Sunday, July 1, 2012

Three Chinese Ink Exhbitions

It's in the air - 3 Chinese Ink exhibtions on at the same time - Saatchi Gallery & British Museum showing Contemporary and Modern work  and Somerset House - traditional with great video of artist working with big brush in very free flowing way.  I love working in ink, especially on wet paper and I must get back to it.  It allows for beautiful accidents. You have to work with and give into the accidents - let go.  This often leads to much freer work - sometimes just a big mess.

One artist Liu Dan does amazing work.  I managed to get few pics of two of his works before being told off - watercolour of a book and a huge ink painting of a poppy flower - both Saatchi and the British Museum had a version of this.  Unfortunately first picture is blurry.  (Did you know there are phone apps to help you take pictures secretly - screen looks black, no sounds, automatic taking of pic so you can look like you are listening on phone.)
Watercolour painting of a book.

Accompanying text.

Closeup of the painting of the book showing some of the blue cover and pages.

Closeup of the painting of the paper edges.

Closeup up of painting of text at an angle.

Poppy in ink by Liu Dan - about 5' x 3'