River Gorge

A small work depicting the Yangtse River Gorge   The brushwork emulates that of Fu Baoshi, famous for his "splayed bristle" 散鋒 technique in his brushwork. 乱麻皴。

Towering cliffs,  boat traffic, temples, villages... are characteristic features of the traditional gorge.

(A better copy of the painting is in Google+ as follows)
https://plus.google.com/104810833786391031500/posts/FoNgFhf8Rdu

Another village modeled after village of France

Here's another village inspired by villages of France, set alongside a river.

Special places

Monastery perched on top of an impossible precipice -- Meteora in Greece.

Beautiful French villages 2

In painting a village,  it is not easy to come up with a natural and esthetic arrangement of houses.   It helps to have a real village as a reference.   The beautiful villages of France provide such a model.  The village houses can then be set in an even more imposing landscape...

Beautiful French villages 1

France has the most beautiful villages.  The traditional houses in a natural setting inspires painterly expression and a feeling of harmony between humans and Nature.

Mount Baker Visit

Artist Point is open!  Last time we went, the place was under thick snow, and the road was impassible.  This time we finally were able to get there.  Wow, it is worth the wait.  It is essentially a high saddle point between Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan.  You can see both!  Baker is like a snowball, almost completely glacier-covered, except for a few ridges.  Shuksan is like jagged fangs, with multiple peaks rising sharply from the glaciers.  A hanging glacier is clearly visible.  Very impressive.  To the north, we can see a great expanse of lower mountain peaks and ridges, but the most impressive are in the distance, near the U.S./Canadian border.  The American Border Peak rises high as a skewed blade.  The Canadian Border Peaks look like a vertical screen, with jagged tops.  It is amazing how vertical the sides of those peaks are.   Next to them are more sharp and vertical peaks.  Towards the south, the ridges are very far away, presumably part of the Cascades.

A minor correction, we actually had trouble seeing Baker for quite a while, because of consistent cloud cover.  We only managed to see it on our last day.  Luckily, we were able to witness it in the twilight.  Then, a slight fog was present and the details were obscured somewhat, and the whole western scene was like a watercolor painting.  Shuksan, however, were in and out of clouds throughout.  We admired it every chance we got.

Waves on Calm Waters

Waves on Calm Waters, a photo by Paul&Siu on Flickr.

Chinese landscape painting is referred to as "mountain-water" in Chinese.   Clearly water is an important element.   Water serves many functions.  A calm lake can expand the space, and calm the mind as in the current picture.  
Here,  the lake is calm, but not a still calm.  We can tell from the reflections.  As there are minor waves in the water,  the reflections of the shore objects are broken up, as in the boat's mast.  Near the shore, the water is rendered by a series of "dragging" strokes, pointy at both ends and wider in the middle.   A few of them together gives the idea of calm waves.
For the shore in the foreground, we use similar strokes to provide the water.  These are like reflections of the sky.  Reflections of the rocks themselves require a more definite form.  This is done by a sideways application of the brush. 
The composition leads the eye to the far shore overshadowed by high mountains.  A classic "mountain-water" idea.