Sunday, December 22, 2013

Oriental Painting Lesson by Linda Lashbrook

What fun to attend a workshop on Oriental Painting on Friday. Below are a few of the samples our instructor, Linda Lashbrook brought for us. The samples definitely inspired us.  
In the morning we worked on perfecting painting fish. Notice I said worked on. It takes years to master the complexities within the simple brush strokes. Loading the brush with several strengths of pigment at once results in brush markets that flow from light to dark. For us beginners we loaded our brushes with a medium strength of colour and tipped it with a thicker strength. Even this gave us a little variation within the brush stroke!
After painting schools and schools of fish, we felt more confident to attempt the bamboo, of course only after we had had  step by step instructions from Linda.

Oriental Painting Lesson
Instructor: Linda Lashbrook
 

Linda Lashbrook giving us a demonstration of the various brush strokes.

At the end of the day Linda demonstrated a blossoming tree. Something for us to aspire to painting.

My attempt at bamboo on rice paper.
Although Oriental Painting is traditionally done on rice paper or silk fabric, I thought as I mostly paint with dyes on cotton fabric, I would try that at home the next day. Below are two samples one in black and one in dark blue. I love painting the fish tails! The following were painted on soda soaked fabric and are now curing in plastic sheeting. After rinsing, I am imagining them quilted with some echo stitching of the same motifs.
At home I practiced the Oriental Painting on Cotton Fabric.
 

Six small blocks with fish and bamboo motifs on Cotton Fabric. Note the brushes with the thickened dye on the plate palette.

3 comments:

Win Dinn, Artist said...

What fun is that! I love the look of this style on the fabric, and can see some terrific possibilities there for you, Eileen!

Laura Leeder said...

These are wonderful Eileen. It's hard to imagine that these pieces are your first attempt's! I'm curious about the red signature. Is that a stamp or done by hand?

Watercolour and Textile Artist, Eileen Gidman said...

The red stamp is for a signature. It can be a carved stamp. For us beginners we put our initials after in the red box. It makes quite a statement doesn't it.