A message from CBPS member teacher Claire.
What a happy weekend we have just had at Knuston Hall ! We were all so grateful to be able to paint together again. There was an understandable frisson of anxiety at the beginning as in any new
situation but that soon evaporated as we settled into a novel routine.
The work produced was outstanding! Unfortunately we couldn’t display it all on the walls but I have uploaded the paintings on to our website Double Happiness Studio.

Eamonn and all his wonderful staff at Knuston have worked so hard with so many agencies to be allowed to open.  Everything was done for our safety and comfort.

I am looking forward to my next course in October!

CBPS Member Teacher William Cai won a medal for his calligraphy this summer.  He sent his calligraphy to the  37th International Calligraphy Exhibition in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.   A total of 8,000 people participated this time, and 2,000 people were selected, including William.

His calligraphy is the smaller work – a poem by Tang poet Wang Changlin, the 4th of his Seven Songs from the Army, extolling the bravery of patriotic soldiers.

William’s medal and certificate.

CBPS Member teacher Claire Seaton will be teaching at Knuston Hall  14 – 16 October and 16 – 18 October (put Chinese in the search box to find these course).  Residential places available.

CBPS Member teacher Maggie Cross will be at Ardington 26 & 27 October.

    

CBPS Member teacher Leo Donaghy has an exhibition at the Willow Gallery in Oswestry coming up  22nd  – 26th September.   Card sets, aprons and cushions are available

The new CBPS book is here!

Gongbi work is painted on sized paper or sized silk and is a very controlled technique.  It can produce some exquisitely beautiful paintings.

Gongbi painting is now not widely taught in the UK.  It is therefore difficult to learn the technique.  We have been unable to find any books that give a detailed explanation of the techniques in the English language.  We are therefore gathering what we have learnt from Cai Xiaoli, Kaili Fu, Li Jia and Qu Leilei in a series of books for our members.

Marion Dearlove has written  the first of these books, covering  Bai Miao – line work – and Mo Ran – ink washes.  It provides a detailed step-by-step guide to this technique.

Three books are planned in the series and will be issued free of charge to all CBPS members over the next 2 years.

Zhang Daqian is famous for his expert knowledge of Chinese painting history and techniques, and his work is in many museums worldwide, sometimes unexpectedly.     Ten things you should know about him.  Rather oddly, his work includes a silk dress.

A short film of him painting, and a longer one.

Gao Qipei specialised in finger painting.  If you can’t get to the Laoning Museum, but the Ashmolean has this wonderful handscroll.

Contemporary Chinese paintings

Breathing      Pervasion    Song of Dawn    The Cycles

Blue Introspection    Silhouette

ARTificial intelligence!

Insect art

A  modern take on traditional Chinese  snuff bottle painting

Living Jewels – a book of wonderful photos of inseccts

Astonishing close-up photos of insects

Water sculptures – flow made solid

Dripping      Flowing      Sea change

Scholar’s study painting is a genre of Korean painting, clearly related to Chinese painting.  Met video about the painting above.

The tasteful displays of collector’s objects echoes the Chinese idea of The Hundred Treasures.  In this painting of a Scholar’s studio, we can glimpse the shelf of books – one of the Four Signs of a Scholar.

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.