Bug Crisis

19 September

 TCC lessons began and we were given the 2 hours to practice before our test. I tried mixing various colours to see what I got. Miss Anita showed me how to darken my foreground in my pervious painting of the car and the building and how to create the illusion of distant in a composition. The stakes are higher this time round. Miss Anita wanted 3 thumbnail sketches , the final painting with an addition of artist statement! Can it be done?

 Lunch was light as I ate a bowl of wonton and soon the TCC test was to commence. I choose a spot at the back of the Fine arts building and started painting the scenery at a nearby public toilet. 15 minutes later into the painting, I heard the familiar buzzing sound. I smacked my right shoulder and right in the center of my palm was a mosquito.  I whipped out my tiger balm mosquito repellent and sprayed at my limbs praying that the mosquitos would not feed on me any more. The bug crisis did not end, soon after the mosquitoes left, a wasp appeared and I found it most particular as it landed on my shirt and kept following me around. It was hard to paint and I kept one eye on the hovering wasp in fear that it would attack me. It left after 10 mins and as I sprayed my mosquito repellent once more, the wasp appeared again. That was went it stuck me, the wasp was attracted to the mosquito repellent!

 After all the drama had ended, I was finally able to concentrate on my painting. I did very quick thumbnails and started apply light washes onto my work. I applied layer after layer and soon realized that the layers had made my work too thick. It was around 4 pm already and I hurriedly finished my artist statement and made a few amendments before presenting the work to Miss Anita. It was, as I had feared, she said it looked a bit like oil painting.  It was disheartening to think that I am still not able to control the amount of paint and water in my watercolours. Sigh I still have a long way to go!

 My tummy grumbles and reminds me of the delectable Japanese curry at cultural street. Guess what I had for dinner!

Knot tying disaster!

 18 September

 In discovery channel, I frequently watch tribal females having to go through rites of womanhood.  Luckily Singapore we do not have such a culture, at least I know not of any such practices however I do know that if knot tying was one of the trails to womanhood, I would have failed badly. The basic knot was my biggest success and the second “flower knot” was a disaster. The second knot was supposed to adopt the form of a flower, however, my works were far form perfectly formed. My knots would get tangled or I would miss a step, I repeated the process many time as I again try to obtain the flower shape. My efforts were futile as I again received a shake of the head from the IS lecturer. Who knew tying Knots could be so hard?  The shape of the “W cannot be too big nor too small and the strings must not be tangled”. The lecturer frequently chanted this sentence out to me. I remembered how my strings got tangled when I did not weave it in between the specific coloured strings.  The lesson soon ended and I walked away with some understanding of the history of knot tying.  Thousands of years ago when paper did not exist the people used knots as a convenient way to record the number of livestocks or days in a month. I may not have successfully learnt knot tying as a skill, however I have learnt to appreciate it more and to recognize it as an art form that holds significant weight in the Chinese culture.

 TCC lessons were all about gearing us for tomorrows test. Miss Anita pointed out to me that on many of my exercises I have stuck to a specific composition and told me to not be afraid to try new compositions. I decide to take up the challenge and tried to paint a car and the canteen building. It did not turn out well as my painting was too watery and there did not seem to have any focus or focal point in my painting. I was very disappointed in my performance, but was comforted by the fact that luckily it was an exercise and not the initial exam. My dream is to be a concept artist and I believe that I should expose myself to all different art styles and learn as many skills as I can. Perhaps my dream job may not require this skill but my works may be inspired from these various styles.  My dream is still a long way and though my future is uncertain I still have 2 years to learn as much and as well as I can.  I cannot possible be as good as Miss Anita who has years of experience however I want to be able to produce some quality work so I can improve my portfolio.

It was time to put work aside and have a good dinner and some rest. Till next time.

Lessons resume!

17^th September

 Splashing sounds could be heard from room 1136 as the daily washing began. Since the trip to Lushan Mountain there was a lot of laundry that had to be done. The day was to begin with a quick breakfast, chores than IS lessons. In IS lesson we learned the basics of Chinese paper cutting. The lecturer was engaging and we got our creative juices working as we produced work with all our own personal designs. I initially struggled with mine, but Deepan aided me in my hour of need and it became a breeze after a few practices of folding and cutting.

