Improvement along the way

Whether or not I have improved in my paintings, I do find some joy in the process of painting when I can focus to accomplish the painting. Upon completion of any drawing, I find some sense of achievements.

Interestingly, the outcome was very spontaneous and very much according to the mood when it was drawn.

Many a times, I simply cannot replicate a painting I may like or has the highest number of 'like' on my Facebook posting.

Nonetheless, I tried to archive my paintings by the month of completion, Here are some I did in January 2104.

In comparison, there are some improvements achieved along the way...

It's been a while since I last updated my blog outlining my artistic journey...

Little did I realised that it is almost one year since I last updated this blog, and not adding onto this Art Gallery.

For the past few months, I am happy to see that some improvement occurs and here I can post some paintings at the beginning of 2014. With this, as my blog, it will be like a time capsule encapsulate my progress, which I hope that eventually this can be a successful journey.

Just like any other hobbies or sports, it is a matter of interest and time spent on it, that determines the outcome. If you practice more golf, you can see that you handicap reduced.

In painting, the more I get used to my paint brush and the colours. the more confident I become of splashing the colours onto the rice papers....

By end of 2013, here are some of my earlier paintings:

Peonies have been my favourite flower among the many flower taught by the teacher. It was into my 3rd session of painting lessons, so it mean, even if I didn't skip any lessons, I will have taken some 24 lessons in total.....not bad for a novice student in Chinese Ink painting.

 The Lotus is another challenging flowers, in my earlier re-collection as reflected in my post in July 2013...

“The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud — the obstacles of life and its suffering. … The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter what our stations in life. … Whether we have it all or we have nothing, we are all faced with the same obstacles: sadness, loss, illness, dying and death. If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom, more kindness and more compassion, we must have the intention to grow as a lotus and open each petal one by one. ” 

Indeed, this journey of painting does allow me to understand that seemingly a simple flower like lotus, it is not easy to capture their energetic essence to accord them with life!
Nonetheless, as compared to my painting back in July, I think the flowers do look like lotus...will still need to work harder!

Drawing Shan Shui 山水画的基本工

We learned the fundamental spontaneous technique to draw scenery (山水）, an essential part of Chinese brush painting. However, it was made known to us that many artists choose to master either drawing scenery or life (flowers, insect, birds and fishes) - 写生。

Here is my first painting of a scenery depicting a maple tree perching on a cliff with mountain terrains as back drop. A fisherman rolling the boat along the river brings a tranquil mood.

我们学会了基本写意风景画功（山水），中国画其中一种基本组成部分，然而，许多艺术家只选择掌握绘图风景（山水）或生活写生（花卉，昆虫，鸟类和鱼类）。

这是我第一次画的山水风景,描绘枫树栖息在悬崖上与山岳地形为背景。渔民沿江摇动着船，带来了一个宁静的心境。

I actually tried to incorporate both technique in my new attempt and this is what came out. Combining the 3 types of flowers that blossom in Spring, with the mountain terrain as back drop, I hope to bring a dash of fresh spring energies (春意)。This picture reflects the perfect harmony of nature, although all flowers are at the perfect bloom, this is a reflection of co-existence in nature.

我试图把这两者的技术结合。三种类型的花朵，同时盛开在春天，随山势地形，我希望能带来几许清新春天里的能量（春意）。这幅画反映了大自然的完美和谐，全部的花朵能完美的绽放，反映了一种在自然界共同存在的美丽的景象。

Flowers in nature are not concern if they are prettier than other, they merely live through a bloom, and to nurture the next generation. They may not have a mind of their own, but they own birth right is to be able to reflect their best bloom in their time, no conflicts, no higher expectation, no desire. 

However, as human being we will always succumb to desire, temptation and fall into anxiety, this prevented us to present our natural beautiful self. 

As the Heart Sutra highlighted:

"In emptiness, there is no form;

No sensation, no thoughts, no impulse, no consciousness;

No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind...."

So if the mind is free from (self inflicted) hindrance and obstruction, there will be no fear and therefore no need to succumb to desires and temptations. A very profound advise!

