Chief Editor Pauline Ng shares her experiences
A great teacher inspires. After learning sketching from Law Chi-keung for a year, I found that I was ready to take up Chinese Ink Painting again. I began to understand why our teacher Maestro Chao Shao-an always encouraged us to do more live-sketching and understand more about Chinese and Western painting techniques. Equipped with fundamental skills in sketching, I naturally pay more attention to details – details of the people and objects around me. From time to time, I would outline their appearances and expressions with simple lines. This has become a habit of mine and a great chance to improve my drawing skills. I try to dedicate two to three evenings each week to drawing and Chinese calligraphy. I do not find it tough at all. There is always so much joy and satisfaction to see my own achievements, no matter how small they appear to be.
Perhaps due to my upbringing in the old world, I belong to the realist painting group. I enjoy drawing objects accurately and authentically, but I know this may not be my ultimate painting path. Many successful abstract painters started out as realistic painters. Being able to faithfully depict what I see with my eyes is an important step to establishing one’s personal style. As I am still at an early stage of learning, I am less ambitious. I normally make a draft of what I intend to draw by sketching with pencil or ink. It is when I start to draw the details that I realize how much I have missed. Therefore, whether I am painting the still life of plants or animals, I will study the real object first. Even looking at photos on the Internet is useful. If I am drawing an object for the first time, I would try it out with pencil first so that I can make changes easily. After getting a certain grasp of it, I would then use ink pen, which is a step to build up my confidence in using a Chinese brush to paint.
The next step is to acquire the skill in using colours. Colour matching requires practice and experiments. Without experiments, one would not know the effect of different colours after mixing or by adding different amounts of water.
Next is the overall composition of the painting. Unlike abstract painting in western art, traditional Chinese ink painting focuses more on realistic expression, though with meticulous brushstrokes or loose form of ink and wash. Although there are trends of moving towards abstract art in Chinese painting nowadays through wider use of ink and wash, the composition remains an important element to tell the story behind the painting. In fact, before a painting is completed, a painter needs to try with different ideas and make numerous attempts. The painter’s effort cannot be judged by just looking at his or her final product. I know that I have adopted a rather slow learning method. I need to make a lot of preparations before I can pick up an ink brush to paint, but I know it is worth the effort because in Chinese ink painting, a stroke is a stroke. Once it is done, there is little room for change. If I do not prepare well, it will result in a lot of waste.
Once we have acquired the skills, we can gradually discover the most comfortable way to express ourselves, i.e. finding our own style. This can be a very long journey though. However, even if we stay at the “skills” level, it will not prevent us from introducing the wonders of Chinese paintings to our younger generation or even to the international community. There is really no age limit for painting. I hope that more retirees will pick up ink painting now that they have more time and can become ambassadors of Chinese art and culture in all parts of the world.
