Tibetan artists are known for their intricate Thangkha paintings, often depicting images of the Buddha, the monks are known to make beautiful mandalas out of coloured sand, depicting the universe (and destroying them upon finishing), but today I came across some Chinese fabulosity in the form of a crystal hollow sphere which inside was painted through a hole and depicting an entire Chinese village. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my good camera with me to zoom in onto the details, but I will soon do so. I was visiting some new friends in a neighbouring building and they had been to Beijing. They had picked up so many beautiful artifacts that were now on display in their fancy cabinet that I spent an hour observing in awe. The crystal sphere was phenomenal. Imagine a painter with a one-hair paintbrush painting an entire village through a little hole inside a ball. Those Chinese folks keep surprising me. I had never seen such a piece of art ever before. I do not feel the need to learn how to paint Bangkok inside a glass ball; for now, I’ll keep it simple and paint bamboo and fish. Perhaps it’s time for some koi tomorrow.
My dear teacher Haiying Yang in the USA has been very nice and told me she would send a package to me with a proper paintbrush and rice paper. I guess it must hurt her feelings if she sees me trying to make something beautiful with Hello Kitty nylon kid brushes. Meanwhile I have sent the request out to some Chinese friends in Hong Kong to buy me some materials as well and bring them with them when they visit me in Thailand some time in the future. I can only dream of getting my hands on real Chinese ink, a real ink stone and perhaps a hand carved seal. My seal is just a plastic stamp that I had made by a Thai at the shopping mall down the street. Nothing noble about that. I guess all those Chinese folks must travel to China now and then and buy everything they need in their own country. I wish I could travel there too some time, but I am still blacklisted by the Chinese Government, my books are banned, and my websites, even this weblog, are still blocked by the Internet Security Police. I guess posting photos of bamboo paintings are considered a threat to China’s national security!
I made a photo of my working material. Weep when you see this. I also made a photo of the Thai cushion I sit on when I work. We don’t have furniture in the house, so we all sit on the floor when eating or watching TV, or we lay on our mattress for sleeping and other activities. We are indeed very simple, poor people haha.
My dear teacher Haiying Yang in the USA has been very nice and told me she would send a package to me with a proper paintbrush and rice paper. I guess it must hurt her feelings if she sees me trying to make something beautiful with Hello Kitty nylon kid brushes. Meanwhile I have sent the request out to some Chinese friends in Hong Kong to buy me some materials as well and bring them with them when they visit me in Thailand some time in the future. I can only dream of getting my hands on real Chinese ink, a real ink stone and perhaps a hand carved seal. My seal is just a plastic stamp that I had made by a Thai at the shopping mall down the street. Nothing noble about that. I guess all those Chinese folks must travel to China now and then and buy everything they need in their own country. I wish I could travel there too some time, but I am still blacklisted by the Chinese Government, my books are banned, and my websites, even this weblog, are still blocked by the Internet Security Police. I guess posting photos of bamboo paintings are considered a threat to China’s national security!
I made a photo of my working material. Weep when you see this. I also made a photo of the Thai cushion I sit on when I work. We don’t have furniture in the house, so we all sit on the floor when eating or watching TV, or we lay on our mattress for sleeping and other activities. We are indeed very simple, poor people haha.
As all the cafés are closed for two days (Buddhist holiday), I wasn’t able to get drunk tonight. I was forced to stay home and make some more paintings. Tomorrow koi and the day after I really need to lay in bed with my laptop and start writing the next chapter of my novel. I am a very lazy writer these days. Thank the Buddha I am in between publishers and I do not have a deadline, but it's not very helpful to get literarily active.
On the left a 89 baht plastic paintbrush made in Korea with nylon hair but it has a nice fine tip. Plastic stamps from the local shopping mall and a bottle of black 90 baht ecoline Made in Holland from the Chinese supermarket and a 60 baht kitchen plate from Carrefour as my pallet. The plastic beaker is a 10 baht thing from Carrefour as well. The paper is watercolour paper Made in Holland. Those Dutchistanis must ship containers full of their paint materials all over the world.
O, by the way, I got rid of my natural Barbra Streisand finger nails with French manicure as I was unable to type on my computer lately.
My Thai cushion. 500 baht from Carrefour, but they tend to last for generations.
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I would think that the new Chinese brushes, ink, and paper are going to take a little getting used to as they'll be so different. You'll be lost to the world for weeks!
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