Chinese Painting and Art

MA U3: ‘News’ Art – developing ideas for MA Degree Show

| elizarawlings

BACKGROUND

Since my recent re-evaluation of my art practice to enable me to respond to what has been happening in the world, I have been making a new body of work – ‘News’. I feel the urge to show my new work at my MA Degree Show. This blog is about the development of ideas and a plan for the Degree Show.

METHOD

Firstly, I wanted to explore if combining multiple sheets of ‘News’ would make a good composition. Since each sheet was made as an independent painting, I needed to see if they would ‘make sense’ together. So I stuck together a few paintings and put them up against two glass doors to see how I felt. I was encouraged by what I saw and felt there was potential in the concept. I then proceeded to design the installation – how should the paintings be presented?

–

Below are some mock up ideas that I prepared to discuss with my tutor:

–
–
–

After discussing with my tutor, we felt that the first option had the most potential for the CSM site. So I proceeded to think about how to create one large painting by combining multiple newspaper paintings together that would be appropriate for the Show both in demonstrating the concept and that is robust enough for a public exhibition.

My tutor showed me an installation by a previous student who stitched together pieces of paper to form a long drop. I liked the idea of stitching together the pieces rather than just taping because I think it would be more robust and also reflect my wish to mend what’s happening in the world through my work – somehow.

–

I then tried out different ideas on my sketch book and decided a narrower long drop (rather than a wide one as in the original idea) could work well to resemble how newspapers are printed and processed in the factory. Working so intensely with newspapers and examining newsprint so closely has reminded me of my time as a young engineer working on control systems for newspaper printing presses including many Fleet Street titles. I remember vividly how exhilarating and awe-inspiring it was to see the newspaper webs flying at high speed between feeder rollers around the monumental machines (see example image below). Since my art practice is about exploring my identity and engineering has been such a large part of my life (35+ years), I wanted to make an installation at the degree show that incorporated elements of my memory from those days.

–

I experimented with the ideas of using three tubes to represent parts of the printing machine. Initially, I looked into buying used feeder rollers from printing press refurbishment companies but they were costly. Then I considered using mild steel tubes (not stainless steel as they would be too shiny). Below is an initial design idea which I used to get some costing. A key objective was the ease of installation knowing how busy the build up would be with such a big student show.

–

Then I wondered if three tubes would be too many and considered a two tubes design. In all cases, one or more flood lights would be used to illuminate the artwork from behind. Here is a two tubes design:

–

After further discussions and advice from my tutor, the final design was to use 3 x copper plumbing pipes as the copper colour would complement well the Financial Times’ salmon paper. The second pipe on the floor would be placed behind the painting giving the look of the newspaper feeding into the wall. I considered using two small flood lights, but I might go with a dimmable flood light instead because I have found that the back-illumination light level could be critical – too bright and the images became saturated and if too dim then the reverse side images would be hardly visible. Hence a dimmable unit would give more flexibility for an unfamiliar site with unknown ambient light level. Here is the final design:

–

The next task was to test out the stitching and the wrapping of the newspaper around a pipe to see how the paper behaved. Also to determine the optimum pipe diameter to use.

Using a sewing machine for large sheets of paper could be challenging because unlike fabric, the paper could not be bunched up to fit around the sewing machine body. Hence I rolled up the newspaper around a plastic tube and held the roll in place with a large paperclip so that it could be fed into the machine without damaging the paper. The two sheets of newspapers were held together using dressmaking pins just like I would do when binding fabrics.

–

The machine settings were as follows with the stitch size fairly small for strength but not tiny as it might rip the paper:

–

The paper was then fed slowly into the machine for sewing. Two rows of stitches were made to ensure strength of the bind:

–

Completed sewing and with paper hanging vertically:

–

Below are close up images of the stitching and how the paper wrapped around the tube. This tube was of 40mm diameter and the paper wrapped well around it:

–

I tried wrapping around a smaller diameter tube (22mm) and it felt too tight and obviously would require more revolutions of wrapping and I felt that would introduce more risk in the paper not aligning and looking untidy:

–

Another example of paper wrapped around a tube. This time with painted paper only as an experiment because the installation for the Show would only use unpainted paper to wrap around the tube.

–

Since I am planning to create a painting size of 2 x double page spread broadsheets, that is approximately 1.36m wide and it would be difficult to feed into the sewing machine in one go, I created the following stitching plan to do the stitching half way, then turn around and do the other half from the opposite direction. I might try to do it all the way with some spare newspaper as an experiment to start with.

–

Final selection of eight paintings to form a composition for the Degree Show:

–

Mock up in front of flood light to test concept:

–

–

REFLECTIONS

I started to re-evaluate my art practice just before the Low Res in March and I started to make ‘News’ art at the end of March which is less than two months ago. I cannot believe how much has happened and that I am planning to show this new body of work at the Degree Show. During my recent tutorial, my tutor said that everything I have been doing as well as my commitment to interrogation have been leading to this and it does feel that way to me. I am feeling a momentum that I had not felt before and I am very excited (and somewhat nervous but in a good way) about showing this work at the Show. I do not know if it would work out or if it would present itself as I imagined. But I take confidence from what David Bowie said in this video where he was giving advice to artists:

https://youtu.be/JRtZc_Nmo5w?si=PYU871rvIuJu7wjo

My main takeaway from Bowie’s video was when he said, ‘…Always remember the reason you initially started working, you felt there was something inside yourself that if you could manifest it in some way then you would understand more about yourself and how you co-exist with the rest of society… If you feel safe then you are not working in the right area. Always go a little out of your depth, when you feel your feet are not quite touching the bottom then you are just about in the right place to do something exciting.’

