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| My view from the balcony |
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| Still life |
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| This is my first painting, which I left this painting for my friend's grandmother. |
After I graduated in December 2016, I accompanied one of my housemates when she went to China. She was studying abroad there that semester, but her classes didn't start until February. So we spent the whole month together, exploring different areas. We spent the first week in Taiwan, mostly in Taipei and a few days in Taroko National Park. Then we spent a week with a friend of her mom's in Hong Kong. Finally, we spent the last two weeks in Hanjiang, staying with my friend's grandmother.
Hanjiang is a district of Putian, Fujian province, in the south-east corner of the country. Her grandmother had a small balcony that overlooked a beautiful mix of apartment buildings, old-style homes, and far away cities. It was a breathtaking mix of old and new architecture. My friend slept until noon every day while we were there, so I had a few hours to myself every morning to paint.
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| My setup |
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| The amazing view from the balcony |
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| The still-life setup |
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| How I spent every morning |
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| It was a rough setup but it worked |
Getting my materials together was a little challenging. I brought a few tubes of paint and my case of brushes with me. Amazingly, all of my paints made it through multiple security checks without any issues. Once we arrived, one of my friend's mom's friend took us to an area that had a lot of artists, and I was able to buy canvas and mineral spirits. I dug around in the trash around our apartment building to find styrofoam that I used as an easel and palette. I only had paints that were green, blue, black, brown, and yellow, so I had to buy red paint at a general store in town. Poster paint was the only option, so I couldn't mix it with other paints. In the photo right above, I actually tried using my red hair dye at one point, but that did not work at all and ended up dying one of my brushes.
Once I had all of my materials, I used twine to hold the makeshift easel up on the balcony. I spent the most amount of time on my first painting. I wanted to capture the view from the balcony. It's not the greatest thing I've ever painted, but it was more of an exercise for me, and I had fun making it. I spent the most time on that one because I wanted to give it to my friend's grandmother as a thank-you present. Then, I painted another similar painting of the view, this time focusing more on color and abstract shapes. I used materials from around the apartment building, like gravel, dirt, and sand, to give the canvas texture. While I was in this area, I got to experience Chinese New Year. On the first night of the holiday, people lit fires in the street all over, and then threw firecrackers on the ground. It sounded like bombs were going off everywhere, but it was also exciting. I used some of the ashes from the fires in the clouds. Finally, I painted a still life of household objects, including chopsticks, fruits, and a frequently-used soup spoon. The fruit on the left was usually in my bedroom and smelled like grapefruit, leaving a citrus aroma where I slept. I painted these in a hurry towards the end because I wanted them to dry before I had to roll them up and take them on a plane home. I signed all of the paintings with "Gina" in traditional Mandarin characters.
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| Giving my painting to Nana |
Although my friend's grandmother did not speak English, she seemed very appreciative of the painting. Nana was extremely gracious to me during my stay. In the morning, we would communicate in a type of charades, mostly about what I wanted for breakfast. She would bring me freshly steamed rolls and cups of yogurt. She even bought coffee because she thought I would like it. During the Chinese New Years special on TV, she let me lay in her bed with her and covered me in blankets before she fell asleep during the show. Nana was a wonderful host and I wish I could have done more to say thank you. She hung the painting above her couch before I left.
