Three Friends of Winter with Squirrels by Xugu, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The CBPS AGM and demonstrations will be held by Zoom. All events are free to CBPS members.
Saturday 1 November 11am – 12.30pm UK time: AGM
Saturday 1 November 2pm – 3.30pm UK time: painting demonstration by Shuhua Jin Watch or paint along as Shuhua paints Xugu’s Three Friends of Winter with Squirrels.
He will paint the central section only (image below): paper 35cm x 70-80cm, single unsized Xuan. If you want to do the whole painting you will need longer paper (at least 210 cm long, 35cm wide).
You will need ink and these colours: indigo, yellow ochre and cinnabar.
Brushes: a small fine tip brush, a medium size goat hair brush and a harder hair, eg wolf or mixed hair (goat with rabbit or horse hair). This is Xugu’s work, featuring the classic traditional scholar theme called Three Gentlemen of The Winter (soul friendship) – Plum blossom, Pine tree and Bamboo. Obviously it is dominant by the three squirrels which is always the favourite subject for the artist. This image shows the centre part of the hand scroll painting. Painter used free view of the perspective, allowing the objects scattered around, the central point is emphasised by the three squirrels facing to the direction. In terms of composition, amazingly using the branches of the plum blossom tree to bridge all in the manner of classic diagonal composition. Essentially, the dry and wet brush strokes apply to many areas in the painting. The fine brush lines and side point brush strokes which reflected of Xugu’s unique style. The combination of the dry brush strokes and gentle wet washes gives the phenomenon atmosphere.
Sunday 2 November 10 am UK time: painting demonstration LIVE FROM CHINA Watch or paint along as Mr Lv Xiaoshu of the Chinese Association of Artists demonstrates his individual style of landscape painting
The Qianlong Emperor asserts his authority with symbolic goats! Painted by Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining) (1688-1768) and Jin Tingbiao (d. 1767) , ink and colour on silk, hanging scroll
What are blue goats? Apparently their coats have a bluish sheen.
Museum of East Asian Art, Bath: In Bloom till December. Discover how flowers have inspired generations of artists across East and Southeast Asia through a display of floral-themed objects from the Museum’s collection, alongside artworks by seven contemporary artists.
Our recent Newsletters have featured mystery objects associated with Chinese art and culture. Check out the CBPS Newsletters for the secrets!
Mystery Object 8, October 2025
Bought at an online auction. It is 5.5” (14 cm) tall, 4” (10 cm) in diameter and made of bone, beautifully inscribed with the 8 Immortals and elaborate brass fittings. It has 2 handles. There is an inner container similarly made from bone and brass with 2 handles and this is 3.5” (9.5 cm) tall and 2” (5cm) in diameter again finely carved with dragons. There is also a separate piece that looks like a spout but doesn’t seem to fit. It appears that a lid is missing. There are inscribed characters on the base but they do not look Chinese so could it be Korean? What is it? How does it function? Does anyone know anything about such an object?
CBPS keeps a list of suppliers. We have had a report (August 2025) of trouble with an order from OAS. Please check that you know all the terms and conditions before committing to an order, and be aware that overseas orders may incur customs duty entering the UK.
There is a lot of CBP material available on the internet, but it can be hard to judge the quality, and what is available may change. Here is current information from our Teachers and Group representatives. It also helps if you know what you are looking for, especially with paper: our Getting Started page has a lot of information on CBP materials.
Brushes & Paper
Marion Dearlove uses these mixed hair brushes for her students. She also uses this paper for students: “It is slightly sized but works well for beginners. Good sized sheets can be split into 2 squares for simple practice or used whole for real work. ”
Desmond Chung says “I’ve recently ordered from this shop in Taiwan. Quite good quality and excellent service. There’ll be shipping fees.” This site is in Chinese, but you can make reasonable sense of it with Google translate. Note that overseas suppliers may incur import customs charges.
Judy Bell: “You could try the Heaton Cooper Gallery at Grasmere. I managed to persuade them years ago to stock some Chinese Brush materials. It would be helpful if any members visiting The Lakes could pop in and buy the odd thing so that they will continue to hold some stock”. They have “rice paper” and Wenzhou bark paper rolls.
“Rice paper” seems to be a general term used online for Chinese painting and calligraphy paper, but it is hard to tell exactly what it is for our purposes – eg is it xuan, sized or unsized etc. Bark paper ( 温州皮纸 wenzhou pizhi) often seems to be called rice paper (eg here), though it is made from the the bark of the Paper Mulberry tree (Broussonetia papyrifera). Google translates xuan paper 宣紙 as rice paper.
Anne Allan: “Have you tried temu – I’ve had good success with purchases (though others have not) but I have bought mainly shikishi boards and not xuan.” This does explain if xuan is raw (unsized) or half-cooked (semi-sized).
