Day 3: Beijing Fine Art Academy

Today we were fortunate enough to attend a guided tour of the current exhibition of artist Qi Baishi given by the curator Mr. Ma. This was followed by an afternoon of tutoring by a painter from the Academy, Mr Yao. We all got to try our hand at Chinese brush work techniques which was relaxing, but much more complex than Mr Yao made it look!

A reconstruction of Qi Baishi's workspace, complete with some of his actual equipment. He is one of the most famous Chinese artists, known for his radical approach towards the traditional brush painting method. The paintings were about capturing the 'spirit' of nature rather than its literal reperesentation.

Mr Yao demonstrated two styles of calligraphy - Caishu (slow) and Xingshu (fast).

Here is some detail from one of his paintings - "Pure Water and Fishes"

Detail of the ink and water container.

Mr. Yao's homemade wide brush. Brushes are made from a mixture of real animal hair - including wolf, pig and sheep but also can be synthetic.

"Lotus in the Rain"

Mr. Yao shows us how it's done...

...Karen the course leader has her turn.

Here we all our with our finished (!) pieces.

'Chinglish' photo of the day :)

Zai jian! Helen and Keri