Painting

(the finished product)

(view from the greenhouse/classroom window)

(painting)

At 9:00am Sunday morning I was taken to art class by my Brazilian friend's host sister Zhaozhao (赵曌). We studied Chinese painting along with a bunch of ten and nine year-olds. They stared at us for a good part of the class. We would just be painting at our own separate "foreigner's table" and they would walk up and stare at our faces while we painted. I thought it was silly so I started making crazy faces back at them. They either laughed, or shrank away thinking I was some kind of creep!

The painting we were taught to make is almost an exact replica of the painting the teacher gifted me last week. First he called us to the front of the classroom and explained (in Chongqing-hua, the local dialect) how to paint this particular painting. I could only understand the general meaning of what he said because Chongqing-hua is not Mandarin (but my listening comprehension is improving!). Also it helped that he painted it right in front of us, however what took him 15 minutes took us an hour!

I like Chinese painting because it is more impressionism-y and less realistic when it comes to plants and people. Lots of the leaves in my painting are not connected to branches, and the tree only has a few branches. Color also can be whatever you want most of the time. Black is used the most though.

It was a good way to start a Sunday morning. A lot of our little classmates brought their Grandmothers whom all chatted away on the rooftop garden outside of our greenhouse classroom. They were very funny, they mused at us as much as their grandchildren did.