I sincerely hope that Bowie is right and I look forward to finding out!

Another point that I have been reflecting on is that this new body of work is aesthetically and topically very different to my last body of work, The Cheongsam Series, where I was making oil paintings on dress-shaped canvases to explore my transcultural journey.

Much of my work in the last two years have been about my transcultural identity, but I knew that at some point I would want to go beyond just talking about my transcultural journey onto issues about society – issues that are still related to me, my lived experience but about other aspects of my identity. I mentioned this in my Study Statement from Unit 1 as my intention, but as I was making my transcultural work I have at times felt bounded to that topic and I was unsure of how to progress or transition onto the next body of work without seeming incoherent. Then when the ‘calling’ came to make work about the rapid change in world order and how people close to me were being affected, my urge to move onto the next body of work felt like a natural progression. Of course, there was much time spent on reflecting, agonising, experimenting, observing and reflective-writing that led me to making ‘News’ art. I am very pleased that I have gone through the transition process from one body of work to the next while I was still on the MA programme. This is because I felt safe and secure in trying something completely different in a supportive environment and I made it happen. I have learnt that I could do it and it wasn’t as scary as I thought it might be. Guided by my reflective process and taking it step by step meant that I felt in control of the transition – not necessary in control of the making but in control of the change process which gave me a solid platform to take risks in the making. This learning experience has been very important for me as I now feel confident to do that again independently after the course. I feel I can move onto the next body of work when the next ‘calling’ comes. I know I can rely on my instincts guided by my reflective process to make it happen. I expect I will return to my transculturality work at some point because there is still much to explore and I certainly have not exhausted the subject yet – far from it.

LEARNING

I have learnt that I now feel able to transition from one body of work to the next and take risks along the way. I will follow my instincts and use my reflective process to guide me. This has been an important realisation as I go forward to develop my practice.

As for the Degree Show, there has been a lot to think about in planning for the show and I have really enjoyed the challenge. Especially looking at sourcing the right materials for the installation – I learnt a lot in that process, such as to consider the materials’ behaviour, the aesthetics and planning for a site that I am not familiar with including all the contingencies to consider. It’s all good experience for any future exhibitions. Creating the paintings is only half the work, presenting it properly and all the site considerations require just as much work which is something to bear in mind in the future. Planning and allowing plenty of time is key!

I have also learnt that I needed to introduce a new process of organising my materials – namely the newspapers! Especially considering news has a life span. My ‘News’ artwork needs to be about the here and now and can’t be left on the shelf for too long or the news story would have expired. So I needed to create a system to sort the newspapers so they don’t end up piling up in my studio. I decided to organise my newspapers as follows.

I found it helpful to have a specific topic for selecting the newspapers to paint on. In this case, it’s about the sudden change in world order due to the US Government’s drastic roll out of damaging policies.

So when I get a copy of the newspaper, I sort the pages into the following categories:

– Selected pages for painting – with the appropriate headline, perhaps an interesting image and not too much advertising especially not big dark blocks.

– Spares: top priority / second priority / good for practicing

– Not selected

Out of all the ‘News’ paintings that I have created, they were sorted into ‘possibles’ for the show and ‘not selected’. Then I continued to make more paintings until I had enough ‘good’ ones that I was happy with for the Show.

–
–

NEXT STEPS

Make it happen for the Show!

Always remember Bowie’s advice!

Maintain my confidence, follow my instincts and reflective process to develop future bodies of work.

MA U3: ‘News’ Art – exploring compositions

| elizarawlings

I have continued to work on my latest body of work – ‘News’. I decided to explore different crow expressions to use in my compositions. In particular, more expressive, angry or ones in flight. So that I have a wider variety of expressions to choose from when responding to news articles that I see.

METHOD

Lately, whenever I feel unsure about how to proceed then I have been returning to drawing. I find the process comforting and grounding. So I started with a few drawings on expressive crows using my non-dominant hand.

Angry crow:

–

This one was meant to be angry but actually looked anxious:

–

I then went onto painting on newspaper. I used charcoal to mark the outline of a crow that I wanted to paint. The newspaper was chosen especially for this composition – a shouting crow:

–

I then painted the crow – staying with my non-dominant hand. I was going to paint the wing behind the man’s head. But then decided to cover up the head. This was the finished work:

–

The painting was held up to the light. The man’s head was slightly visible despite being covered. What came through was a woman speaking on a microphone on the reverse side of the newsprint which made the composition more interesting.

–

Then I experimented with a crow looking in despair up to an article about the tariff trade war. Perhaps it was not totally in despair, but certainly questioning what’s going on:

–
–

Again the finished painting was held up to the light as a metaphor for holding someone to account. The images on the reverse side made the photograph of the cars under the trade tariff headline more ambiguous.

