My Participation in the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale 2019 , Part Three: Landscape Painting

View of the distant lake, ink on paper

As part of my series of articles on the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale, I'm posting some ink paintings I made in the Chinese landscape on September 1st. 

To my delight I was invited to go on a painting trip to a village called Shuiyucun not far from the mountains with about 30 other artists, a mix of Chinese participants and others from around the world. As I'd found out about this trip before I went to China I packed my ink (bought in Beijing in 2017) and calligraphy brushes and bought paper while in Beijing.

Mountain View, ink on paper

Mountain View, ink on paper

View from the tower I painted from

The journey out of Beijing and into the verdant landscape took about an hour and then we were divided in to groups when we reached Shuiyucun. Some of us were taken down to a small river to paint but I think that possibly artists had specific ideas they wanted to work from because no one wanted to work from the river. (If I had had longer time I would have been happy to paint there as it was quite interesting.) Consequently we split up to seek out other places of inspiration.

Since my first glimpse of distant mountains I knew I wanted to paint them.  Two of the guides took me up a hill to a wooden tower where I was able to paint alone for about 90 minutes. The view was incredible; a panorama that stretched on two sides (north and west) to mountains, and then the land fell away in to undulating pastures and areas of trees to the east, and to the south I could see a lake and far beyond the hazy outline of Beijing. It was very hot and once my eyes acclimatised to the bright sunlight, an array of many greens spilled out from the land. 

I had deliberately taken only ink as my aim was to catch some shapes and lines I might extend back in the UK.

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I painted mostly North, West and South, and made 12 ink paintings. One of the guides had her small daughter with her and I was quite surprised when she looked at a small ink - quite abstract with few marks - and exclaimed 'It's a whole picture yet with so little brush work!'

View of the Lake,, ink on paper

View of the Lake, ink on paper

Though I initially concentrated on the mountains, I soon became quite intrigued by the distant lake because I knew we would be painting there in a few hours. The sun being in front of me cast deep shadows in some areas while other elements faded in to a shimmery haze.

The guides took me back to the village where I met up with the other artists and we had a huge lunch which consisted of many different dishes brought to us freshly cooked from the kitchen. 

Tables being set for us in the village

The table I shared with friends

The amazing dining area

Not long after our meal, we were taken to lake Quilong where everyone set up next to the rippling expanse of water dotted with islands of lotus leaves. There were floating water lilies with small yellow flowers and I became mesmerised by the swaying water as I sat on large rocks to paint.

Ripples on the lake, ink on paper

Artists painting by the lake, ink on paper

I was also intrigued by the distant mountains which seemed to echo the shapes of the tangled lotus leaves....

Lotus Leaves and Mountains

Lake Quilong

Artists at work

The lake and nearby houses

Some of the artists (I am the 3rd from the right)

Finally, we all went back to Shuiyucun to have a discussion with the leaders of the village and the Chinese artists. It was wonderful to have this exchange and to share our ideas. There were several photographers and we were filmed as well. I was invited to say something because they had seen my speech the previous day and I mentioned how much I had loved the experience of being able to paint in the landscape and that I would love to stay for several weeks! I felt really lucky to have been offered this chance and to have had a glimpse in to aspects of village life. 

Everyone was so friendly and wanted to know how we felt about the trip and what ideas we had to extend or improve it for the future.

The leaders of Shuiyucun starting the discussion

Some of the artists

The Importance of a Studio for Artists to Paint

'Safe Passage,' Work in Progress, 93 x 78 cm, acrylic on canvas

There have been times in my life (notably during my 14 years in Cyprus) when I had a studio, and times when, as recently, I've been working in my large living room-kitchen area. While I was still able to get work done, even large scale canvases, it is simply not the same as having your art reference around you and a space where you can leave things set up permanently and can walk straight in to a particular 'mind set.'

'Night Roads,' acrylic on rough watercolour paper, small

 At the moment I'm totally re-organising my flat and making my mother's bedroom into a studio. Some great shelving units are helping me to archive and organise canvases, and freeing up floor space. The process of going through older work and evaluating newer work has been extremely positive because I can see work that really needs tweaking and can set these aside to repaint. It's always good to see that you can spot inadequacies that you couldn't see at the time! I've also found that being able to put my personal art references on the wall - these could be anything; newspaper cuttings, photos, postcards of work I admire, drawings, paintings on paper, rough biro drawings on scrap paper - is very useful because it keeps ideas flowing and relevant.

'Early Light,' acrylic on watercolour paper, small

Setting up my studio has also helped me see ways forward because while stacking paintings on shelves, certain elements shout out as relevant and certain elements appear to be 'red herrings' or simply a mess and unfocused. Artistically, it really allows an over-view of the work in general. When I was in my studio in China during my Fellowship (2016 - please check my website for details), I found that being able to lay my ink paintings all around me on the floor and put my canvases across the walls allowed for a great cross-pollination of ideas. Mainly this is because a lot of my work is 'process driven' and I like to play with different elements to weld an image together.

'Landscape,' acrylic on rough watercolour paper

My studio is not large, compared to some studios, but I think it is the whole psychological idea of being able to close a door and get in to The Zone that is the best part of it!

Posted this time; a work in progress (from my waterfalls theme), and some of many recent small works on paper. Some may form the basis of new themes.

Next time I will be posting photos of my studio, and also writing a 'Personal Guide to Painting Materials,' with descriptions about why I prefer certain paints. 

Future posts will include Part Two of my working process with examples of how my ideas emerge from different sources and from the materials.