花在大自然是不会关注要比其他的花更漂亮，它们仅仅经过盛放而活的，孕育着下一代。也却未必有自身的心灵，但他们拥有与生俱来的权利，就是能够反映他们最佳盛放的时间，没有任何冲突，没有任何较高的期望，无欲。

然而，作为人类，我们会一直屈从于欲望，诱惑，堕入焦虑，阻碍我们展现我们自然美丽的自我。正如“心经”强调：

“是故空中无色，无受想行识;

无眼，耳，鼻，舌，身，心......“

因此，如果心是无妨碍和阻碍，就不会有恐惧，因此没有必要屈服于欲望和诱惑。这是一个非常深刻的劝告！

The humbling experience in Chinese Painting

I realised that this journey of learning how to paint has been very humbling.

For a long time, there isn't many people will dare to tell that I have done something incorrect.

While I am enjoying the learning process of painting, largely because I was able to regain my new interest to pursue painting. Just recently, a long time friend ( a class mate in my secondary school) also complimented that my paintings are nice and have a tint of western (water colour) style. Also there are friends who paid for my paintings as I told many of them that they can sponsor my community outreach project in Laos by buying my paintings! Many of my friends also commented and liked my postings of my paintings over Facebook.

These actually for once took me to 'Cloud Nine'!

I thought that my drawings have reached a certain 'standard' and started to dream that I can succeed and become an accomplished artist soon!

When I showed my teacher Mr Lin Luzai the painting of my Heavenly Bliss in our last lesson, although he did said the colour was right, but there were flaws. He patiently shared his experiences co-relating to what nature actually is in contrast to my paintings. Although the technique is known as 'spontaneous' form of Chinese brush painting, the perspective and 'logic' of the contend must not deviate from what is being offer in nature.

A revelation that we have not been observant to our mother nature, and that I am too self-centred (that I am already there) brings me back to this world!

我才意识到这个学习如何画画的旅程非常令人谦卑。

长期以来，如有我做了一些不正确的决定，也没有多少人敢告诉我。

虽然我很享受学习绘画过程中，这主要是因为我能够重新找回自己想追求绘画的兴趣。就在最近，有个老朋友（在我读中学的同学）也称赞我的画很不错，色调有西方（水彩的颜色）风格。也有朋友以赞助我在老挝的社区外展项目买我的画！我的许多朋友也通过Facebook中意我的画。

实际上，这些已经将我带我'到‘达九霄云外'！

我幻想，我的画已经达到了一定的'标准'，并开始梦想，我很快能成功并很快成为一个多才多艺的艺术家！

当我拿给老师林禄在先生评这幅画时，虽然他说颜色光泽是正确的，但也有许多瑕疵。他耐心地分享他的经验，讨论有关的自然现象。虽然这技术是所谓的写意画，但也必须根据形式，透视和“逻辑”的角度，必须不偏离大自然的规律来发挥。

这个启示，让我了解到我们还没有细心的观察我们的大自然，而我也过于以自我为中心，这经验将我带回了这个世界！还要多多练习。

This is life! 

When someone didn't dispute your thoughts, it does not mean you are right. For many of us who are in a supervisory role, your subordinates may not dare to dispute your viewpoints, but that does not make you 100% right.

In analogy to my painting experiences, my friends are surprise that I can take up painting and starting to make sense of the colours and mustering of the brushes and the rice paper. Their encouragement are in the form of liking my posting of Facebook and blogs, most of them will view it in one dimension, from someone who once have no clue of using a paint brush to someone who can 'abstractly' paint a complete picture!

For me, this is a lesson learnt that irregardless of how great one can be, there will be someone greater, no matter how good you are, there will always be someone better than you. There is no need to feel that you are at Cloud Nine, as there are always new lessons to learn from someone.

