Xi'an market

I can't believe that I forgot to post these photos! Of all the markets we visited, this was probably the most fun. I should have panned right a little here as that red Chairman Mao alarm clock was something I was very nearly tempted to buy! I liked the Chairman Mao watches too.





















Xi'an market was a strange place to come across these Iraqi playing cards. We already have a pack though, bought in Kuwait when they were still a novelty. That little silver topped jar contains Tiger Balm which someone recommended for headaches but it didn't have any noticeable effect on mine although it had a nice fragrance (probably good for the nasal passages too!) and was nice and cooling. I seemed to see it for sale everywhere after that, even here in Geneva!





















Some of those glasses looked like they were made of Bakelite!





















Sometimes it's only looking at the photos afterwards that you notice just how many interesting and bizarre things there were for sale.
















These brushes were enormous. Now I'm wondering, what was that musical instrument to the left?

Opera singers, Beijing

I really enjoyed drawing these two opera singers putting on their make-up and I'm happy with the drawing too, after a run of disappointing ones. This is also the only China drawing in which the colours look good together - the others seemed to have a mish-mash of nice and nasty. What I most enjoyed drawing though was that forearm, below! It's very subtle but you can see from the shape that the muscles are very well developed, not what we might usually expect from an opera singer, and the skin is bruised and the knuckles are red. Clearly a very physical occupation. The logo was taken from my ticket stub.

Cretacolour Aquamonoliths and Faber Castell Albrecht Durer pencils.

China - Guilin to Shanghai

At last, the final installment of the trip to China. (Click on 'China' under 'Labels' for all the previous posts). When I last left off we were in Guilin and had arrived there in a rainstorm. Arriving at the airport for our evening flight to Shanghai, it was again raining but this time the heavens opened, rain lashing against the roofs and windows of the airport with thunder and lightning for dramatic effect. Result - all flights cancelled. So we settled into the chairs (others were not so lucky) and waited. And waited. There were rumours we would be bused to a hotel for an overnight stay but eventually, at 2.30am after a seven hour wait, we were the last plane out.

Instead of a day in Shanghai and overnight in Tongli, we swapped the itinerary and (after a few hours nap at the hotel) drove straight to Tongli. It was overcast and raining, it didn't look promising!





















In the morning though, it brightened up and the place was transformed.





















We took a tour of the town in these canal boats - the group filled up all of these! Again, we passed fishermen with their performing cormorants.
















In the a little square there was a stage with some opera singers giving a performance watched by the tourists and workers. The ladies with the towels on their heads sweep the streets.





















At the end of this hectic trip, it was lovely to have time to wander around at our own pace and take everything in. There were lots of lovely run down old shops and stalls and it had a very relaxed atmosphere.












One of the little shops directly opposite our small hotel, goods for the tourist market.


















I wonder how these taste?


















Pulling sugar.





















Standing outside the hotel, it was interesting to watch the world go by!





















One of the tour guide's detours, this time to a silk factory. I had expected something much more high tech but the machines used reminded me of something Wallace and Gromit might have invented. The strands of silk were so fine it was nearly impossible to see them, just the cocoons dancing around in the water, but they are just visible here.





















A trip to an old traditional house that had belonged to a rich merchant (and I have forgotten the name of). This bonsai tree in the courtyard looked like a work of art.





















The next day in Shanghai we were free to do whatever we wanted so we went to the Jin Mao Tower to check out the view from the observation deck. The sheer size of it from the ground looking up was incredible. I've never seen anything this tall!





















And this is even taller - the Shanghai World Financial Center, almost next door! We watched some construction workers putting in plate glass windows, standing on the edge with nothing to stop them falling, reaching out to guide the huge windows in as the crane lowered them. It was quite surreal.















Wonderful views. After that we took the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel (a sort of psychedelic light show!) to the other side of the river and joined the millions of shoppers on what is called the 'No 1 commercial street in China', Nanjing Road. Funnily enough I found this much more pleasant than the visit to the shopping area of the 'old town', although this may have been because it was a Sunday and there were so many people there, there was barely room to move! At the end of the day, for our last meal I was hoping for some great Chinese food, but by that stage most of the group had had enough of the food so we all met up at...TGI Friday's!

I mentioned the journey back in a previous post - it took about 24 hours in total and the exhaustion was showing. Apparently, one of the stewards on the last leg from Paris to Geneva asked where we were travelling from as we looked so tired - but as one of them looked at me with surprise as we got on, that may have meant me, I looked and felt completely wrecked! It was quite some time before I recovered so I don't have any plans for any long trips in the future, not at least until my memory fails me!

