Chinese, Calligraphy and Ink Painting​

Chinese characters are the most elegant form of art with complex deep meanings in its formations. We learn the wisdom from our ancesters from 5000 years ago the structure of each character, proverbs or poetry around it, and practice the traditionally way I learnt with master Guo Jinming starting with 5 minutes meditation. The mastery of the brush movement will make ink painting very easy. The eyes are then also well trained for other art forms such as drawings. ​

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Week 1 Wisdom of Chinese character and basics

We study the root of Chinese character, the 6 formation methods and examples of wisdom embedded within (such as "Virtue" 德, which is constructed as over all ten directions there are eyes over looking your heart, 5000 years before Sigmund Freud's conscious self). We learn about how to make the brush extension of your hand, very similar as piano techniques. We study and practice one of the eight basic strokes.

Week 2 Style and basic strokes

We see how personality is reflected in the character of calligraphy masters from 1000 year ago and their unique styles. We study the structure of a simple stroke characters, the relationship between them and practice another basic stroke. We try out similar brush method for an ink painting from Master Qi Baishi.

Week 3 Strokes, repetition and changes

We focus our study from the Yan style from now, the most solid and foundation of all later works. We look at strokes and the treatment of variations. We look at poetry and music to see the rythem and repetitions, and how to reach a balance between that and change.

Week 4 Other strokes and the balance

We study the structure of a group of characters and how balance is reached like harmony in society. We practice the other basic strokes and get comfortable with the brush control. We try out similar brush method for an ink painting from Master Wu Guanzhong.

​Week 5  Structure

We look in depth the different types of the structure to construct the character, the usual meanings based on the construction. We practice writing more complexed characters and pay attention to the structure.

​Week 6 Composition and proverbs

We look at composition of calligraphy art works and study some frequently written proverbs, the meaning behind them and why reason for the composition. We will make calligraphy artwork of Chinese proverbs ourselves. 

​Week 7 Later style and ink painting

We look at the later style in calligraphy and famous ink paintings, and their common techniques. We will notice ink painting will come at ease with calligraphy training. We try out a few ink painting from Master Wu Guanzhong and Xu Beihong.