Visit instructor yao han (john eder) and current students on saturday, january 26, 2013, for chinese brush painting class. We will meet at the amarillo art institute in amarillo’s sunset galleries at 10:00 a.M. For a 4 hour session on basics (and mounting, matting, and framing for returning artists).
Returning artists — no charge! For first time students, all supplies will be furnished. Only $29.00 to discover a wonderful new approach to producing meaningful art work that has been around for a mere 2,400 years! Okay, chinese brush painting is not new at all, but it is new in the amarillo area, at least from john’s perspective.
Help us spread the joy found through this form of art! Join us on saturday, january 26th at ten o’clock at the amarillo art institute.

An introductory class for aspiring Chinese Brush Artists will be offered this month at the Amarillo Art Institute. Join Yao Han for an interesting visit to the unique and inspirational Chinese art form of painting with ink and a brush. Register for the five classes on forms available at the Amarillo Art Institute or at the Chinese Art Show currently on display at Panhandle Art Center.

Two interesting aspects of painting in the Chinese Brush style is that the brush is not held in what you might think is the “normal” way. During my twelve months in VietNam I had the opportunity to learn to use chopsticks. If you happened to be fortunate enough to be at a place that actually looked, smelled, and operated like a cafe or restaurant, and you wanted to eat, you were given chopsticks. The first thing I taught myself was to hold the brush in a manner similar to holding a chopstick. Chinese brush painters use an upright approach and most often paint on flat surfaces, many times on white felt to prevent the double xuan paper from moving with each stroke. The second most interesting fact about the Chinese paint brushes is that almost all of them, with the exception of specialty brushes, form a sharp point when loaded with either water or ink. Therefore, you can see that holding the brush properly and loading the brush with the correct amounts of ink and water is very critical to laying down good strokes.