Chinese Modern Brush Technique (Sample1)

I began the Birch Series in 2008 when I felt a need to change my focus which, up to that point, was Chinese Brush Painting.  I described the style of the birch series as a modified Chinese Brushstyle.  Here’s the difference: Traditional Chinese Brush begins with painting the black ink foundation on rice paper.  Once that part is allowed to dry, we paint the color details based on the black foundation.  Once all the color is dry, we then paint the “wash” which is often painted onto the back of the paper after misting the paper to dampen it so the background paint flows.Nothing is allowed to dry during the painting process: the paper is moistened, background is painted, the white defining the birch is next, and finally I would paint the details with black ink.

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Each painting is unique in it’s own way even though you will find similarities. Leaf paper is hand made with dried leaves and is rather heavy. The blue textured paper has bits of “stuff” mixed in it. There are other specialty papers that I used including my own hand made papers. There are birches for every season: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. I worked on this series from 2008 to 2010.