–

Crows in flight going in different directions:

–

Putting together paintings to start exploring combined composition:

–

Another shouting crow under the headline ‘We are all affected’. The crow was in line with the gun held up by the man on the left page. Then I noticed a large capital letter ‘O’ on the crow’s body – like it had been shot by the man in the photo. I added a pine tree around the greenery on the photo on the left, but I don’t think it worked. It distracted too much from what the crow was going through.

–

A few landing crows:

–

A large landing crow going for a prey:

–

A screaming crow in flight aiming at a photo:

–

REFLECTIONS

As I made more work, I became more confident about this new body of work. My confidence increased in both the concept and the process. My recent tutorial was very useful in helping me to reflect on my thinking behind the work and the progress so far. My increased confidence meant I was able to go for a more freestyle approach to my Chinese ink painting in the work listed above. The freestyle approach enabled me to be more expressive and spontaneous. The last few paintings shown here were done without needing to use charcoal upfront to mark out the composition which I was pleased about.

I was not happy with every outcome here, some of the depictions were more aligned with my intentions, some not so. But I was trying not to overthink it at this stage. Just wanted to keep making as I know from my Chinese painting class that it would get better with practice.

I continue to find Chinese ink painting ‘unforgiving’. I have written about this before and it still has not changed – it is just part of that medium and again, practice helps. ‘Just keep making’ is the key.

Also, I believe painting with my non-dominant hand has helped me to not agonise over my work too much because it’s not meant to be perfect. It will be what it will be! I have found it liberating to paint in this way and I plan to continue this exploration.

LEARNING

I am gaining confidence in the making process through practise and more importantly – I am pleasantly surprised by my confidence in tackling a completely new body of work that is very different from my previous transcultural work. I am happy that this major change happened during my MA course because the guidance available gave me the courage to do something completely new and experimental.

Also, the structure of my reflective practice has really helped me to realise the concept knowing that if I got stuck then the reflective process would help me to find answers or a way forward.

I feel very excited about this new body of work and I am really enjoying this way of making. It continues to help me to respond to what’s happening in the world through my practice which is very important for me right now.

To build on this, I want to think more about why painting with my non-dominant hand has become so important to me. Also I want to understand more about my overall process – from buying the newspaper to completing a painting.

NEXT STEPS

Think more about my reasons for using my non-dominant hand – especially think about this as I paint.

Start to be more considered when moving from one step to the next in my process to better understand the process with the aim of future improvement and development.

Keep making and think about what to do for the degree show.

MA U3: ‘News’ Art – exploring silhouettes

| elizarawlings

After reflecting on the News Art that I made in response to news headlines directly, I decided to be more subtle in the way I respond to the headlines. I decided to explore a more abstract way to express my feelings. What started my creating of News Art was the grief that I felt for the state of the world and my choice of using crows, inspired by the book ‘Grief is the thing with feathers’. So I returned to just painting some crow images as ideas came to me and not to overthink or be too deliberate.

METHOD

Without too much planning or thinking, I painted a few crows in flight using Chinese brush and ink in a free style Chinese painting approach. Then I held the painting up to the light:

–

Another painting done in the same way with a similar composition:

–

A more close-up view of a crow coming down for its prey with two others in the sky:

–

Since I had done quite a few of the crow paintings, I laid them out to see how they would look as a larger composition to get ideas on how to install these paintings as a group:

–

I finished by selecting two silhouette paintings that went well together and held them up to the light as one composition:

–

REFLECTIONS

I am pleased with the silhouette paintings. I like painting in Chinese free style. Some of the crow bodies were not quite right but overall the wings have worked out well. I feel they do give a sense of movement in flight. I am also happier with the more subtle and abstract approach to the news headlines selected. I also purposely chose the ‘ring of hands’ for the crows to fly through, like an escape route for them. We all need one of those at the moment!

Doing my newly discovered News Art has given me a reason to read the newspaper when I have felt inclined to avoid the news. Looking through the newspaper to pick out headlines to respond to has given me courage to face what’s happening in the world in a way that I didn’t expect.

LEARNING

I feel excited by my new discovery of making art in this way. I am gradually developing a process and as I get to know more about the newsprint material, I feel able to push things further such as how wet I could make it (very wet, surprisingly). I really like painting on the newspaper because it is not a blank canvas and the contents and images on each page give me so many ideas which is great.

One thing to bear in mind is that newsprint is not archival. This would be a problem if I continue to pursue this way of making. I need to look into ways to preserve the artwork especially if I’m thinking about showing these work at some point. Proper research is needed including asking specialists at CSM.

Overall, the main learning is to just keep making more work to explore this way of making. Ideas flood in as I make.

NEXT STEPS

Make more News Art!

Research ways to make News Art archival.

MA U3: ‘Grief is the thing with feathers’ – Painting

| elizarawlings

BACKGROUND

Continuing with my exploration of the grief and sense of loss that I feel about the change in world order, I have decided to make some paintings with crows inspired by the book ‘Grief is the thing with feathers’ by Max Porter. The use of newspaper as a canvas for painting as I have done here was first inspired by William Kentridge’s work that I saw at his exhibition at the RA in 2022, where he made some monumental drawings on printed materials. Some examples below:

–

I have recently seen an exhibition by Barbara Walker where she used printed documents extensively in her work. Below are some examples of her use of newspapers:

–

Walker uses newspapers with content that directly links to her subject matter of social injustices whereas Kentridge is more subtle and often you cannot easily read the printed text in his work although I have read in the description of his work that there is always relevance in the text.

