A Smorgasbord of Chinese Calligraphy

It has been a hectic day today. First, I had my monthly Chinese calligraphy class in the morning. And while about to drive off at the end of the class, we were introduced by Brother Yang, our Chinese calligraphy teacher, to his neighbor, a fellow Malaysian from Salak, Selangor. What a small world.

Then the Lin family from Gainesville visited us in the afternoon. And to add to the mix, Hubby brought home another friend, X. Chen, who has some mutual friends with Lin. They were all grad students at UF in the early 1990s. Catching up on old times was inevitable.

Then we attended a Dharma discussion in a Buddhist friend's house in the evening that lasted into the night. What a day!.

With all these events converging in time and space, something good is bound to happen. And that took the form of two guest pieces in today's blog on Chinese calligraphy.

These two Buddhist verses are written by Brother Yang, our teacher, that translate into "Compassion knows no enemy; wisdom overcomes afflictions."

This Chinese character, meaning forbearance, is written by Lin. It combines the character, knife (top), over the character, heart (bottom). How symbolic! The following two pieces are by me.

Flowers in Fine Print

The elegance is in the details, a kind of euphemism for the Gong Pi style. The first two are by Mrs. Kim, and the third by the other half of the buddy painters, yours truly.

The static and the dynamic of Bamboo Scenes

Rocks and mountains are the static, though not in geological terms, elements while the wind-blown bamboo leaves and flowing water evince dynamism.

Bamboo-rock combination

These two paintings here continue the theme of bamboo-rock combination.

Bamboo-dotted Rockscape

The pliancy of bamboo and the firmness of rock combine to form a duality that typifies nature.

The Bamboo Connections

Nature abounds in physical inter-connections among the plant and rock species as exemplified by the bamboo-bamboo, the bamboo-grass, and the bamboo-rock links here.

Painting Gong Pi Style in a Group

We had our monthly painting class today, this time in Sister Linda's house, six of us, including our teacher, Mrs. Celia Fan, spreading around a big table with ample elbow room for each. I painted two in order to compare the different color tones.