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THE LONDON CHINESE BRUSH PAINTERS’ GROUP
Newsletter
www.londonchinesebrushpaintersgroup.co.uk
Christmas Party Workshop 6th December 2014 This year we had three different members demonstrating their various skills and expertise, which was very interesting. Christine Bideau demonstrating silk washes, Bianca Deegan talking about calligraphy and Maureen Fiztsimon told us about a fan workshop she attended at the Fan Museum in Greenwich. SILK WASHES – CHRISTINE BIDEAU Christine began, using a painting of hellebores that Anush had prepared. I, unfortunately, didn’t think of taking a photograph of the painting in its raw state, so you have to imagine the flower without any shading at all. Christine began by saying she had been taught the technique by Cai Xiaoli and had worked with her for many years. To begin with you need to draw your subject on paper, you need to put down only the important lines to give shape and form to the painting, then you can use this drawing to trace the composition on to silk. The silk used is sized so is non absorbent. Once you have finished the painting on the front, you need to finish this stage with stone colours on the back. Then you need to bring the flower up to give it a 3D effect. Don’t rush into using large washes at this stage. You now need to develop a tonal picture. The light, medium and dark tones will give depth to and form to the structure of the finished picture. The tones are built up from a number of layers of light ink and indigo. To start with decide which part of the painting you want to bring forward or to use Xiaoli’s words “which is in front and which is at the back” . Work on a small area at a time. To achieve this effect you must use a two brush method, that is using one brush loaded with light ink and the other with clear water, every time you add some ink you must wash it out with the clear water, just touch the edge of the ink with the tip of the brush or you will wash all the ink effect out. Once you get proficient you will find that you will be able to manipulate the two brushes with the one hand.
Christine kept emphasising the need to only use small strokes and build the structure up slowly. You need to keep checking the balance you do not want the shading to be even all round. It can take quite a while to do this so you need to be patient. When you are satisfied with this initial shading you can start adding larger washes, if you do this all over it will negate the whole, just enhance the painting where it helps, if you rush this stage your painting will look flat. If you do have to go over the washes do not do it in the same place.
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Keep checking the balance of the subject
t, To sum up:
Using light ink, brush loaded with light ink and indigo starting at the edge where the shade is to be darkest.
Then starting at the opposite edge of the area – where shade is to be lightest – use a damp brush containing very clean water, brush the ink/indigo back towards the original edge and out again. Wash the brush out frequently and keep the water clean.
Complete the shading on each element.
Repeat the process until the required depth of tone is achieved. Leave to dry completely.
You are now ready to add the wash. The first method that Christine used was to add the wash to the back of the painting. This is why you finish the painting in the first stage you must add stone (mineral colours) to the back, this blocks the wash so it doesn’t show on the front. Mix a wash with the colours you wish, each painting will be different. Christine used indigo, burnt sienna, gamboge and rouge, she mixed these together in a large bowl, making sure there was enough to finish the painting, as you will never be able to mix the same shade again, this mixture can look quite dark but it will lose about 20% of its intensity as it dries, you learn this by experience.. Using a large flat, or hake brush paint all over the back with this wash, load your brush fully. As you put the wash on the silk will pucker and cause big puddles of wash to form, do not worry about this it is part of the technique as these will be darker blotches when the painting dries.
Now leave the painting to dry completely, this can take quite some time but do not be tempted to move it at this time or the puddles will run out.
I hope this is clear, but it was impossible
to take the photograph without the light flashes. But it shows the puddles.
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This is the painting in its finished state, unfortunately it was not dry enough to turn over and I did not want to spoil Anush’s painting, but you can see the areas where the puddles dried out are much darker. Christine then showed us how to put a wash on the front of the painting, the technique is slightly different. Again you must finish the painting to the same stage as the first. The painting must be completely dry before you put the wash on or it will bleed.
Having decided on the colour of wash, Christine again mixed up enough to finish the wash in one go. Instead of placing a flat wash all over the painting, she added the wash to places where it would add intensity, and built up the washes, making darker and lighter areas to add emphasis to the composition. The wash went all over the subject, being careful not to disturb the pigment of the initial painting. When this dries out you can check the balance and add more washes if needed.
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CALLIGRAPHY – BIANCA DEEGAN Bianca started by saying that the Chinese add the year on their paintings using Chinese script rather than numbers. The Chinese calendar does not count years in an infinite sequence. Each year is assigned a name consisting of two components within each 60 year cycle.
The first component is a celestial stem (天干). The second component is a terrestrial branch (地支). It features the names of animals in a zodiac cycle consisting of 12 animals. Each of the two components is used sequentially. Therefore the first year of the 60-year cycle become jia-zi, the second year is yi-chou and so on. One starts from the beginning when the end of a component is reached.
celestial stem(天干):
甲jia, 乙yi, 丙 bing, 丁ding, 戊wou, 己ji, 庚geng. 辛xin, 壬ren, 癸gui.
terrestrial branch (地支):
子zi, 丑chou,寅yin, 卯mao, 辰chen,巳si, 午wu, 未wei, 申shen, 酉you, 戌xu, 亥hai.
2015 will be 乙未(yi wei) year of sheep You should already have a copy from Bianca that shows the different year in Chinese script. For the final touch of your master piece of painting, you can start with a poem or give a title to the picture, and then write the year followed by the season. Lastly write your name and stamp the seal. After your name, write the chinese word ‘write’ or ‘draw’ as shown below.