METHOD

Since my studio is out-of-action at the moment due to building work, I have set up a temporary studio in a different room and I am using Chinese ink on paper instead of my usual oil paint on canvas because of the limited facility that I have.

Learning from the crow drawings that I did with my non-dominant hand, I decided to use my non-dominant hand for the paintings here. Below are the paintings on Chinese rice paper, all A4 size done with my non-dominant hand except the one with the crow sticking out its tongue – that was done with my dominant hand for comparison.

–
–

Then I decided to paint on a newspaper and I chose The Financial Times because it is one of the few newspapers that I can bear to read given my general frustrations with the biases in the news media. I have painted on the FT in the past and found the ’45 gsm salmon newsprint’ paper absorbency to be at a level that responded well to Chinese ink. I also like the salmon colour against the black Chinese ink. All three paintings below were mostly done with my non-dominant hand with some details such as the shape of the beak and the claws done with my dominant hand.

–

Below is a video clip that I made using Instagram:

–

Below is a crow painting on a double page spread of the newspaper where the previous ones were on a single page. The page here was chosen for the photograph of the chickens (about egg prices in the USA) with the painted crow looking in and one of the chickens staring back:

Below is the painting held up to the light:

REFLECTIONS

I have enjoyed developing a new process for painting on the newspapers. I find the paper works well with the Chinese ink, not overly absorbent and has enough material integrity to stay intact even if it gets very wet.

I have continued to enjoy painting with my non-dominant hand as the brush strokes were more expressive with less control. During the painting process, I constantly asked myself which hand I should use, e.g. with the more detailed work such as the curvature of the beak where more control was required, or highlighting the white in the eyeball, then I switch to my dominant hand for those details. I wanted to use as much of my non-dominant hand as possible because I prefer the marks made and it was a good metaphor for the helplessness I and many people feel about the world events at the moment.

Part of the process of this way of making involves buying a newspaper, something that I haven’t done for a long time since I mostly read the news online/on my phone nowadays. I enjoy the physicality of opening and turning the news pages, then reading the printed text and selecting the pages with headlines that stir me in some way.

Examining the newspaper so closely also reminded me of my early engineering career when I worked extensively on automating newspaper printing presses for Fleet Street as well as local newspapers with ‘cutting edge technology’ for that time period of the early 1990s using fibre optic based digitally synchronised ‘electronic line shaft’ control systems. The presses were enormous and ran at very high speed. It was exhilarating to work on those projects and machines especially as a young engineer. Decades later, I am now studying newsprint closely again for a different purpose – I used to scrutinise the print registration of the colours (poor registration would cause ghosting) and I would respond to the results by varying the control parameters for correction. Now I scrutinise the news content and respond by painting on the newspaper. I can say that the former was a lot easier – I felt completely in control of what was happening. Whereas I rarely feel in control of my painting process and I continue to feel zero control over what is happening in the world – all I can do is to read about them in the newspapers. This has become an interesting juxtaposition of my relationship with newspapers over the decades.

As I work more and more on these newspaper paintings, I have become calmer compared to when I first started as I have documented in some of my earlier blogs about voicelessness and going through the grief curve. I wonder if this is because the world situation has improved (no), or I have become desensitised by the constant revelations of world disasters (possibly) or having a way to respond to and express myself through paintings on the newspapers has given me a route to release my anger therefore making me feel that I am doing something about it. I think definitely ‘yes’ to the latter point, the painting process has certainly helped me to channel my thoughts and feelings.

LEARNING

I have developed a new process of painting on newspapers as a way to respond to what’s happening in the world. I have continued to use crows as a symbol of the grief that I feel about the loss of or change in world order. Working with newspapers reminded me of how my relationship with newspapers has changed over the decades since I was a young engineer. I feel this is the beginning of an exploration and I want to continue and do more because it gives me a way to respond to the world at the moment.

One point that I discussed with my tutor was how I ‘held the newspaper up to the light’ as an accidental discovery when I stuck the newspaper paintings to the glass window for photographing. It is a good metaphor for ‘exposing’ the news and also the light shining through the other side of the print revealed additional images therefore making the overall composition more ambiguous.

NEXT STEPS

Continue to make more paintings in this way to explore, to develop my ideas and the process.

Experiment with holding the painted newspaper to a light or lamp to see how it could work as an indoor installation.

MA U3: Weaving narratives – Part 2

| elizarawlings

After the first experiment on weaving narratives (see link below), I decided to do a second experiment, this time with two paintings that were more representative of the different cultural narratives that I want to weave together and also very different style of work just to see what happens. Also, an action from the last experiment was to choose smaller paintings to speed up the experiment.

MA U3: Weaving narratives and interculturalism

METHOD

The two paintings that I have chosen for this exploration were:

1. Bristol harbour – acrylic on inkjet printed paper, size A3.

Plum blossoms, Chinese brush painting – ink on rice paper, cut to size A3.

