Good afternoon good people.
It has beena while since I posted here. But I have worked very hard on promoting a Forum for people in Europe who may wish to start up Chinese Calligraphy and Art and this in itself has been an enormous task.

I do not understand why there is so little Chinese influence in Europe. I am in England and France. And so little is even seen of the chinese and yet their works and history is immense.

I have been studying the works of Yang O-shi (Also known as Ohsi Yang) and her painting and accomplishments in this field are vast and wide. Not that any Europeans would know.

I have searched America and CHina and found some places where peple can buy ink sticks, ink stones, GOOD brushes are hard to find for me, and red star Xuan paper. But because of English language restrictions, these are very few.

I find it incredible and very sad that there is not the interest in Chinese Art in England. It is because the English have their heads in dark places. Yes, I am Englsih, so I know.

However, I have studied hard. I have been so influenced by Chinese Art I have started to paint. I have never ever painted in my life ever before and this is a fact. But the paintings below are the result of three months hard study and if "I" can do it anyone can. in Europe.
My wish is to inspire people to try their hand at this enormous facinating topic.
The history in everything, the spirituality and the satisfaction of even creating a single character with pine soot ink in a genuine chinese ink stone on Xuan paper........ is something you have to feel especially after a years hard hunting to get it.

In Europe these things are Exceptionally Rare. Exceptionally. So I hope you appreciate my enthusiasm and facinations.

You may laugh at my mistakes here,m but I have much to learn. This is my respectful progress of Chinese Art so far.

I have been studying Chinese art now for a few years and have come no where near your experience in style and composition and overall understanding of getting the feel and look correct.
While I agree that it can be very easy, you seem have the knack to put it all together and present it in a very authentic style.
I am afraid I can not divorce myself from my own style and make the full transition into recreating Chinese works. and admittedly I do not spend nearly enough time painting and more time then I should here on the forum wasting time.

Very nice painting ..TCC. Perhaps, you would like to refine the chinese calligraphy. I think the chinese calligraphy on the painting can be improved better.

Are there any masters teaching chinese art in England? You might want to consider going to China, Taiwan or Hongkong to learn chinese art.

Yes, I agree, the calligraphy needs more study and much more practice.

Thankyou for the kind words. familiarity is slowly dawning on ne and, with this, confidence.

As for professionals in Chinese Art in England. NONE that I have come across.
Although, Qu Lei Lei is resident in England and I believe his books are promoted by him personally.
He has four books in print.
I went to see one of his lectures and met him in Oxford in Oxfordshire in England in June.

It was interesting but apart from him, training is impossible because where are the CHinese in England who paint and Teach it?

I am forced to believe there are either none or so few they are in strange corners of England.

It is a shame as I would very much like a Teacher, I know I make many mistakes. I would love to see a Master at work in person. It would be something very educational and rare for Europe.

: o )

There is actually a small community of professional chinese artists in England. However, due to the very small demand/market for traditional chinese arts in Europe, these chinese artists specialise only on contemporary chinese art (blending modern western painting with chinese art concept), which is probably more acceptable by western collectors. There is actually a chinese art center in Manchester featuring their works. See http://www.chinese-arts-centre.org.

It seems that there isn't any art school in Europe that teaches traditional chinese art/painting.

If you're interested in learning traditional chinese painting and calligraphy in English, you can consider coming to Singapore's Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts to learn chinese painting.

They do have 1 year course on basic chinese painting and 1 year course on chinese calligraphy and the fees are not expensive. Courses should be available to international student.

See the courses on chinese painting/calligraphy:

http://www.nafa.edu.sg/in_courses/parttime...asicchpaint.htm
http://www.nafa.edu.sg/in_courses/parttime...basicchcall.htm

I believe the courses are conducted in English and you can actually e-mail them to find out more details. If you come to Singapore, you can also contact me and we can of course meet. One of our Singapore CHF member, Lin Duanwen, can also do some chinese painting.

On the other hand, if you intend to become 'professional artist' trained under a high master from China specialising in traditional chinese painting, you probably have to go to China or Taiwan. But since all courses in China's Art University are conducted in chinese, you will probably have to learn Mandarin. The road would be more tedious and longer.

Thankyou for the information. I have been away; hospital etc as I have torn my arm rendering me only able to paint for six months now with much time on my hands. How wonderful can an injury be.

Manchester looks very interesting. I shal endeavour to see what they are all about re: Chinese Arts. My thanks for that link.
Singapores Academy would appear to be a good option, and time out in China would be a life long wish come true, I'll speak to the people there also.

Regarding western influence on Chinese art, I notice that Qu Lei Lei, Englands CHinese Calligrapher, is trying to bring out a new book which incorporates Western Art into Chinese tools and materials. it doesnt appeal to me, but this is personal. I find spirituality in the chinese styles, NOT the western ones which, in truth, bore me.

I currently have a friend who teaches me Chinese but she is at University here and her time is limited. But to Learn Mandarin fluently enough before stuydying the Art.... phwoah..... I dont know if I am arrogant enough to claim that is possible by me.

I shall let you know what I discover.
Incidentally, when I go to London China Town to Guanghwa, the Chinese Art Store there, the best one in Europe because in all, it is about the only one, I meet several Ladies who are prepared to teach Chinese Mandarin, but again, unless you spend hours at the storre reading and studying, you cannot find them.

Very best wishes....
I am sure someone will come up with a solution or, at best, find these posts in a search engine....

N.A.

