Peacocks..........

Last week, Hayley joined the classes. The first painting she tried was blossom - I really suck at trees, and struggled but hers was ok. Whilst choosing the picture, we saw this one of a peacock and jokingly said "What about this one?" Well, on Friday he remembered and here we are....actually I was really proud of the result!

Getting better slowly....

Today went well......I hated the first bird I painted but then they seemed to go well after that! This painting is one I have wanted to do for a while, I am enjoying painting birds! Just as I breathed a sigh of relief thinking it was over, He got out the crab picture......I started having nightmares! But actually it was fine, they were much easier than shrimps...and I am getting more used to handling the brush too I guess.

Talking about Craig's exhibition

The next lesson, the 30th March, was just me, but Craig, Ocean and Fifi were there too so it was quite good fun........Craig was planning for his exhibition at the end of May, which sounds cool. The studio was pretty bare today as it is moving to another building, so we were limited to basic colours.....That meant it was finally time to get the shrimp out of the way! As soon as I put the first brush stroke on the paper, I knew we were headed for disaster! Oh well. About the fourth one I painted was not too bad though which was good. Craig assured me that shrimps are not easy! The next picture was ok, a fruit tree, although I don't think we ever did establish what type of tree this was! Ah well! Next time we go, I may try a tree of birds.......

I am finally happy with my painting!

On the 23rd March I finally managed to do a painting I was happy with! The lesson was quiet, just myself and Christine, so I was painting on my own as Christine continued to do calligraphy. I also, although you can't see it in this photo, used my new stamp for the first time which was cool. The tree looks much better in this one than any other tree I have done!

Monday's lesson - cherry blossom!

We chose cherry blossom again, decided to go back to what we know today! In the second photo, we took some time out to dance to the great music we were listening to! The first picture has Laura learning the new technique we did of flicking paint, we had a lot of fun doing that! Our birds are getting better too........

Friday 9th March Lesson

Friday's lesson was hard! We chose a picture we thought looked easy - we wanted a change from red flowers lol! And we wanted to try birds.... Anyway, it was hard to get the leaves light enough for me, they just look like big black blobs..........but painting the birds was fun, they may become the new obsession! My students in my new class I taught after the lesson seemed impressed, one of them could even read the characters on the right that I had copied! (Either that or they were just making something up..)

Hip hop!

OK not really painting related but too funny to not blog about! Myself and Laura decided to go to a hip hop dance class at the gym (her and Sara went on Wednesday). I arrived before Laura, to a few people in the studio, and then the instructor putting on his hip hop headgear. Uh-oh! I tried to hide at the back, but that meant I couldn't directly see the instructor, and had to rely on the people in front of me getting it right! I was just thinking "get me outta here" when I saw that Laura had arrived.....we both ended up laughing loads as we couldn't seem to keep up! We were probably the laughing stock of the gym but we didn't care. I am so damn uncoordinated, but it was a lot of fun so I will be going back.....maybe one day I will be able to be like my brother. The class was actually fun to watch as well, it was very mixed ability, some people were taking it really seriously, others just there to try it out and have a laugh. It was a bit like a comedy sketch, Chinese people trying hard to be from the hood..........and then me and Laura trying to join them there!

2nd lesson

This lesson had already started when I arrived, but I soon got roped in to helping paint flowers..... Our teacher had started a picture as he was showing Laura how to paint flowers, and so I added to this one and learnt the techniques too. Christine again chose calligraphy, but I know she has been painting at home too, where she has painted trees with flowers and shrimps......Our teacher guided us to paint some flowers, then leaves, branches, and finally some bees to go on top - we got slightly carries away and my painting ended up with about 5 bees! Dave chose to watch, but we won't let him get away with that next time, he will have to pick up a brush..........

Starting out.....learning the basics!

OK so we arrived at 10 am for our first Chinese painting lesson - three foreign girls. I myself have zero painting ability, so the teacher has his work cut out! Better not comment on the ability of the others in case they sue lol! The first thing we had to do was drink tea - naturally! Then, we watched our teacher paint, he painted us each a trio of shrimps........ok this doesn't look TOO bad was the first thought........then we had more tea..........then we finally got to hold a brush......aaarghhh! Not as easy as it looks! Kinda like the first time I tried chopsticks....There is a definite technique! And of course, being a leftie in China always attracts attention - and I realised it was like learning to write all over again, I have to reverse what I see!
Christine chose to start with calligraphy and myself and Laura chose to paint. I haven't painted for years and I never really enjoyed it when I was younger as I wasn't any good. But this looks like it could be more interesting than 3rd year art which is the last time I got to do much! (I have tried a bit of watercolour but not too much!)
The first task we had was to paint flowers and learn to paint them at different angles! We got to learn how to hold the brush for different strokes ------nightmare! It was harder than it looked but we did have some fun. Then we moved on to paint twigs, again we thought easy but NO !!!!! lol. Anyway I am hooked and so today we went to an art shop to buy supplies....we managed to find a book like the one we had used and so we can practise on our own! Showed the boys my first attempts and they seem impressed. I think a few more people are coming tomorrow, I am really looking forward to it.
We are trying colour painting tomorrow....looks good when he does it!