Beijing Opera

It would be very difficult to accurately describe the Beijing Opera to anyone who hadn't seen it!
Had I done a little research before the trip I might have understood it better so it wasn't at all what I was expecting. The singing sounded to me like cats being tortured at irregular intervals and I hadn't expected to see the singers performing acrobatic stunts - I may be wrong but I don't remember Pavarotti being renowned for them! The character I've drawn is a 'Sheng', which is a male lead and the category is further divided into things like male leads with beards, martial arts male lead or elderly male lead etc. So I think this character may be a martial sheng. I'm guessing he could also be a Jing, another male role, with the red make-up symbolising courage - there are quite a few categories and the make-up, clothing and accessories (like the hats) all have specific meaning.The other character was obviously a 'Chou' as he had the classic make-up of a the clown character. He is the only character that sings in a natural voice.

There are a number of classic stories and this is from 'The Crossroads' where there is a case of mistaken identity at an inn and a fight ensues in the dark with the two men blindly taking swipes at each other with their swords. In this story there is little or no singing, just a clashing of cymbals now and again and I must say it was very long and drawn out! Fortunately we had a programme and understood the story but from some of the overheard comments, it was obvious not everyone understood what was going on and, as the stage lighting was unchanged, there were no clues. But as these are classic stories played again and again, the Chinese understand them and go for the performance not to find out what happens at the end!


Just a small note with this drawing - I tried doing the trousers without any lines, or drawn edges, just colour against colour to see what the effect might be. Also I tried shading with purple and not grey, which seemed to work. The face and top half were started a while ago and I left the drawing after doing those as I wasn't happy with it. Anyway, I finished it but the face is looser and not so well done (as is the patterning on the costume) and in retrospect I would have taken more time over it as I enjoyed it better when I slowed down. I'm now using a combination of Cretacolor Aquamonoliths, Faber Castell Polychromos and Albrect Durer pencils.

In the garden

The blog has been very quiet of late but it's been deliberate this time as I have found blogging and keeping up with other blogs too time consuming recently. I noticed about three other bloggers I normally tune in to have also taken time out and it seems something is in the air for artists at the moment!






















I normally keep a visual record on the blog of what's been growing in the garden and this year, as we have so many unusual tulips and they are nearly finished, I thought I'd better blog about them before it's too late.






















My fave this year is probably the one at the top (incredible design!) but I've always loved the red and green parrot tulips and this year for the first time, I have my very own!






















I read that they have developed this shape due to a virus and ours seem to be even more exaggerated than usual!
















This yellow tulip is like a soup bowl, it's so big!






















Amazing stripes!





















The most delicate of frills and colouring.






















Try as I might I will never understand why artists are not supposed to draw details, especially when I look at flowers like these. Increasingly, I can't understand why there are any rules in art at all (for every rule there is an exception!) and so many prejudices amongst artists themselves. It makes less and less sense.



















It gets me every so often and I have to take a break from it, or at least cut down a lot on how much I'm reading. (I'm still checking my regular blogs but just not commenting as much!) I've done very little drawing but I was sitting in the garden a couple of evenings ago - Mark was away and Paul is in Morocco so the house has been quiet -admiring the flowers and decided to draw this, the plastic monstrosity, as I call it, left behind by the previous owners. It's a swinging chair that should have cushions and a canopy but this is how it normally looks. We thought about throwing it out but actually it's fun to sit out there, cup of tea on the little tray, swinging gently (or side to side, which makes me dizzy!), and musing about when it's going to fall apart! (And unbeknownst to me, Mark's plane was flying round and round in a holding pattern in the skies above me as I drew it!) So two years on it's still with us. I've been meaning to draw it for ages and this week was perfect with the lovely warm evenings.

Initially it was just a pencil drawing and that's the reason why the chair looks so grey and dirty, but I decided to add colour and see how it went. It's all very rough and blotchy and eventually I gave up trying for anything better - I think it may be the paper is not quite right for the effect I'm looking for. Either that or it's because, with sketching, I'm working fast and putting colours down too thickly instead of building them up. I should also point out that this is the ugliest view of the garden, it's really not that bad! I've left out a lot of details like the potted plants and the garden light just behind the chair. The large expanse of fence is very dominant but actually the other side of the garden is where the patio and beds are and is much prettier. I realised when I was drawing this that the garden has changed completely since we moved in but this view uniquely shows almost nothing of our influence. The pool cover, chair, plant and tree in the foreground were all here when we moved in. I like the tree (on the right) and I'll probably try to do a better drawing of that, but the little plant, a small conifer is probably the only plant left in the garden that I don't like. There very little left to do now but I would still like some sweet peas. Now I've got the passionflowers and the parrot tulips, they (and the snakeshead fritillaria) are the only thing left on my garden wish list!