Guilin...

I do not think my words can begin to do this justice, so i offer photos:

(click on view album to see the slide show larger)

View Album

Get your own

Guilin!

Change of plans...Jessica and i are going to Guilin for 5 days.

Hopefully an adventure awaits and photos upon my return.

Hasta

Mid Autumn Festival

Tonight the Mid Autumn Festival was celebrated.  There was a talent show put on by the freshmen and everyone ate mooncake.  There were fireworks everywhere and no school tomorrow.  It was quite the celebration and many of the students went to their home towns to visit their families.

The village

the never ending still life...

Shenanigans

I think landscape painting in China may be more difficult than i anticipated.  Genetic defects make some predators albino and ruin their chances of survival.  Their prey see them coming from long distances and evade capture.  They usually end up malnourished or die.  I am the awkward albino in this landscape.  I sat out to paint by a temple in front of the water.  I was doing a small landscape painting for about four hours, that should have taken me two.  I think in some odd masochistic way i will miss being the freak show celebrity here.  People's curiosity lead them to me.  To talk, to stare, to ask, to try to befriend.  In a way it is flattering, but unproductive.  It is really difficult to draw in public, when the public is staring at you.  It is a hard to compose when six people ask to take photos with you.  Difficult to concentrate when two people want to be your friend for the sole purpose of practicing their english and seeking information on how to go to the states.  

I smile and abide.

Some photo seekers...

little paintings that keep me occupied...top right is the one i did today

::peace sign and smiles::

Second week...

Hola hola,

The second week is coming to a close.  It has been raining quite a bit and i have never heard thunder like this.  Its cracks and rumbles hurt my ears.  We are still working on our still life in class.  He is having us cover the canvas in desaturated colors and we are blocking in.  He strongly encourages the use of liquin to thin out the paint and glazing.  We have one more week with Professor Xie, then we will have a new instructor in our studio.  One of the recent familiar sounds i hear in the morning, during class, and night are the marching soldiers.  Every college student in China has to serve in a two week military program in their first year of college.  It is grueling and they go all day long.

Freshman orientation

Jessica and i have also been frequenting downtown Guangzhou trying to get our residency figured out.  In order for it all to go through, we had to get physicals through China.  Luckily with our American physical check ups we only had to have blood drawn and an chest x-ray.

Street performers

Jess laughing at the stares she gets

we just had to go to Starbucks...

One more week of this class, then we will have a 7 day break.  Our next conquest is Xi'an.  Our friend Sophia is taking us for the week.  It is one of the main tourist attractions in China and houses the Terra Cotta Soldiers.  I am pretty excited.

Hasta

First week of school is up!

Hola Hola,

Jessica and I survived the first week!  We have not started painting yet, but have or canvases prepped and ready for action.  This studio is very concerned with the process and doing everything exact from the beginning in order to have a beautiful smooth painting.  One of things i found quite odd was the addition of oil into their gesso.  They do not buy buckets of wet gesso like in America, rather mix their own latex, powders, and water.  On the last coat of gesso, he added black ink and oil into the mixture.  It goes against the whole oil should not be mixed with water and latex that i learned back home, but i am here to learn, so i abided.  Today i am going to finish my preliminary drawing to show Professor Xie tomorrow.

Professor Xie showing us the mixtures...

The gesso that we created

Our beautiful still life i will be investigating for the next three weeks

Everyone chose their own still life...this duck is amazing

quack

quack

Yesterday we spent all day at Chime Long Water Park.  It was a unique lesson in humility.  Everywhere i go, i get stares.  My visit to the water park further escalated this awe in the Chinese people.  Being over six feet tall, hairy, bearded, tan (by comparison), and light eyed is everything these people never see.  I get wows from people just walking through the park.  I received cheers when sliding down one of the large water slides.  Mind you this is my first visit to a water park and i do not quite know how things work.  The next water slide i went on was larger and i went down feet first without a mat.  I was gifted a chlorine water enema from the high speed.  Live and learn.  After my unpleasant blunder a huge thunderstorm hit and sent us all running.  We ventured home eventually and i slept for about 12 hours.  Now i am off to draw!

Stormy

Very stormy

pool with Winnie and Alex

Smiles

Bye!

Internet!

Hey all,

My main source of internet lately has been sitting out on my balcony stealing internet from a neighbor.  It stopped working on Monday and just kicked up again, so I am out on my balcony once again.  We are getting DSL installed in our rooms next week for a more reliable connection.  We have had a wonderful week and have started classes.  Jessica and I are in Studio 1 with Alex and Winnie (Possibly the cutest couple ever).  Studio one is the most traditional oil painting studio in GAFA.  There are five studios total, 1 being the most traditional and 5 being the most contemporary and modern oil painting studio.  Based on the professor's lecture and slide show he made it readily apparent that studying with Yu Ji has instilled the "Northern Style."  Here at GAFA all the students have a high level of technical skill and are very talented.  They draw very smooth and paint with many glazes.  I find their work quite beautiful, but have grown to love what Yu Ji has taught us.  Although i have his teachings in my head, i am here to learn and i am quite excited to try their style.  Our first assignment is a three week long still life.

This is the view from Studio 1...the building at the end are our dorms.  Not to far of a walk.

This is the inside of Studio 1

Professor Xie teaching us how to stretch a canvas.  He is starting us out from the very bottom, and teaching us all the simple details.

Another exciting bit of news is that Jessica and I purchased a washing machine.  It was about 100 dollars and it is now situated between our rooms in the outside hallway.  I am quite excited about having it...because i am lazy and will try to evade washing my clothes by hand.  We bought it used and had to barter with the man, then he kindly delivered it on the back of his motorcycle.

Waiting on the washing machine...

Shrimp vendor on the street

beautiful rubble...

This man has the right idea...

this friend just dropped in out of a tree...

the marquee glowing in my window at night

MY NEW BABY!

I now introduce you to my new love...this is my Holga 120.  It is a cheap plastic 120 mm toy camera.  Its a very simple device that produces pictures with distortion, vignetting, and colored flash goodness.  Since its 120 mm it produces really high quality beautiful photos.  It was initially made in Hong Kong and is still produced here in China.  If you would like to read more about this sweet little piece, then check out:

http://www.lomography.com/holga/

Hasta