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Bianca showed us this lovely fan with her calligraphy (seal script), a poem from Tang Dynasty. Here are some general guidelines for writing Chinese Stroke order, there are exceptions within and among different standards. Write from top to bottom, and left to right. This rule also applies to the order of
components. When there are upper and lower components, the upper components are written first, then the lower components. Horizontal before vertical When horizontal and vertical strokes cross, horizontal strokes are
usually written before vertical strokes: the character for "ten," 十, has two strokes. The
horizontal stroke 一 is written first, followed by the vertical stroke → 十.工, 王, 土 Character-spanning strokes last Vertical strokes that pass through many other strokes are
written after the strokes through which they pass. 中, 羊. Diagonals right-to-left before diagonals left-to-right
Right-to-left diagonals (丿) are written before left-to-right diagonals (乀): 文, 大, 八
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Center before outside in vertically symmetrical characters In vertically symmetrical characters, the center components are written before components on the left or right. Components on the left are written before components on the right.
Enclosures before contents
Outside enclosing components are written before inside components; bottom strokes in the enclosure
are written last if present, as in 日 and 口. Enclosures may also have no bottom stroke, as in 同 and 月.
Left vertical before enclosing
Left vertical strokes are written before enclosing strokes. In the following two examples, the leftmost vertical stroke (|) is written first, followed by the uppermost and rightmost lines (┐) (which are written as
one stroke): 日 and 口.
Dots and minor strokes last
Minor strokes are usually written last, as the small "dot" in the following: 玉, 求, 朮.
Good Luck with your practice, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask Bianca. Many thanks to Bianca for writing and illustrating the above.
FANS – MAUREEN FITZSIMONS Maureen finished the morning by telling us of a fascinating fan workshop she had attended at the Greenwich Fan Museum. She showed us some of her fans, with sticks, it was noted that the Chinese fan usually place their sticks inside the fan so one can paint on both sides. Maureen also had some lovely stepped fans which were unusual. Maureen said that the workshop had been very interesting and the tutor was Caroline Allington and cost £30 for the afternoon. You can find information on this on www.fan-museum.org Greenwich Fan Museum 12 Grooms Hill, Greenwich SE10 8ER 020 8305 1441 [email protected]. We then left for a great lunch at the New Leaf, which was well organised by Anne King and Looi Leung. It was a good relaxed day and I think everyone had a good time. I wish you all a relaxed and painterly 2015 with all you wish for yourself and your families. We have had a very successful year with our very wonderful exhibition. I hope the enthusiasm for this will carry through and even those who did not exhibit will do so at our next exhibition. So keep painting.
Following our very successful Exhibition, Maria wanted to share her framer with us. She recommends David Mitchell 28 Loampit Hill Lewisham London SE13 7SL Tel: 0280 469 0078 Fax: 0280 469 3260 David: 07958 688290 Lee: 07977 298939 Closed on Sunday and Wednesday There doesn’t seem to be a website to contact. If you use this service or if anybody else has information of suppliers and framers to share,please let me know your findings for our next exhibition in the Newsletter.
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FORWARD PROGRAMME OF WORKSHOPS
Workshops start at 10.30 prompt and finish at 4.30. Anush has now sent out the list of workshops and tutors for 2015. There are a few and tutors that have to be confirmed. An email will be sent out as soon as possible with the information as soon as it has been confirmed.
10 January 10 2015 William Cai 14 February 2015 Shuhua Jin 14 March 2015 Xuzhuang Li - Calligraphy 11 April 2015 Maggie Cross 9 May 2015 Swee Tan Caseley 13 June 2015 Phoebe Lin 11July 2015 Kaili Fu - Seal Carving 8 August 2015 Eric Ng 12 September 2015 William Cai 10 October 2015 Qu Lei Lei 14 November 2015 Maggie Cross 5 December 2015 Xmas Party Bookings for workshops are organised by Anne King – she will not accept cheques at the workshop or on any other course she attends, they need to be sent by post to Anne at 44 Molasses House, Clove Hitch Quay, SW11 3TN. I am pleased to tell you that we have a very large library of Chinese painting books which is kept in the cupboard in the hall. These are a gift from one of our founder members, Jean Smith. Jean has been painting for a long time, but now finds travelling very hard, so is unable to attend the workshops, but she still likes to read the Newsletter and hear news of members and what we are up to. If you are borrowing a book from the library please remember to sign it out with the date you take it out, your name and the date you bring it back. I would also ask you to take great care of these books and make sure you bring them back as other members may be waiting to borrow them. Please remember you can enter your paintings on the website, you can either send a photograph of your work to Carry Gorney or if you arrange with her she will photograph your work at a workshop. Carry’s email is [email protected] Don’t forget to check on the website to view your work. You can view all our Newsletters on our website www.londonchinesebrushpaintersgroup.co.uk Tea and coffee is free at the workshops but individual donations to the Animals Asia charity and Starlight would be welcome
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.
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
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If you have any articles, dates for exhibitions or courses etc. for the newsletter please send them to Judy at [email protected] 020 7603 9588 The images in this newsletter are the copyright and property of the artists and should not be copied without the permission of the artists The committee members are; Anush Sarkissian (Chairman and Treasurer) [email protected] Stella Steveni (Treasurer) [email protected] Anne King (Committee member) [email protected] Hakima Fosdike (Membership Secretary and Events organiser) [email protected] Judy Wright (Newsletter editor) [email protected] Norma Kennedy (Committee member) Bianca Deegan (Newsletter editor)