 Time passed quickly and IS lessons ended. Mr Tan said that the next IS lesson would be traditional Chinese knot making!

 Lunch was a cup of Korean cup noodles and some chips washed down with clear water. TCC lesson began near the fountain of the school. Miss Anita gave a quick demonstration of the mixing of colour and usage of tone. I still find myself struggling with composition as I am still unsure of what would make the composition look more interesting.  Miss Anita was encouraging and said it takes time to refine these skills and assured me that I just need to be resilient and diligent in my work and later on, these skills would naturally be refined. Not to worry too much she said. The 3 hours past quickly and soon we had to present our work. Once again I had added too many details and instead of doing a basic wash, I had jumped into the details. My work required a bit more water as I had put to many layers, giving it a poster colour effect.  I find myself exhausted after the 3 hour painting. There were 2 things that I thought off as we walked back t o the hostel and it was the bed and dinner. Living on cup noodles is not all that pleasant and we decided to treat ourselves with a good meal of Hawaiian pizza. The pizza here has more bell peppers that were a lot spicier than Singapore’s, which was suited to my taste. However Jin Wei didn’t seem to like the vegetables overly much, I ate the vegetables and she ate the meat.   My exhaustion ebbed away as we sat in that little shop eating and chatting.  It was a homey feeling and I savored it as long as I could.  Work never seems to be done and reality soon caught after me. It was back to the hostel to finish work and chores… after a quick look at Millie (the cat) of course.  The little furball was having the time of her life as she played hide and seek with Mimi (cat owned by a waiter working at the pub).  It’s funny how such a little kitten could lift my gloom. It is hard to think that a few days ago it was a wailing kitten covered in paint. It gives me comfort to know that Millie has found a family. What else does Wuhan have in store for me I wonder?

Leaving paradise!

16^th

  It was our last day in the Lushan Mountains and in the early mornings Jin Wei and I began to pack.  We both did not wish to leave Lushan. There were many reasons. The food for one was similar to the food at home in Singapore, nothing so oily like Wuhan’s. The second was the serene scenery and the hotel that we stayed in as Jin Wei and I both adored the heated beds that kept us toasty warm when the nights were cold. We stopped by a teahouse in the morning to savour the tea that was grown up here in Lushan. The tea was a tad strong for my taste and it smelled surprising fishy too. Perhaps its because I don’t often drink tea and also I did not take a liking to the bitter taste.

 We made a move towards the temple, where we stopped to pray before making a move to the three tree ancient trees.

One ancient tree that caught my attention was a tree called “Qian Shou Guan Ying”. The surprising thing about this tree was the its branches were sloping down. One can imagine the branches as hands and thus the people gave it the name due to its unusual branches. I knew that one of the tree were ginko however I did not know what type the other two ancient tress were.  We also went to dip and wash our hands near a small river. It is said that the first wash means wealth, the second wash means health, and the third meant to have luck in gambling.  It was soon 12 and we had to make a move back to the hotel. We checked out from the hotel and down Lushan Mountain we went. 

Lunch was quick and I tasted a slice of ham (at least I thought it was ham) only to discover that it was ducks blood. It did have a particularly weird aftertaste and had a jelly texture.  The interesting thing about the restaurant that we dined in for lunch was that it’s first floor was actually a merchandise shop. The place had pretty much everything a tourist would like to buy; delicate pottery, fine china dining plates, numerous types of food and beverages, toys and bags of all shapes and sizes and enough candy to feed a classroom of children for 2 months.  Many of the OIP members bought food and chips for the long journey back to Wuhan. We were ready to set off and after a head count we shuffled up the bus and said goodbye to Jiu Jiang.

Back at Wuhan!

Dinner was quick and my famous motto, I live to eat was discarded as I quickly gulped food down and started on work and chores.  The day was exhausting and I soon found myself crawling to bed, praying that tomorrow would be less eventful.