Peta Allingham: “I purchase packs of raw Xuan paper from T La Art and Craft shop in Manchester (16 Nicholas Street ph. 0161 236 2333 https://orientalworld.co.uk/ ). The sheets are around A2 in size and cost £6 per pack (over 20 sheets but I haven’t actually counted them). I also purchase 250 ml bottles of my favourite Cheong Hwa ink for £5.50 each (the one with the eagle on the box). They can post orders promptly using Royal Mail. Very good service. They do have an online shop where the paper is listed as rice paper but you can phone between 10am and 6pm seven days of the week.” Note: the rolls of paper on this site seems to be Japanese Moon Palace.
Sharon Wybrow: “In answer to your query about paper, I used this one from Amazon for a Calligraphy course I did a couple of years ago with the Chopsticks Club and as recommended by them. I found it a really good and quite kind practice paper especially for the Calligraphy. As it’s white the black ink shows up better than on yellowy grass paper.” The page does state that this is “semi-treated” ie semi-sized.
Angela Reich: “I was looking for a source of “grass paper” for student practice. Sidewinder used to do very useful packs of A3 size, but I could not find obvious equivalent online. Indeed, searching for “bamboo paper” came up with loo rolls!
So I decided to try this one – “Stone Rice calligraphy painting long roll”. As it comes from Hong Kong the delivery charge was quite high. Unfortunately the supplier marked the parcel as GIFT, which meant I had to pay UK VAT plus handling fee – the supplier did refund half as a goodwill gesture. So the paper worked out at about 87pence per metre. The paper has definite smooth and rough sides and does not run, so should be useful for beginners’ practice.”
rough sidesmooth side
The Sidewinder paper is probably “Grass Paper” P49 from Man Luen Choon. “Grass” paper (buff practice paper) is made from bamboo.
Notes on Xuan paper. Xuan can be sized (“cooked”) or unsized (“raw”).
Gold Paper
It is hard to find the ideal gold paper.
It can be quite tricky to paint on because the ink & colours do not stick well. So you need to experiment. to see what works for you.
When Qu Leilei taught green-gold landscape recently he suggested a paper from Falkiners but it was quite hard to use and the colour did not stick well to it.
You can make it yourself – get western gold colour (eg gouache) & paint on the paper you want to use.
You might find ready-mounted boards, though of course these are limited in size.
We found some other metallic papers, but we have no idea whether these would be suitable: Etsy, Papermill. If you try them, let us know how you get on.
Advice from member Chris G: I am sure most art suppliers would have available gold paper of some description but I found that A4 gold paper is also available on Amazon (what isn’t?!) (120gsm, a pack of 10 sheets costs £4.95) There are slightly different shades on offer, “Gold Colour Pearlescent” and “Mellow Gold Shimmer Pearlescent” for example Amazon also sell some heavier duty gold card/paper up to 250 gsm but beware of the very shiny varieties that do not look good as a painting background.With any of the metallic finished papers I would advise mounting them on a firm back prior to painting. They are not absorbent and will buckle and curl when wet with ink or paint, neither of which will spread as it would on any of the customary Chinese papers Initial practice on a spare piece is highly recommended and I would also suggest that thicker than normal ink and paint are used as this will aid adherence to the paper and give improved coverage (if anyone managed to obtain some of the gold paper he had suggested, those who attended Qu Lei Lei’s on-line workshop last year of blue, green and gold landscapes, will understand what I mean)Depending on what effect is required, for one of the paintings I used letter paper, printed with an antique effect rather than gold, eg “Motif Letter Paper – Antique and History” again available on Amazon. There are several different colour options and effects available but, once again, really need to be pre-backed before being put to use for paintingThe alternative to using ready made gold paper is to apply a coat of gold paint to a sheet of Chinese paper that the artist would normally use, and then letting it dry completely before adding any artwork. This can have a couple of drawbacks, the gold is inclined to rub off, and it can affect the texture and/or the absorbency of the paper’s surface. However I have seen this method used with some degree of success.
Colours
Mineral Blue and Green
If you want to use these, you have a choice of form – tubes. chips or powder: have a look at our CBPS notes on colours.
Tubes are the most convenient, chips are fairly easy to use, powder most difficult. We have listed the Marie tube numbers for convenience. Tubes are available from eg Oriental Arts.
Inkston sell blue and green “chips”, but you may need a mortar and pestle to crush them for use. They are harmful if swallowed or inhaled (including their dust) and you should wash your hands after touching. Note any hazard labels or warnings on their website.
Have a look at the other suppliers mentioned on our Supplier page.
Cake Colours
Many members remember Teppachi colours, but the original brand Inscribe no longer make them. Teppachi refers to the round shape of the dishes. Gansai is the term for traditional Japanese watercolour, and comes in small rectangular dishes.
There are Chinese equivalents but not readily available at the moment. Inkston has blue, cinnabar, red and white pans.
Natural Pigments
I was reminded that artist Fu Hua sometimes used pigments made from rocks that he found in Australia, and given to him by Indigenous Australian artists, when I saw an article about Polly Bennet in the SAA magazine, and looked at her intriguing sources of pigments.