这就是人生！

当没有人质疑你的想法时，这并不意味着你是正确的。我们当中有很多都担任监管角色，你的下属可能不敢质疑你的观点，但是，这并不代表你是100％对的。

对于我来说，吸取了这一个教训，无论你有多伟大，也将会有人比你更了不起，不管你是多么好，总是会有人比你更好。人生是没有必要感到你位于九霄云外，总会有向别人学习新的经验和教训。一山还有一山高啊！

Heavenly Bliss 富贵神仙图

I have always love to paint Narcissus. It never fail to bring a smile in my face whenever I finish a painting of the flower, which blossom in Spring. It means whenever I see an nice picture of it, I will relate to the happy mood of Chinese New Year. Peony is also a flower that blossom during late winter and Spring and often seen as a flower that bloom during Spring, and appears in many New Year greeting as it relate to prosperity (富贵).

Very often in Chinese brush painting, combining both of these flowers together, it depicts heavenly bliss. A blissful mood when the fairies dancing within a peony garden. If you do a search on the website, you will find many opainting under '富贵神仙图'.

I tried to create the heavenly feeling by painting the following:

我一直喜欢画画水仙。每当我完成一幅画水仙花，它总是让我的脸上带着微笑。

水仙盛开在春天。这意味着每当我看到一副漂亮的水仙图，我就会想象过新年快乐的心情。牡丹花，也盛开于晚冬和春季，常常被看作是一朵在春天花盛开的花，，因为它出现在许多新年时相关祝福（富贵）。

很多时候，在中国画，这两种花组合在一起时，它能描绘天堂般的幸福。仙女在牡丹花园里跳舞时，幸福的心情，。如果你在网站上搜索，你会发现很多类似的“富贵神仙图”画。

我也尝试画神仙图，来创建这天堂般的感觉：

借鉴净空法师的法语： 

有书真富贵 无事小神仙

I do hope that when you do visit this page, you can also feel the vibrant mood in this painting. In contrast, here is one that I painted some time back when I first started, and incidentally the one above is twice the size of my one below (720 x 460 mm)

An expression of Mid Autumn 中秋的感想

Mid Autumn festival had just passed by, and incidentally we had painting lesson on that festive day. Teacher Lin Luzai mentioned that chrysanthemum flowers actually blossom during mid autumn in sub-tropical countries such as China. It is therefore a flower representing autumn season.

Having a cup of tea in hand, looking up at the full moon during mid autumn, it is a season of reunion of families. The fragrance of the blossoming flower enhance the happy mood of mid autumn.

中秋节刚过，那一天，我们有绘画课。林禄在老师提到，实际上在温带国家，菊花绽放在秋季。它代表秋季盛开的花卉。

一杯茶在手，望着圆圆的月亮，在中秋节期间，也是家庭团聚的季节。朵朵菊花的香味提升中秋愉快的心情。

From these 2 paintings, I think I will need to practise my hand writing with brushes in order to compliment my painting.

Having the mood to paint chrysanthemum, I painted another painting 2 nights ago, this time I attempted to combine 2 beautiful flowers typically grown in the wild. I am happy that some of my friends gave me some thumbs up for the following painting.

从这些画，我想我需要多练习我的书法，以美化我的画。

前两晚有心情画菊花时，我试图描绘另一幅作品，当时，我试图结合两种美丽的花朵，通常生长在野外的菊花和野菊花， 完成了以下的画。我很高兴，得到了一些朋友的恭维。

Although the flowers are found mainly in the wild, they did their best to blossom in order to attract the bees in order for them to continue spreading the pollen and growing, knowing that they will wither as they age. Just like human life cycle, we were born, grow up and eventually die. While we are alive, we actively pursue what we deem fit for our material life. 

The lesson we can learn from these wild flowers, is to be able to live today and be grateful to our root.  As human being, we have a mind to understand that our root will wither, without them we will not be blossoming. Human life is unlike the wild flowers, we get to live with the root before they wither, it a blessing to be able to appreciate and treasure our roots, without them, we will not exist!

