Bamboo Garden

Bamboo painted on different colored-cards makes for out-of--this-world-like bamboo garden.

Celebrating Mooncake Festival

The mooncake festival (aka Mid-autumn Festival) is an annual Chinese festival celebrated on Aug 15 based on the lunar calendar, which is today. Apart from enjoying the delicious mooncakes, the kids would be forming a parade of hand-held lighted lanterns (traditionally with candles but battery-operated versions, which pose no fire hazard, are also available) while the adults would be participating in cracking the many word riddles. That would be the atmosphere back home. Here in US we have to settle for having some friends over for dinner followed by partaking the mooncakes that we have bought from MD Oriental, a local Chinese grocery store.

As with most other occasions of celebrations, sending greeting cards are also the norm. Especially in this Internet age, e-cards have become the preferred mode for the Internet savvy. And I received the following e-card from the daughter of my friend back home, Jiayi, just yesterday. Thanks, Jiayi.


Since I like painting, I have decided to draw a card to share with you all where the two vertical lines, which mean "though we are thousand miles apart, as long as we are safe and sound we can still bridge the sky to share the majestic moon together," are taken from a famous poem penned by a Chinese poet during the Sung Dynasty, Su Shi, or better known as Su Dong Po.

Poem in Chinese Calligraphy

My favorite online Chinese papers is Sin Chew Jit Poh. I especially love reading its Opinion columns, full of insightful commentaries on the political development back home often couched in subtlety, applying the elegance of Chinese prose to the fullest. Among its columnists, my favorite is Mr. Zheng Ding Xian who has an uncanny sense of the nuances embedded in political maneuvers. This morning, I came across his latest contribution written in the column literally translated as Night Rain Dawn Breeze using a part of a poem as the title (dated Sep 12, 2008).

Hubby likes the piece too and have superposed the poem on one of my earlier landscape paintings, which seems to depict the scenery described in the poem. Of course there is a deeper meaning to the entire poem, which hubby was not able to locate its provenance on a Net search. But he thinks it portrays a calm state of mind, waiting for nature/event to take its course when matter will become clear.



In the process, my calligrahic urge was spurred, and I wrote down the poems shown below.



This is a more flourishing version, my own freedom of expression at work.

Chinese Brush Painting of the Birds, the Bees, the Flowers, and the Bamboo

Here are more calendar-inspired paintings on rice paper.

More One-Stroke Painting, Calendar-Inspired

I continued with one-stroke painting today, on large sheets of rice paper, and patterned after similar paintings in a calendar.

One-Stroke Painting

I went for an eye exam this morning, and my eyes were dilated. That means today's offerings have to be done by the one-stroke technique, which is less taxing on the eyes.

Birds and Flowers: by themselves and together

A lone young bird perched on rock, wearing a forlorn look.

Wings fluttering, the peak zooming in on the nectar.

Looking upward, mouth agog. Uncluttered. Space is good.

A repeat from the above, but side view.

Bougainvillea in mid air.