- Nov 11, 2019

Immersed in Art

Updated: Dec 4, 2019

August 31 – September 27, 2019

CCACC Art Gallery held the group exhibition, entitled "Immersed in Art" exhibit 36 artworks by the members of CCACC Art Club of Ink Paintings and Calligraphy, and Chinese Landscape Painting Class at the Art Club from August 31st, 2019 to September 27th, 2019. The opening reception scheduled on Saturday, August 31st, 2019 from 2 pm to 4 pm.

CCACC Art Club of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Art Exhibition, all the VIPs gathering at the opening reception.

From left: Li-Wen Quach, Freda Lee-McCann, Nellie Chao, Chih-Hsiang Li, Kit-Keung Kan. Front: Rita Lewi.

CCACC Art Club of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy

Dr. Kit-Keung Kan, Instructor 靳杰強導師

Established and headed by volunteer instructor Kit-Keung Kan, the Art Club is for artists who wish to further their success in Chinese painting and calligraphy, and for people who have no previous learning experience, but like to try their hands on this unique art form of the East. The club set out to achieve these goals by holding classes that treat the fundamentals and advanced techniques in these are genres.

The calligraphy classes are directed by Kit-Keung Kan who teaches all of the five major scripts, i.e. the seal 篆, scribe 隸, cursive 草, standard 楷 and semi-cursive 行 scripts. In paintings, Kan and another noted painter, Freda Lee-McCann李澄華direct the class to study Landscape painting through example of old masters. In the past, the club studied paintings by 范寬、郭熙、夏圭、吳鎮、黃公望、文徵明、陳淳、石濤、石谿、弘仁、朱耷、龔賢、張大千、傳抱石、王己千.... etc. From their work the basic techniques, like the bone method of strokes, Cun texturing, composition and aesthetic concepts are studied and discussed. The instructors also conduct outdoor sketch sessions after the students grasped the basic techniques. Artistic development of individual students is emphasized.

Since the club was established in CCACC sixteen years ago, many of our members have held exhibitions, participated in open competitions, won distinguished prizes, served the community by holding demos and workshops. The club shows the members' work in CCACC annual Lunar New Year celebrations every year and arranges public exhibitions once in a few years.

The exhibition is the third comprehensive and public exhibition for the club. Special thank are extended to our juror Mr. Jianjun Zhong President of Lanting Association of Painting, Guangzhou, China, who helped selecting the artworks and the honorable mentioned pieces in this show.

Kit-Keung Kan, Instructor, 靳杰强導師 作品

Falling Water CI 瀑流一 O 一

題詩 Inscribed poem

太古班芙雪 The snow and ice from the ancient eras

冰融注瀑泉 Melt to feed the waterfall.

傾洋破壁下 It clashes down to crack the cliff like the ocean is tipped,

狂舞到君前 And dances fervently towards you, my dear!

Falling Water CVII 瀑流一O七

題詩 Inscribed poem

清泉各有姿 The waterfalls are beautiful in all different ways.

或叠或如絲 Some are cascades and others, strands of silk.

坐此幽崖底 As I sat at the bottom of this secluded cliff,

寛襟打稿時 It's the time to loosen my collar and sketch.

"Wish to go to South Ocean and ride on the whales" 「欲濟南溟駕巨鯨」

in cursive script草書

"Immersed in Art" 「游于藝」

in clerical script 隸書

Chinese Landscape Painting Class at the Art Club

Freda Lee-McCann, Instructor 李澄華導師

The CCACC Art Club is a class in which students of all levels can learn to both appreciate and to actually do Chinese Landscape painting. Our goal is to expose the students to classical landscape paintings by masters whose works date from the Southern Sung dynasty (ca. 1100 AD) to the present.

The essential elements in the study of Chinese landscape painting are very different from Western landscape painting, since Chinese painting is derived from calligraphy. The lines made by brushes on rice paper and the usage of ink are the absolute essential; unlike Western painting for which colors and perspective are the primary ingredients.

In Chinese landscape painting there is no perspective or vanishing point concept; so, one has to create movement in the painting and invite the viewers on a journey to the inner world of the artist’s mind. The paintings are not about the “true” appearance of nature but, rather, the “spirit” of it. The three-dimensional illusion is not formed by static shapes and forms in the same way as in “Western painting; instead, it is created by the apparent movement of the forms with light and shadows that result from multiple light sources, which, in truth, lead the eye through the painting.

Some of the differences between Chinese landscape paintings and Western paintings are: colors and perspective are not as important as in the Western paintings – as a result composition is much more important in Chinese painting; positive and negative spaces are equally important. Further, the placement of the forms in a painting depicts the distance from the viewer, rather than perspective.

The way to read a Chinese landscape painting is to start at eh bottom of a vertical painting. The eye is led through the painting from the bottom and eventually to the top. Students learn by watching the teachers demonstrate and by watching the teachers demonstrate and by copying the works of masters who developed this way of seeing and painting, and passed it down through many generations.

Freda Lee-McCann, Instructor 李澄華導師 作品

Whisper of the Past 遠代的細語