Earlier in the year I'd done a short course on painting at Guanghwa, the bookshop in London's Chinatown. I'm a brushaholic and always visit Guanghwa after a Chinese meal for their amazingly cheap brushes, and last year I saw a card advertising lessons in painting, Chinese style. My style of decorating pottery depends on the type of one-stroke painting that the Chinese perfected, so I thought I might learn something.

Learning to paint in the Chinese style means learning rules and putting aside western Romantic ideas of freedom and self-expression. Bamboo leaves have to be combined in odd numbers, arranged asymmetrically and to be of different sizes and intensities of ink. There are styles for bamboo in the rain, bamboo under dew and bamboo in a light west wind. Don't imagine you have anything personal to contribute. My teacher had a little English: as she inspected my work she would say, "Nice" or "Not nice."
I do hope she thinks my humble rendering of the berried twigs in Koffiespot is "Nice".




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