Hi TCC,
They are nice paintings you have posted, you must definitely keep going, and it is impressive after only such a short time. I do art too, I never studied it either, I just do it, and I think it is like your experience suggests, if you want to do it, and you practice and show dedication, you get results.
I agree that Chinese art is not well known in Europe, from what I have seen. Of course, to really learn Chinese art and calligraphy it would certainly be best to go to its homeland. This is maybe absolutely no help at all, but (if you can't get as far as China) here in Moscow are quite a lot of courses and seminars teaching Chinese calligraphy and painting, different styles. I can't give you any idea of what they're actually like because I haven't done them, but I see that they are varied - groups or individual, longer or shorter. They seem to be organised by Russians, but there is more of an established tradition here of people practicing Chinese art. Also, compared to what you say about England, the materials seem more readily available here, you can buy Chinese inks, brushes, paper in regular art shops, and there are specialised places too.
I can get you more details if you' do happen to have any interest. I just give this information just in case, and I think it is great work you are doing, making Chinese art and calligraphy better known.

My Word, You are in Russia?
You are my first ever Russian contact.

I would be interested to see the Chinese art displayed in your region.
I would do the same but, there is only me.
There is a society called "The Chinese Brush painting Society" but it posts the most riddiculously tiny images of peoples works (Space is free these days so why is this so?) and no real impression is given because they ALWAYS have that odd Westernism in them.
Even I need to be freer with water and less paint and not so stubborn.

I would also like to know what materials are available to you there regarding CHinese Calligraphy. I am always interested in the ornate ink stones.

I am interested in all aspects of this field. ANything you can show or get your hands on is always appreciated.
If I could see the materials on offer I could organise their purchase.

Difficult is an understatement when it comes to obtaining these things in England.
I shop in Dallas and Louissianna, new York and Beijing as well as Nanchang to get my materials. I FIGHT hard to succeed in this, you have NO idea.

Best wishes and I have enjoyed this contact.
Sincerely,
Neil.

Hi again,
I'm not an expert at all in the different materials for any kind of art. All I can say is that Moscow has a lot of art and artists, and a lot of places selling stuff, and it seems in general cheaper here than elsewhere in Europe (at least one thing is cheap here). This is the link to an on-line shop selling goods for calligraphy http://www.shu-ba.ru/ but the site is all in Russian. I got my own Chinese art supplies from China, actually, but last time I was at the art shop near where I live, buying non-Chinese art supplies, I noticed they had brought in a lot of Chinese supplies. I will take a closer look next time I go and let you know what I find there. To see some of people's works over this way, I wanted to give you a Ukrainian link, Ukrainians doing Chinese painting, but weirdly it goes to a Russian news site. I don't know what happened there.
There is quite big interest here in Asian art in general, and quite often exhibitions going on. Do you plan to try other genres of Chinese painting? I am a big fan of people 人物 genre, and I like art of the Song dynasty period a lot. But I paint my own people in oil paint, because I'm too hasty in nature, and if you make a mistake in oil, you can just paint over it.
Anyway, I will look around here and let you know if I find some useful information.

Originally being from Moscow as well, I'm somewhat surprised by this. Admittedly, I've only spent at most a month in Moscow per year since moving to the US in 1995. Even so, I've typically been left with the impression that Russians do not hold China in very high regard and have a tendency to get offended and confrontational if someone suggests that something in China is done better than in Russia, be it in modern China or historically. Furthermore, there seems to be an overflowing of slavophilia in recent years, with anyone not fully embracing the superiority of everything Slavic (i.e. *cough* Russian. "**** Ukraine, they're all actually Anglo-Saxon Jews" are the comments I hear) being viewed as misled and malevolent.
I have, however, seen a recurrent popularity of Japanese art in Russia. I feel that Russian attitudes towards China and Chinese are hostile, with the obvious exception of diplomatic relations at the high levels of government (although I do feel that, even in that relationship, the Russian government would like to again play "older brother" to China as it did under Stalin).

However, this is just one person's subjective impression of modern Russia, so I'm very glad to hear that there's another side to it from someone who spends more time there.

Hi, Tangxiucai,
I guess this is all digressing from the actual subject of calligraphy and brush painting, but I just wanted to reply to you that you are right. Overall, Japanese art and Japanese culture in every aspect is most popular here, I would say there's even a real kind of fetish with everything Japanese (like, sushi is the most common food in Moscow these days, it seems).
When it comes to China, the attitudes are a lot more complex. There is definitely interest in the purely artistic side, calligraphy, painting, and also interest in some things like Chinese martial arts, Chinese style clothes, objects etc, Chinese tea (a lot of shops specialising in Chinese and Japanese tea here now), plus the fact that Chinese language courses are very popular now and there is big demand (but I think this more because people think it will be a business asset in the future). There was the 'Year of China in Russia' in 2007, (or maybe it was 2006, I forgot), and that had lots of cultural events and was quite successful.
But you are right, people get confrontational about China. It's like they are open to the culture but not to having actual interaction with Chinese people. The way people talk sometimes makes it sound like the Chinese have already taken over Moscow. And you are sadly very right that at the moment, it is this slavophilia obsession, this Slavic Russian Orthodox state, and we all know that there are not just a few 'hooligans' here and there who beat up people who don't look properly Slavic. People pay for this nationalism with their lives (like when neo-nazi students planted a bomb to kill Chinese working at Cherkizovsky market), and that's not to mention just the daily little incidents of intolerance and prejudice.
I would say there is like, all these levels in Moscow, and on one level people are interested in China, interested in Chinese culture, anyway, and there is plenty of evidence of this. It is at least one small encouraging thing, and so anyone who is doing something to help spread Chinese culture and just maybe open minds a little bit more, I think it is positive.

Thanks, your post really helps me to expand my understanding of the current situation in Moscow.