Brush, paper and ink calls "Three treasures" in Chinese tradition and it is true. As you feel the secret life, character of that things you can feel thousands possibilities flow from it. I love brush, ink and paper so much then choose it  rather, more and more.

Our feelings is the gate to understand many secrets. As we observe an object without feelings we can classify it but rare understand. Even House M.D. use his feelings to support his logic.  As we can use feelings by the way of acting the result will be important.

I investigate many old pictures in Gohua style I found in Internet to learn possibilities of brush and ink styles of strokes and the way Chinese painters  caught the essence of mountings, forests, plants, hills, waterfalls… everything.  (Unfortunately most of pictures have no name of painter or the name was in Chinece, so I can`t do  references). I have to use my logic to learn how they made pictures, what stages it included, what important things for beginning and how to make picture complete. After such logical process I use my feelings to investigate lines, points, total mood of pictures, particular qualities of calligraphy and styles. After thet I proceed to experience. It` important to include such life finding into own life.

In that case I want to illustrate such ideas with the my picture. It was inspired by a strange style of Chinece painters consist of wide points and strokes.

1 - I made general lines with my chinece brush full of  ink. That point it`s important to feel how  your brush turnes, touch the paper, how it moves and stands. Every movement produces different paths of ink on the paper.
 

2 - By medium-dilute ink with nearly vertical strokes I paint he slopes of the mounting. Wide and short horisontal strokes and points represents plants on the slopes.

 3 -  more and more details with more thin ink. Look at the stairs on the right and bottom parts of the picture. This is important things to bring a shadow of human here.

4 - With my brush impregnates with half-pure and pure black ink I made new strokes over previous.

5 - I mixed 3 shadows of brown in different palettes, from very light to more deep and used it to paint mountings. My own style of brush is different from Chinese, also Chinese prefer a silk for painting to produce  unical way of diffluence of he colours. As my picture based on paped this is visible strokes of colours on it as I like it.

6 - this is the right time to paint small details. I chose for it european brush #00 and medium-deluted ink.

7 - with pure ink I made several strokes more visible.

8 - for the finishing I used european concentrate black ink (it made many reflections on the picure, but looks really great).

The process has completed!

Such painting is important part of my life. It halps me to disciplime my mind and hands, to investigate new ways and to feel fresh. It`s meditation, of course.

If you want to feel the same try it!

Capricorn Characteristics and Profile (from here horoscopes.mydaily.com/astrology/capricorn/about/ )

The sure-footed Mountain Goat can climb to higher altitudes than any other mammal. And you sure-footed Capricorns are also well-suited for climbing. Capricorn sets high goals for yourself and then you overcome whatever obstacles may appear between you and the top of your personal mountain.

As Capricorn climbs the ladder of success, your ambition pushes you forward. Status can be important to Capricorn and often, at the top of your game, you gain personal satisfaction by knowing that others respect you for what you have accomplished.

Capricorn can dance out on the edge of a cliff, but will never fall. Why? Stability plays an important role, but so does practice. As a typical Capricorn, you may appear reckless, but chances are that your actions will have been very well planned, and probably also rehearsed. Capricorn is always calculating what will happen if you do something. You Capricorns are energetically conservative, only expending enough to get you to where you want to be. No silly impulsive actions for you. This is your best insurance to get to the top of the mountain.

The Capricorn motto might be Milton Berle’s "If opportunity doesn’t knock, then build a door." But this doesn’t mean that if there are no mountains to climb that you must build the mountain. For you, hardships can be your path to fulfillment, but for the sake of happiness, it would be good for you to learn to appreciate what you have, instead of always striving to reach the next plateau.

I am sure: if you love cats you have to accept everything. One of it is the habit to occupy all places as soon as it possible. My cat Misha did it every time I tryed to work, to read a book or to visit my bathroom…

Oh my God! 8-)

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Actually he wasn`t happy I disturbed him. It was a present for both of us. With an innocent face he lied here and was so kind to let me to make a picture and even to use the place as I need:

Aspecially he loved modems and scanners

Cats have a traditional pose for such deeds. You can see a cat from Liapades sitting… Well, you see what`s the place

If you can`t disturb a cat, you should call your boss and ask for a day out of work

Today in our on-line class you can see how to paint waterfall in water colours. As you do it you could feel something fresh in your soul, the voice of intuition. Water is the way to it.

The great gift of the painting is to create bridges to your subconsciousness, to waken your creation. So I avoid to instruct you what colour exectly your need to create the same picture as mine. Be sure I can`t remember it because creative process is a pure meditation for me. And I wish to waken your to it.