Paper edges were added to both paintings so that the cuts could be made up to the edge of the image whilst keeping all the strips together at one end in a neat order. This makes the weaving process easier.

Video of cutting the acrylic painting which seemed to have attracted more views on my social media than other work. Also, four times more non-followers seemed to have engaged with this clip than usual.

https://vimeo.com/1063527088

The cut up painting:

Starting the weaving process:

Completed – Woven painting:

Completed – Woven painting without paper edges:

–

REFLECTIONS

I enjoyed the cutting process very much. It felt brutal but energising, liberating and renewing. The weaving process was enjoyable for me as it involved crafting with my hands. The delicate manoeuvring of strips of my painting during the weaving felt very different to the cutting process. It was strange to feel that I had to be very careful during the weaving when I have just taken a big pair of scissors to the work minutes earlier. The juxtaposition of the different feelings was interesting.

I am not too excited about the outcome though. I don’t think the woven painting created the interesting or intriguing effect that I had hoped for. The negative space from the Chinese painting introduced a lot of white into the image and obscured much of the harbour-scape rendering it not recognisable but without introducing intrigue.

Reflecting on this and the previous woven painting experiment, I am not sure if I want to pursue the weaving part much further. To really make something of it, I would need to have a good think about how the two images need to come together, how the negative spaces and colour palettes would combine to create a coherent image – even if it’s not coherent aesthetically, it needs to create intrigue or tension. As it is, I feel the images don’t provide enough to engage me, let alone a viewer. However, I feel there is good potential with the cutting process. It was an exciting process that I would like to explore further.

After cutting the paintings into strips, I played with waving or jangling the strips and they danced on the table. That was fun and I liked the images from the movements. However, once they were woven together, the images became ‘flat’ and ‘too neat’. Perhaps I can explore the dancing of the strips and do something with either just one painting or multiple paintings and then let the strips just fall down together and see what happens. Perhaps I can make videos of them dancing and collapsing together. As a metaphor, from my experience as a transcultural person, bringing together two different cultures is rarely neat and tidy, it requires improvisation and often people and situations are just ‘thrown together’ and one never knows what might happen. So perhaps the neat weaving was not such an appropriate metaphor as it seems too restrictive in hindsight.

LEARNING

It has been a good learning experience to weave together paintings. I learnt that I enjoyed the cutting up process, I enjoyed the weaving process but I am not taken by the outcome. The outcome appeared too neat and restrictive for the subject. Therefore, I don’t think I will do anymore ‘neat’ weaving of cut up paintings. Unless I am stuck for something to do in between projects and want to keep busy because it is a good way of keeping busy to enable some thinking time while making. I find the crafting processes are very enabling in a way to create thinking space and time.

What I will continue to explore is the cutting up process because I find that energising and renewing. I want to explore what else I could do with strips of painting, just play and explore and let them dance. I could do some video of their movements and create images from that. E.g. I can pile several paintings together and see how they fall together, or let each strip free-fall individually from height and film their movements in slow motion. It would be good to just to explore without any prior agenda. That can be liberating. I can try a filming project with an already cut up painting (to save cutting up another painting for the moment), I can un-weave one of the woven paintings then letting the strips free-fall, like untangling narratives and then setting them free. I can think about a narration to accompany the video or pair with music.

Think about using the green satin bamboo painting because the soft and light materials could float nicely onto the ground. Think about what background – white cube or outdoors? Perhaps an industrial background from the old Bristol docks? The delicate satin materials could be a good juxtaposition with the old heavy duty cranes by the harbour. The strips could fall inside the intricate metal structure of the cranes.

NEXT STEPS

Pause the ‘neat’ weaving of paintings for now, unless I want to use the process to enable thinking time.

Untangle a woven painting, set the strips (narratives) free in a free-falling way. Film their falling and piling up on the ground, if possible, do outdoors e.g. by the old Bristol dock.

Continue to explore cutting of paintings and see what that could add to my practice.

Chinese painting: Process of mounting work

| elizarawlings

In my monthly Chinese painting class, we recently learnt to mount work that has been painted on rice paper. This blog documents the step-by-step process so that I can refer to it at a later stage.

Process of mounting Chinese painting onto mount board:

Make the glue – mix four tablespoons of wall paper paste powder to one pint of water in a bowl. Mix to a smooth paste. Leave to one side.

–

Use a pencil to mark the mount board leaving 1 to 2 cm border around the four edges of the painting.

–

Cut the mount board along the pencil lines. Leave to one side.

–

Place a piece of glass (or thick Perspex) on a table. Wipe clean the glass thoroughly and dry. Place the painting on the glass with the ‘good side down’ leaving a 1cm edge of the painting overhanging the glass.

–

Spray the painting with water sparingly to wet it slightly.

–

Painting sprayed with water:

–

Apply the glue using a 3 to 4 inch wide soft hair brush (such as a goat hair brush seen here). Dip brush in glue to pick up plenty of glue paste. Check for loose hair. Start applying glue – every stroke always from the centre. Do the cross ‘+’ from the centre to each of the four sides.