这花主要是在野外中找到，虽然知道它们会枯萎，它们还尽心尽力绽放以吸引蜜蜂，以便它们继续传播花粉，并让下一代 继续生长。就像人的生命周期，我们出生，长大，并最终死亡。尽管我们健在活着，我们积极追求的是什么，也就是我们视为适宜供我们的的生命的物质上的享受。

也许I我们可以借鉴这些野花的教训，就是能够以活在今天为本！并感谢我们的根。作为人类，我们会有自己的正念，要明白，我们的根会枯萎，没有他们，我们将不会成长。人的生命是不像野生的花朵，我们能和我们的根枯萎之前一起生活的，能够感激和好好珍惜我们的根，没有他们，我们将不存在！

无论人能有多成功，多富有，都有根。如能珍惜眼前人，就有福报！一个人的福报有多少，是可以由自己决定的！

Wallpaper for my mobile phone

Interestingly, I extracted some of my painting and created a personalised wallpaper for my iPhone, and they all look nicer than the paintings itself. What a motivation to better my painting as I moved on to like Chinese Ink Painting Here are some variations of the wallpapers.

Back to basic

Last night, after a business trip to Kuala Lumpur, reached home and having the urge to start painting at 10pm. While deciding what to draw, upon laying out the table, I decided to revise how to draw lotus and also to go back to basic and paint bamboo, one of the 4 gentlemen in Chinese Painting.

The mood was right, and here's what came out of last night painting.

昨晚，出差到吉隆坡回来后，在晚上回到家，十点左右有开始画画的冲动。于是决定练习画中国画中四君子之一，竹子。奠定后，我也决定练习如何绘制荷花。在轻松的心情下，我完成了五幅画，以下就是昨晚画出来。

Having accomplished these paintings, I felt that the time is well spent in the polishing on my brush skills, catching up an 'almost' lost passion of mine, that is to be able to paint!

Following that I had a good sleep knowing that I can now spend a little more time to catch up my passion to paint.

在完成这些画后，我觉得把时间花在练习我的绘画技巧是很实用，对一个“几乎”失去了对绘画的热情，让我现在重新点燃画画的热情！

现在我可以有一个良好的睡眠，我知道，我也可多花一点时间赶上我作画的爱好。

Spontaneous painting of Meihua

Spontaneously 2 nights ago, I started to painting and the following painting came around. This seems to be one of my best art piece that I felt that it is pretty. I cropped it and now it is a wallpaper on my iPhone. A beautiful original piece of painting.

Indeed, a lighter mood and inspiration does affect the painting as it can reflect directly the liveliness and the brilliant within the painting. Maybe that is the reason why even renowned artist may not be able to re-produce their own art piece. 

Learning from this, maybe as a person, if we can all stay in a light mood, we can all interact and understand each other better. I still like to focusing aspect in all my paintings sessions.

Hope you do like this piece of art piece that I personally love!

前晚，我很随意的绘画，在一个轻松的心情和灵感的影响下，完成了这似乎是我最好的艺术作品之一。现在它已是我的iPhone的一面壁纸。一个美丽的原作。

这幅画直接反映的活力和颜色的灿烂。也许这就是连著名艺术家也无法重新制作他们自己的艺术作品的关键理由。

也许当作为一个人生哲学，如果我们都可以保留在一个轻松的心情，我们都可以更好地相互理解并互动。

希望你喜欢做这件艺术作品！

To draw or not to draw?

Nowadays, I will constantly feel the urge to lay out my drawing table and start painting whenever I have the time at home, spending lesser time watching TV although still very essential that we have our meals together as a family. A family tradition that I had uphold and told my kids that whenever they are free, we are to have dinner together. Whether my son gets home early from school, daughters coming home at different timings from work. we will wait for my wife to whip up a sumptuous dinner and eat altogether with my parents,  so we can all spend quality time and to relate to each other our ongoing activities

Yes indeed, I do find myself allotting more time to practise my painting, along the way, researching the structures of the flowers that I will draw, some favourites such as Peony, Narcissus and Plum Blossom.

It is interesting to know that Plum Blossom starts to flower in cold-winter, typically around January until late February. There are numerous species and colours, include, white, pink and red. Interesting the leaves will only unfold when the petals start to fall, and follow with fruits (梅子). One may wonders if there are differences between Plum Blossom and Cherry Blossom (Sakura) as they look the same. based on what I can find from the website, there are fundamental differences:

• Plum - petals more oval, flowers on short-stalked , with one or two at each bud.
• Cherry - petals more rounded, mostly notched, flowers on longer-stalked, and several in a cluster from each bud.

