Painting in Beijing

After a little over a month in Shanghai, we took a night train to Beijing.  In Beijing I discovered a beautiful lake near our new apartment, which was filled with lotuses and swans.  This place became an inspiration to me.  The first thing I painted in Beijing was a plein air of a lotus pond.  I made a small painting box out of cardboard, taped my tiny canvas to it, sat on a rock and began painting.

"Lotus," oil on canvas, 4"x 4," 2012

I was also inspired by the swans in the nearby lake.  One day on a walk I noticed swan feathers floating in the water and laying on the dock.  I couldn't get to the feathers, since the dock was fenced off from the walkway, but a few days later I saw the swan keeper down on the dock taking care of the swans.  I didn't speak Chinese and he didn't speak English, so I gestured to a feather on the dock and tried to indicate that I wanted him to pass it up to me.  I had become pretty good at charades by this point, and he eventually understood and passed me up the tiny delicate feather.  I walked home excitedly and immediately began painting it. 

"Swan Feather," oil on canvas, 8"x 8," 2012

"Fallen Feather II," oil on linen, 16"x 16," 2012

Art supplies were incredibly inexpensive and high quality in China and I began painting on these beautiful 16"x 16" square linen surfaces.  I was also taking some time in China, so far away from my regular life, to process some of my life events.  My work began to reflect this introspection, and some of my paintings became allegorical expressions of my journey so far.  I did the painting "Spinning" from my imagination, of me spinning in a sports field.  I was happy with the way it was working out almost immediately, so I put it aside and did a study of the spinning figure.  I intend to do this painting large-scale as one of my thesis paintings at The New York Academy of Art this year.

Spinning," oil on linen, 16"x 16," 2012

"Spinning Figure Study," oil on linen, 16"x 16," 2012

"They're Talking About my Death," oil on linen, 16"x 16," 2012

"Jellyfish," oil on linen, 16"x 16," 2012

 

















Nearing the end of our time in China, we had an exhibition of Chinese and North American artists at the Can Art Center, right in the heart of the 798 gallery district, the main gallery district in Beijing.  We were impressed when we arrived and saw the big sign they had installed, with all of our names on it!  They had also made some lovely fans (which we had already become accustomed to using because it was so hot in China) with the names of all the artists in the show printed on them.  The opening reception was a wonderful evening and the exhibition was a memorable closure to our experience in China.














 

The artists in the exhibition at Can Art Center in Beijing