–

Then apply glue from the centre diagonally to the four corners like the Union Jack flag. Continue to apply glue from the centre outwards until the whole painting is covered in paste. Make sure the 1cm of painting overhang that is protruding the top edge of the glass is also covered in paste.

–

Use paper towel to wipe off excess glue on the glass around the painting.

–

Place the mount board centred onto the painting leaving the 1cm overhang of the painting exposed.

–

Apply pressure onto the board with a tight fist, repeating the Union Jack pattern starting with the cross then the diagonals. Work outwards from the centre (always this way) until the whole board has been pressed. Run fingers along the four edges to ensure the edges are completely pressed down.

–

Fold over the overhang. Press down firmly.

–

Confidently and quickly flip the painting away from the glass. Stand so that the flip action is towards (and not away from) the person’s body – this makes the flip action more robust. Clean the glass thoroughly to remove all glue.

–

Leave the painting to dry flat for several days (minimum two days). The mounted painting will warp when dried, place clean paper between dried paintings (if mounting more than one) then put heavy weights on top (e.g. several thick books) for one week or more to flatten.

Mounted painting of sparrows
Mounted painting of cockerel

End of process.

MA U3: Research on Qi Baishi’s Likeness and Unlikeness

| elizarawlings

RESEARCH

As part of my research to progress my painting practice, I am reading this book about Qi Baishi’s artwork and philosophy:

–

Below are some key points and notes I made from reading the text.

Poetry and soul in painting:

Within poetry there is painting; within painting, poetry.

A poet loves the moon and plum blossoms because his heart exists in moonlight and flower fragrance. Moon and plum blossoms are things on which he pins his heart and soul.

The mood of the painting comes from thinking which in turn comes from images.

The limited brush work in the painting evolves and extends continuously according to the logic of life and imaginative logic.

The artist’s mood cannot be fully expressed in the painting; only in part does it locate in the painting, and in part beyond it.

Rules of Chinese painting composition:

Concise, concise and concise – the characteristics of Chinese poetry and freehand brush painting.

Conciseness differs from simplicity. In conciseness, images are refined from complex and detailed phenomena.

Play of space and levels of meaning engage the imagination and intellect and stimulate them.

Conciseness is the law of composition in Chinese freehand brushwork.

Concise images are used to abstract and condense.

Omit irrelevant features and represent with a few strokes. Based on understanding of form.

Likeness and Unlikeness:

Traditional Chinese painting relies on painting from memory and feelings. Unlike western art that encourages sketching on site.

So the flowers in Qi’s works are flowers of both reality and imagination. They are flowers which have been assimilated by the painter’s heart and are permeated with emotional colours and the light of the painter’s ideal.

Qi’s motto: ‘The marvel of a good painting lies between likeness and unlikeness.’

Likeness means the concomitance of an actual object with the painter’s understanding of it. Unlikeness refers to the artist’s abstraction of the object in his treatment of it.

Unlikeness is a phenomenon of sight, likeness of the heart. [Note: I believe the translation of this has swapped the sentences. I think it should be ‘Likeness is a phenomenon of sight, unlikeness of the heart.’]

Concise composition depends on both sight and heart, and also on the combination of realism and romanticism.

Regarding the rendering of light – it is derived from the mind’s eye of the artist thus represent a synthesis. Whatever stands out is bright, obscured is dark.

More on composition:

The opposition and unity in contradictions.

Utilising contrasts.

Qi contrasts sparse and dense, a few scattered twigs on which appear an abundance of fruits and flowers.

Contrasting – large splashes of heavy black ink against large white spaces.

Sturdy pines contrast with tender, delicate grasses; quiet rocks with chirping birds. Wisterias spreading randomly with flowers in neat arrays.

Composition is the specific application of dialectics in its combination of images. Both opposite and complementary to each other. Each shining more brilliantly in the other’s company.

Qi’s motto in full with explanation:

‘The marvel of a good painting lies between likeness and unlikeness. If it is an exact likeness, it is catering to vulgar tastes, but no likeness is simply cheating.’

My analysis of some of the work from the book:

Composition – extensive use of negative space as a form of conciseness, removing the irrelevance.. Contrasting the lack of details (abstraction) of the lotus see pods to the detailed dragonfly.

–

The conciseness in the depiction of the tree especially the leaves. The chicks are also reduced to a few round shapes with soft edges but the insect is detailed. All other background has been eliminated.

–

Shrimps are one of Qi’s most famous images. There is no background depicted, water, plant life or sea/pond beds have all been eliminated. But there is no doubt that the shrimps are in water and in movement. The depiction of the shrimps’ pincers and tentacles gives the sense of movement. The clustering (3+1) and distribution of the shrimps give a sense of an ongoing story where his painting is a snapshot in time. Qi has spent hours observing shrimps and their movements then painted them from memory thereby adding his own interpretations.

–

The three paintings below all show highly abstract plant or fruit with more precisely depicted elements such as insects:

–

Neatly laid out flowers all point up among random branches.

–

Contrasts of neat streams of flowers among expressive and random branches:

–

REFLECTIONS

What has been useful is the confirmation that there is nothing ‘magical’ about painting; there isn’t some kind of concept on a higher level that only certain ‘blessed or gifted’ artists can achieve. As for talent, that is subjective – I believe. Like art, a ‘talented’ abstract artist may produce art that is undesirable in some people’s eyes yet totally desirable for others. Hence I believe talent is subjective.