The Plum Blossom trees can grow for a long time, ancient trees can be found throughout China. In my earlier blogs, I had already mentioned about the structures of Plum Blossom, and over the last weekend and yesterday, I managed to paint the following 3 pieces of paintings.

现在，每当我有在家的时，我会不断感受到要摊开我的绘图桌的冲动，开始绘画，我现在也花较少的时间看电视，

但我有一个家庭的传统，就是作为一个家庭在一起吃饭，依然非常重要的。 我很坚持并告诉我的孩子们，每当他们有空时，我们要一起吃晚饭。无论是我的儿子提早放学回家，女儿们在不同的时刻回家。我们会等待我的妻子煮了一顿丰盛的晚餐，和我的父母一起吃。同时可以共度美好时光，也能够参与和相互关联正在进行的活动。

的确，我发现自己已支配更多的时间来练习画画，如梅花，牡丹和水仙。

梅花通常在寒冷的冬季开始开花，通常在一月左右，直到2月下旬。有无数种颜色，包括白，粉红和曙红色。有趣的是叶子会在花瓣开始脱落时展开，并结果（梅子）。

梅花和樱花之间的差异很微小，虽然他们看起来是一样的结构，但有着根本的差异：

• 梅花 - 花瓣椭圆,花矮杆
• 樱桃 - 花瓣更加圆润，大多缺口,花长杆

梅花树可以活很长一段时间，古老的树木，可以在整个中国发现。在我以前的博客中，我提到梅花的结构，在上周末和昨天，我就画了以下三幅画梅花图。

A rose that looks like a rose...

After a few more practises, I managed to get my paintings of roses to start looking like roses as follows:

经过几次实践，我画的玫瑰开始像样了，也达到像玫瑰花形如下：

Getting the hang of Chinese brush painting, I realised that during the painting process, I was able to focus on the single subject, attempting to do a nice painting. There are indeed some therapuetic benefits, definitely not allowing our monkey minds to drift.

I heard of friends saying that getting to love Chinese painting, it may enhance one's inner character and may become more patient too, hmmm, I shall look forward to be at peace with myself, and find more patience to get by with future artistic life.

渐入画中国画的佳境时，我意识到，在绘画过程中，我能够专注于单一的主题，试图完成一个幅漂亮的画。有让心灵集中的效益，绝不能允许我们的意识漂移。

我的朋友曾经说过，如喜欢上绘中国画，它可以提升一个人的内在性格，并可能会变得更有耐心，嗯，我期待着自己能够找到更多的耐心，以内心的平静，来享受自己未来丰富艺术的生活。

Drawing roses, a flower that is very much favoured in arts.

玫瑰在艺术领域被倾慕，在绘画，插图和建筑结构时经常出现。玫瑰是漂亮的观赏花卉，许多品种提供了几乎所有的颜色，粉红色，红色，白色，淡紫色，黄色和其他鲜艳颜色。

老师演示画这幅画的时候，很能展现颜色和色调自然的形成深浅度在纸的纤维里。当我试图绘制的玫瑰，根本达不到我的老师所能够产生的。这里有一些初步的失误。

Roses are favoured in arts, appears in paintings , illustration and at time on architectural structures. Roses are pretty ornamental flowers, with many species offering almost every colours, pink, red, white, lilac, yellow and many others.

The painting when demonstrated by teacher, was very enchanting to see the colours and shades forming naturally into the paper fibre. When I tried drawing roses, nothing was close to what my teacher was able to produce. Here are some initial blunders.

他们看起来不像玫瑰。我尝试了用更多的时间和练习了和费掉许多宣纸，至少有了一些改进如下：

None of them look like rose. Tried a few more time and many dispensed rice paper, at least some improvement as follows:

经过多次实践，现在至少我可以控制颜色深度的效果，现在稍为能分辨得到正确的形状和花瓣。

After  more practises, at least I can control the smirching of the colour to produce some shades and depths of colours, now only to get the shape and petals correctly.

以下是一幅比较好的一幅玫瑰画：

One of the best rose painting after many practises as follows:

Well, getting one out of three roses pretty is definitely a good achievement!