These courses will introduce the art of Chinese Brush Painting to those who have not explored this medium before as well as building more in-depth knowledge for those already studying and who wish to focus on Chinese Brush Painting in more detail.

Journey to the West Part 2 (Thursday - Friday) taught by Paul & Claire

Day 1 of this course will allow students to explore:
Session 1: Characters from the story: Monkey King (Sun Mekong) & Peaches of Immortality
Session 2: Landscape - Waterfalls

Day 2 will focus on applying techniques learnt on Day 1:
Session 3: Characters from the story: Happy Buddha (Gautama Buddha) with Monkey in palm
Session 4: Bringing it all together

The days begin traditionally with 20 minutes of optional qigong (gentle breathing exercises to settle the mind). Teaching is carried out with a step-by-step approach where the fundamentals of a subject are fully explained. This will include the Calligraphic basis for individual strokes. Students are encouraged to work from sketches of subjects and to use these observations in their own compositions.

Students will come to understand the essence of subjects in Chinese Brush Painting through tutor demonstrations, and by observation and practice, and leave understanding how to complete a series of Chinese Brush Paintings.

Essential: Sketch pad, notepad, Standard Chinese Brush Painting kit (Chinese brushes, ink stick & ink stone and/or bottled ink, un-sized or semi-sized papers). A felt is really helpful to lay your paper on, however, newspaper will do. Dark clothing is preferable (and certainly no silk clothes) as Chinese ink stains permanently

Desirable: Camera, Chinese colours, Tablet computer/Smartphone, pictures of your own work and/or work you would like to move toward

Chinese paper, brushes, ink, colours and ink sticks

Paul Maslowski and Claire Seaton