BACKGROUND

In exploring transcultural art and my own style, I have been looking for ways to do Chinese brush painting with ink on top of oil paint. I am hoping that through these experiments, I can find ways to combine eastern and western art materials in my work whilst maintaining the characteristics of both genre.

Here is an earlier experiment and this blog is a response to it:

MA YI UI: Exploring oil and cold wax

METHOD

In this experiment, I took an old oil painting that had a range of textures and I applied a layer of clear gesso on top of the dried oil paint to creat a surface for Chinese brush painting to see if that would work.

After the gesso has dried, I painted various images using a Chinese brush and ink on different parts of the canvas to test out how the brush and ink performed on different textures.

A Chinese orchid was painted in the least textured area of the painting. Here the outcome was compared to a similar exercise on dried oil without gesso (painting on the left):

Two birds were painted in the tree branches which was the most textured area on the painting:

An orchid was painted in the medium textured area in the mid ground of the painting:

Some Chinese calligraphy was tested using different size brushes:

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REFLECTIONS

For me, a smooth surface such as silk or Xuan/rice paper is required for Chinese brush painting to be at its best. So that the brush strokes can glide across the page. I painted the Chinese orchids in the experiment because to paint the long and bendy leaves in one stroke required a continuous smooth movement whilst slightly lifting and turning the brush. Similar to calligraphy. In the heavily textured area in the tree branches, I painted two birds because I knew that long brush strokes wouldn’t stand a chance in that area, hence the short and relatively straight strokes for the simplified birds. Since this is mainly an experiment, the technical outcomes are captured under the LEARNING section.

I will note here my reflections about how I felt during the process. I felt excited that there was another avenue to explore as I really wanted to find a way to combine on the same painting the Chinese and western materials. However, this experiment showed that although I have made progress, I have not found the ideal way to achieve my objective of combining the two different materials. Perhaps the challenges I have had is also a metaphor for my lived experience in navigating the two cultures in daily lives.

Another thought was that I should definitely research more on other transcultural artists’ work as I expect someone else would have done this before me.

LEARNING

– As expected, the smoother texture area (the large orchid) performed the best. In comparison to the earlier experiment of painting on oil without the gesso layer – it was clear that the one with gesso performed much better enabling the Chinese paint brush to glide more easily.

– The heavier textured areas had too much ‘pitting’ and even with a brush heavily loaded with ink (like with the bird on the left), it was hard to achieve a smooth stroke. Hence I don’t believe this combination of material would work satisfactorily for me. If I wanted to do Chinese style brush strokes on such a texture then I’m better off using oil on a soft brush, the oil paint would fill the pits more effectively even if not completely.

– The two sets of calligraphy were done with brushes of different size, the lower set was with a thicker brush and that comes across better. The thinner brush did not have the strength to deposit sufficient ink on the oil surface.

– There is further refinement I could do to smooth the oil surface such as sanding and more layers of gesso.

NEXT STEPS

– Research other transcultural artists to see if anyone has achieved Chinese brush painting on top of an oil painting.

– Research further how Fiona Rae achieved her Chinese style brush strokes with oil paint on traditional canvas.

– Using the same oil painting here, sand an area and then apply further layers of gesso, then sand again if needed, to see if that would create a smooth enough surface without damaging the original image too much thereby achieving the desired results.