CHINESE TERRACOTA SOLDIERS, watercolor and ink

CHINESE TERRACOTA SOLDIERS, ink and watercolor in my travel journal.
We were very lucky to be in Prague at the moment of the special exhibition of the Chinese Terracota Soldiers. The exhibition is amazing, huge, very well presented, you need several hours to really get a feeling for the magnificent presentation of this unique work of art 2,200 years old!!! These sculptures were found in Xian, China, at the end of the XXth C. They found over 8,000 sculptures of soldiers, no two faces are alike! They have a variety of clothing, of buttons on their clothes, of hair style, that reflects the high level of work the Chinese artists were doing over two thousand years ago!!! We have not learned anything!

Puerto Varas, Chile, watercolor on Arches paper

PUERTO VARAS, CHILE, watercolor on Arches paper, 9x12 in.
This is one of the five paintings accepted for exhibition at the San Diego County Fair, THE FAB FAIR!, which opens June 7, and goes till July 6. Fine art, fun and games, in Del Mar.

At the Watercolor Biennial in Shenzhen, China, the need for international exchange was very strong, according to comments in the June issue of Watercolor magazine. There were people from all over the world. Linda Baker said: "I was moved not by the differences but by the sameness. We were one in the pursuit of art."

GUO FENYI, CHINA, watercolor

Guo Fenyi, China, died at 68 years old, China Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia 2013, Italy. My little watercolor to remember Guo Fenyi is simple, compared to her complex designs.

I have chosen to report on this artist, because I was impressed with her work. Guo Fenyi developed acute arthritis at the age of 39, being forced to retire. Her suffering lessened when she started practicing Qigong, focusing and strengthening energy. After several years of immersion in Qigong, she experience visions, and a tremendous outpouring of energy and artistic productivity. In a few years, she created over a thousand drawings in ink, pencil, and ballpoint pen. Guo Fenyi saw her work as an extension of her Qigong practice and said she was only a medium, asserting that her message "came from heaven". "I draw because I don't know" she said. "I draw in order to know."

THE GRAND CANAL, Venice, Italy, watercolor

THE GRAND CANAL, Venice, Italy, watercolor in my art notebook.

Venice, Italy, and Yangzhou, China, are both cities that "grew from canals". The Grand Canal between Beijing and Hangzou is the earliest and longest man-made waterway in the world. For La Biennale di Venezia, 11 Chinese artists were invited to present. Wang Du's installation, as my small watercolor above shows, represents a bathtub, with a Yamaha motor off board. It's title is: "Love in the Time of Cholera", like the experiences of the hero and heroine of the novel, he points out that the only survival instinct of mankind is fearless romanticism and idealism. Wang Du lives and works in Paris, France.

SILENCIO, watercolor

Silencio, 6x9 watercolor

From Assisi, Italy, where I painted "Silencio", I recently finished reading "The Garlic Ballads", by Nobel Prize Winner in literature MO YAN. It is a denunciation of the peasants struggle and suffering in China as recently as the 1980s. The writing is beautiful and poignant, Mo Yan immerses us in the stench, blood, sweat and tears of the peasants. Not an easy read for me, I suffered with every character in the story.