegant Night Gardens, Kyoto (in her Gallery).  She is filming a series of short videos all about how she creates a reduction linocut print. These videos are such a treat and a real insight into her practice. You can watch through her You Tube channel, Facebook or Instagram.

Pine Feroda is a group of print makers who work collaboratively, and blogged about their visit to a Chinese print master.

Henry Li has videos on using monoprints as a basis for lotus and landscape (parts 1, 2, 3).  Definitely worth a try !  Note that he uses sized paper, or thicker mulberry paper.  Normal xuan is not ideal for this technique because it tends to tear when saturated.

Or you can try printing real objects like leaves.  Remember the Newsletter July 2019, with Colleen’s fish – an example of gyotako
This delightful animation explains the background and  methods.  Even more on the method – possibly too much!  Enthusiastic Hawaiian fish-printer.

David Bull is a printer working in Japan, who re-created the Great Wave.

Members have been getting creative with paper & scissors.

From Pat J: I thought this origami blog by the British Museum was very good.

Zara: For an advanced challenge check this out – The prawns look amazing but a lot of effort to make.  I recommend subscribing to Colossal newsletter, you get some of the most amazing global creative things on it.

Leo: I have been cutting up old discarded Chinese brush work and reforming them. By drawing on the back of the old work randomly and cutting up without knowing what lies on the other side. I have just allowed the shapes to dictate once turned right side up.  Here are some examples.

Zara had fun painting her cactus different papers. The beetle was due to an ink splat when shaking the bottle!

Lovely watery pond by Leo.

Peng’s fresh Lupin with robber fly patiently waiting for its next meal, and a fallen leaf from London plane tree with two water striders (pond-skaters).

Pauline has painted this  unusual plant – a corkscrew grass about 40cm tall (also known as rats tail grass), bought at a Rare Plants Fayre.  It has a strong vanilla perfume.

Angela keeps trying to paint white wisteria without using white paint.

Online classes by CBPS member teacher William Cai, via London Chinese Community Centre.   Classes may be in Chinese.

Talia Lehavi has several online courses via her website ArtBrush.

Well-established teacher Nan Rae (USA) is doing online classes.

Henry Li (USA) has some virtual classes at Blue Heron Studio.

Mayee Futterman (USA) also has online classes.

Plus the many videos already available online.

CBPS member Nick has been channelling David Hockney with his iPad.

NW_Cherry

NW_Cherry_2

NW_Tulips_3

NW_Tulips_3 NW_Chinese_bottle_2

Interesting to see his thought process in this one!

The tale of the Peach Blossom Spring is often painted.  There is a handscroll in the British Museum, and here is a walk through a handscroll from the Wou Lien-Pai Museum of Chinese Art, courtesy of Roderick Whitfield: Peach Blossom Spring.ppt

Some of you might remember Xu Bing’s installation at the V&A in 2013: Travelling to the Wonderland was inspired by the Peach Blossom Spring.

The daffodils are an adaptation of “east meets west” – stylised lotus leaves with daffodil blooms, painted on a special cotton material.  In this time of lock-down and some degree of anxiety, I liked the intention of the haiku – hope beyond the tougher times.

As I am still able to get around quite well I decided to shop at my local Sainsbury’s during ‘oldies’ hour.
There were no queues, no shortage of things I needed, cheerful assistants and when I paid at the checkout shoppers were offered a free bouquet of spring flowers. So there are some nice things happening despite all the restrictions!
As a souvenir of this I painted the tulips