But painting is difficult – this was said to me by one of my fellow MA students who is an experienced painter. I couldn’t agree more. That’s also why I like painting. It’s a challenge that can be rewarding or frustrating – both are equally energising. Thinking about painting and art making consumes my mind and that must be why I only allowed myself to get deep into it after retirement. Perhaps I knew it would become like this.

I recently started learning about photography, I thought about incorporating that into my practice or even developing that into a main part of my practice – photography is an artistic as well as scientific subject hence I thought it would appeal. I attended a six week course to learn digital photography. I enjoyed the learning very much but I wasn’t as ‘bothered’ as I thought I would be. I think it’s because creating an image was too easy – doesn’t mean the image was any good, it was just too ‘quick and easy’ to get an outcome. Especially with a good digital camera (I bought a used Canon EOS 77D for the ‘new hobby’). The photography tutor was excellent and we did some good walkabout photography exercises in town. Within 20 minutes of walking around, I could produce a large number of images to choose from and there would typically be a couple that felt satisfactory. That’s too quick for me. There was little agony, self doubt or deliberation involved. Perhaps it’s my rebellion against the instant gratification culture that so dominates modern life and I want to exclude myself from that culture. It’s not because I think that’s wrong or want to judge, I just need a slow and drawn out agony to feel alive! In writing this paragraph, I have just come to realise why I paint.

Having said all that, I was recently given my late father-in-law’s treasured Hasselblad medium format film camera. It is a work of art in itself and the quality of engineering (all mechanical) is beyond words. I feel so privileged to have it. I have written another blog to capture my first experience with using it. I think analogue film photography is a different game to digital photography and the slowness of the process feeds my need for the excitement from a ‘drawn out agony’. All the anticipation. I am captivated.

Back to painting and likeness and unlikeness… I learnt a lot about composition in Chinese painting. That was very helpful. However, I also work extensively with composition in western art which is a different approach. So once again there is conflict in how I would bring the two together. Another opportunity to explore the third space where two cultures come together to create something new…

Another key learning is the likeness coming from sight and unlikeness coming from the heart. The latter being the artist’s influence or interpretation of the reality – this I have not done so much of and I need to work on this aspect a lot more. I recognise that I often rush into a painting because I’m so excited about a new idea. I have learnt that I need to take time to think about what and how I feel about the subject, what I’m painting and let that feeling play out more on the canvas with the subject I’m painting being the ‘carrier’ of that sentiment. Whoa! Easy to say!

Perhaps I can do some free writing before starting a painting to get insight into my thinking and feelings about whatever I’m making.

LEARNING

– Use conciseness and negative space to create impact and tension on the canvas.

– As I approach a painting (or any artwork), think more about how I feel about the topic and less about the detail of the representation. Incorporate more the heart and less of the sight to achieve a better balance of likeness and unlikeness.

– I have learnt about why I paint through this research and my reflections.

– I have yet to resolve the conflict between the different approaches between Chinese and Western art composition. What does transcultural mean in terms of composition when they are so different?

NEXT STEPS

– Take my learning forward to my next painting especially the part of applying the heart more to create unlikeness.

MA U3: Painting between likeness and unlikeness

| elizarawlings

In my search and contemplation about ways of painting, I turned to a Chinese artists that I admire – Qi Baishi. His famous saying, ‘Painting must be something between likeness and unlikeness’ inspired me to experiment with different ways to paint my Family Dinner #2. Here is an image of my original painting in oil on Cheongsam shaped canvas:

–

METHOD

I started by doing some quick paintings of the individual dishes using Chinese painting materials: Chinese paint brushes, ink and rice paper.

Flower crab
Pan fried sliced luncheon meat

Here is the overall composition marked out on a long Chinese scroll of rice paper:

–

Work in progress:

–

Completed painting – Chinese ink on Japanese Moon Palace (rice) paper, 114x46cm.

–

I felt the composition was too uniform and too neatly laid out. Hence I attempted another version with further abstraction to explore ‘unlikeness’:

–

REFLECTIONS

I enjoy painting in oil very much. I like the feel of the material, the viscosity when undiluted, the way it pushes against my palette knife or brush when painting impasto and then the luminosity when diluted. But painting in oil takes time (for me anyway) and I enjoy taking that time. I also like coming back to ‘play’ with the painting over several days.

Painting in Chinese brush and ink is a much quicker process. I can do several paintings in a day. Something about the materials make me want to paint fast with vigour. So I was pleased to do the Family Dinner explorations here using Chinese painting materials, it helps me to loosen up – both in my brush strokes and in my thinking.

One of the points I took away from my Unit 2 feedback was to paint more, and more. There was a question in the feedback asking if it was necessary to spend time making the Cheongsam canvases; I think that was a good question and perhaps I should spend more time painting and improve on that. Although I want to expand my practice to incorporate 3D, film and photography, I envisage my practice to always be rooted in painting – mainly because I enjoy it and I like the challenge. So I need to paint more to take it to the next level. I don’t know what ‘next level’ means, but I just feel the need to push my current boundaries – wherever that may take me!

