countdown....

This is the last and biggest painting of Guilin - nearly a metre wide.

This is how it started,

painted with THE BRUSH I bought at Jingdezhen.

So, what's all this fuss about Guilin???

Here are a few pics of the area and the Li river in S Central China.

How could I not be overwhelmed and inspired?

 

The next post will be my 200th and I'll have a little give away.

The post will be about the long awaited opening of the 'Culture 2 Culture' exhibition. All looking good - Hanging and setting up on Tuesday and Wednesday, opening on Friday - woohoo.



More Guilin Paintings

It has taken me a while to get into these paintings, but I have really enjoyed the process.
It is SO good to be back in the studio!!!!!!!
- and the positive feedback from my blogger community has really helped - THANK YOU EVERYONE.
... so here are the other 6 paintings ready to be framed, still inspired by the magnificent mountains of the Guilin region in China...

Tomorrow I collect see some of the finished, framed pieces ....woohoo can't wait!!.....

Next Saturday is delivery day to the gallery - I know it will be a great show and I am feeling very proud of all the effort Christine and I have put into this project.

http://rosebedstgallery.com/exhibitions-coming-up

Hope to see you there.

[this is post no 198 - only 2 more to go]

Off to the Framers

Yes, at last some new paintings with collage - ready to be framed for our 'Culture 2 Culture' exhibition. I want to have 10 of these for the show. The image size is about A4. They are based on the magical karst mountains of Guilin and the Li river.

And yes, I resolved the drawing of the lily.

I am nearly up to my 200th post, so look out for a give away soon :)

'Culture 2 Culture' exhibition

http://rosebedstgallery.com/exhibitions-coming-up/

At last the past six months of work is coming to fruition.
My artist friend Christine Elcoate and I went to China in October 2011 and connected with many artists, thanks to our Sister City friendships and local government support.
We organised 4 fabulous workshops in March with Chinese artist Li Jun, here on the Sunshine Coast, and now we have a collaborative exhibition at Rosebed St Gallery, Eudlo, with 12 artists [Li Jun and 11 locals], and school children's works from 2 Chinese schools and 3 Sunshine Coast schools.
The centrepoint of the exhibition will be 300+ domino sized ceramic tiles - made in Australia, some glazed here by local artists, others glazed in China and brought back for the exhibition.

Maya, Noela, Annie and Christine looking at ways to display the work in the gallery.

Here's a sneak preview of some of the wonderful works to be exhibited:

...watercolour detail by Li Jun,

..."The Burn" detail, by Pam Walpole [one of my favourite artists of all time],

..."Never Green", detail by Merv Jefferson,

...Southern Ice Porcelain Beaker by Kim Schoenberger,

...lidded vessel by Mieke van Sambeek,

...detail of jacket by Christine Elcoate,

...free standing sculpture by Ken Munsie,

...carved porcelain light by Robyn Gill,

...calligraphy by Fiona Dempster,

...'Bus Stop Mountain' detail by Wyn Vogel.

...little book detail by Noela Mills.

My sincere thanks to all the artists, the gallery owners, our new Chinese friends and all the tile makers, especially Kevin Grealy, who made and fired many of the 300 tiles. Your trust and faith is us and the project has been wonderful.

It will be a fabulous representation of how the Chinese cultural traditions have inspired and influenced us all in so many different ways.

Please join us for the opening, Friday 25th May, 7pm, at the Rosebed Gallery, Eudlo.



New work

I have been scanning the bloggersphere - boy, there's some lovely work happening out there.

Time to get my act together and do a bit of posting on what I've been doing... well, I haven't been doing much of my own work - I've been organising lots of stuff for the 'Culture 2 Culture' collaboration with China - the next step being an exhibition with 11 'local' artists and Li Jun.
More on that next post.

This is one of my paintings for the show. I started it many years ago. It sat in the cupboard unresolved and I decided last week to splash a few more lines over the paper.

This orchid is a possibility for the show. Needs some resolving as well...

Maybe just by signing and putting my red chock in the corner it might be enough???

I started a watercolour of fish, but of course I overdid it, so now I might whitewash over the sheet of [expensive] paper!!

These are my favourite things - little 'books' that I've been making in front of the TV at night.

Some are more Japanese than Chinese, but I figure that as I have been engaged with both cultures recently, I'll do a bit of cheating.



Bamboo- Li Jun

Li Jun's demo painting of bamboo from the Thursday workshop.

There's something about bamboo that excites the senses and satisfies the soul of an artist.

We found this symbol on an ancient scroll in the wonderful museum in Suzhou, built in 2006 by the famous Chinese/American architect I.M.Pei. The symbol represents bamboo, and the inscription nearby gives bamboo connotations of integrity, modesty and nobility - representing the 'man of honour'.

I found this symbol particlarly moving for me as for many years now I have used the matra of 'honest, simple and noble' for my wabisabi art work. I feel the need to include this image in my signiature chock for my Asian inspired works, so I'll have to get on to creating yet another logo chock design.

So.................back to Li Jun.................... 

We all melted when watching how 'easily' he drew his images of bamboo. It truly was a dance of the brush across the paper.

Here is the 'step by step' - well worth trying this in your own studio. The pressure on the brush was the key to getting the thick and thin segments of the long stems and the nodes.

...signed, a bird added for a bit of focus, and quickly sold to a very happy Petrus.