I managed to source the following book ‘Likeness and Unlikeness’ abour Qi Baishi’s work:

–

I need to do more research about what he really meant by his saying. Perhaps that would give me inspiration and new ideas to explore. I had thought that ‘between likeness and unlikeness’ meant a way towards abstraction. But when I look at his paintings, there was always good likeness (a shrimp looked like a shrimp). So I discussed with my Chinese art tutor what Qi meant – it appeared to be not about abstraction. She believed it was about the artists putting themselves into the work. I need to research this some more to really understand. I will start by reading the book.

I feel excited about the research between likeness and unlikeness…

LEARNING

I want to take my painting to the next level but I have not been able to decide how. The reflections above have helped me. I think I will return to painting on 2D canvas for now while I’m experimenting. I would like to return to 3D canvases such as the Cheongsam dress at some point because I have really enjoyed those paintings.

NEXT STEPS

I want to continue to build on my painting practice in the following way:

– Really explore oil as a material. I am used to using oil undiluted to create thick impasto layers, so I will experiment with thinner layers to give me more ways to express myself. Especially to find ways to create ambiguity, about distant memories.

– Research and understand the meaning of ‘between likeness and unlikeness’, start with experimenting in my Chinese art practices with ink on rice paper. Then maybe transfer the learning and understanding to painting with oil if it feels right.

Chinese painting – the art of using seals

| elizarawlings

I have been learning Chinese painting for three years in parallel to my other courses such as the MA Fine Art programme at Central Saint Martins. Collectively, they help me to develop my transcultural art practice.

My latest learning was about the use of seals. Here is some information from the Hong Kong Art Museum about the use of seals on painting and calligraphy:

https://hk.art.museum/en/web/ma/resources/archive/education-resources/resources/vermillion-impressions-chinese-painting-and-calligraphy-seals.html

The seal is applied at the end of the painting process. Since the seal paste is usually a permanent colour of Vermillion (cinnabar red), it cannot be erased hence its placement has to be considered and applied carefully. Otherwise, it could ruin the painting composition.

For Chinese artists, they can use different types of seals. They typically have one or more name-seals and other optional mood-seals. My late mother left behind several of her seals that I have been studying and using for my paintings. I asked my Chinese painting tutor whether it was appropriate for me to use another artist’s (i.e. my mother’s) seals. My tutor said, ‘she was your mum, I don’t think she would mind. Anyway, who is going to check?’ Since my mother was an established painter, her seals were beautifully carved from quality stones. I have enjoyed discovering them and playing with them.

Since my last lesson, I have been practicing signing my name in Chinese calligraphy and then putting two seals on paintings. These experiments have been challenging in a fun way.

1. A vase of flowers in Chinese ink on Xuan (rice) paper. The calligraphy says it is by me (my full name with surname) and there are two seals:

– The seal at the bottom left corner belonged to my mother. It is a mood-seal with the meaning of ‘transcendence’ – a spiritual state of moving beyond physical needs and realities.

– The seal at the top right is my new mood seal that I ordered from Hong Kong through my tutor. It means ‘third space’ and is a fundamental element of my art practice – exploring the ‘third space’ which describes my existence. Third space here is as described by Homi K. Bhabha in his book ‘The Location of Culture’.

–

2. A simple painting of a flower branch in a small vase. The calligraphy says it is by me (name only, no surname) with two seals:

– bottom left: my full name seal with surname.

– Top right: ‘Transcendence’.

–

3. A small vase with a branch and leaves. My name in calligraphy with two seals:

– Bottom left: my full name.

– Top right: one my of mother’s seals but I do no know what it says! It is of an ancient script and beyond my knowledge. I will keep researching to see if I can find out. I have subsequently found out by seeing on one my mother’s paintings that I have put it upside down!

–

4. My cat Tom who is sadly not with us anymore. No calligraphy with two seals:

– My full name and the upside down seal!

–

LEARNING

Using the seal properly is an art form that requires skills which comes with experience. The placement of the seal as well as how it is applied are both important. Too much paste would ‘flood’ the carving giving a red mess, too little paste would make part of the seal invisible, i.e. an incomplete image. So it needs to be just right.

The placement is even more challenging. The use of negative space is critical in Chinese painting – my Chinese painting tutor said the extensive use of negative space was a key differentiation between Chinese and ‘Western’ art. Placing the seal after the painting is completed means the seal interrupts the negative space hence it needs to be done in a way that maintains the harmony of the composition whilst enhancing the composition. While writing this I realise it is impossible to articulate how to do it! What I have learnt from the above paintings are that if I am using two seals then place them diagonally on the composition and use one large and one smaller seal, i.e. do not use two seals of the same size. The non-uniformity makes the composition more interesting.

My tutor said the only way to learn was to keep doing it, keep practicing, then eventually it would come naturally. I have to take her words for it as I don’t have any other options! I used to only put seals on paintings that I was happy with, but my tutor said I should do it on every painting in order to practice. So that is what I will do!

NEXT STEPS:

– Keep practicing using seals on all my Chinese paintings.

– Pay more attention to how other Chinese artists use their seals – study my mother’s paintings and my painting books more carefully.