First of all make sure your place are comfortable and it`s enough place for everything - your hands, brushes, water, colours, for everything except your cat.

Cats always interesting in painting and tryes to use their tails and pads as brushes. As we likes them this doesn`t sounds as a problem, but be shure: a cat likes to finish his master work somewhere on your bed clothes or business shirt. Anyway mine did it many times and I have to warn you!

1 - use water to make a paper wet. By brush with ablue colour and a lot of water make several wet strokes to make sky. Then with dry brush take more blue and make strong strokes -this is the stream of a waterfall.

2 - you are free to use any colour you like for sky and clouds, but try to do it quickly until your paper keeps wet. Take  dark blue to make several strokes as clouds. Then use any light colour (yellow on my picture) to make several strokes near the previous.

3 - Keep paper wet and make several strokes with different colours the same way. Keep your brush away of waterfall.

4 - you can choose any shadows to paint the rocks. I chose shadows of gray and dark blue, because I like it for mountings. As you like to paint another way, for exmple with shadows of brown, you should choose it and the result will be good. By several shadows of choosen colours make strokes for mountings.

5 - use several shadows of green to create the base for future grass. I prefer to make instructions the way to turn your intuition to communicate with you.

6 - use dry brush with different colours to make grass and mountings more thick. Feel it. Your subconsciousness keep every plant and stone you`v ever seen and as you feel something- do it! By points and strokes make the picture lively. Feel how water falls, and rocks stands… see as point by point your picture became manifesting.

7 - the same way  make points and strokes with dry brush.

8 - with points by dry brush and colours make far mountings on the left side more clear. Use orange, yellow and lemon yellow coours to make several points on the grass at the right side of the picture. The same colours you can use to make chains of points on the clouds.

9 - use white  colour to make points represents spray of waterfall. Point it everywhere you feel right!

10 - the last step is to allow people to see such beauty. Two small dark silhouettes near the waterfall let us to feel the picture better.

Well, this is the end of the picture, but may be the beginning of your great travelling into intuitive knowledge. As you feel it try to relax and be in silence, be in consciousness, be waking, be a witness. This is the gift and the way to open youself for more colourful, more light life.

God Bless you.

Today we have a real winter colours, at least! Everyone tired by rain and dark so the snow is good!

This is the real colors - shadows of grey, a veil of a mist for mornings,  silense snow for evernings. It is still warm so the snow drops and dissolves, but it is much more better then too long wet automn. I feel as the right season starts and next season hopes will start also in time. From my 21 floor:

Different coctails and smoothy is an important part of my diet. Being a strict vegeterian I have to design something eatable from local products by myself and so be independent.

On Corfu I did a delicious smoothy in my portable blender. Local fruits of Corfu is very nice, fresh just from trees and it`s fragrance made bouquet to smoothy. Well, my favourite smoothy includes 1 green apple, 1 orange, about 150 ml of water, 2 big spoons of soya milk powder, several leafs of mint, 3 spoons of honey and 1\2 big greece lemon (I like it with skin).

My portable blender is not very powerful so it is important to cut all fruits (especially apple) into small pieces.

Corfu is well known place of kumkvat fabrics makes liqueur. I can`t drink an alchogol and so could make only a glance  towards such product

Small blender works slowly and I have to stop it several time to have a rest.

As I like smoothy more smoothy I did it until it became soft and light.

On the last step I realized that forget the last ingredient - a green melon. It`s no problem! I ate it too!
 

So… Now this is dark, wet and windy in Moscow. But I do the same coctail and dreames about the warm sea and lemons on trees.

As you life turns to a new spire many new things comes. It happens by natural way, without worry or difficult choices, easy and soft. The same time old things get loose the same way. That year is remarkable time for both processes and to prove it my old scanner has died 5 minutes ago.
No problem! Go away and stay away from me, old things and old ways of life!  I am ready for new!

Today is the gap between parts of my work activity and thanks god I get enough sleep! The fact is that I have several ideas for big pictures in my new technigues but also have no enough  time for it. It means the right time will be another day so I am working on the several more simple pictures such is that mountings.

The secret of experience is to make details, details, details for a picture seems a bit simple. This is the same thing as to live full life as one friend from Corfu told me. Layers of colours produce   new and new feelings. One stroke connectes with the another, it changes directions and all work from the first stage to final is like a song sings in chorus. As you see I started with several brown colours.

In Gohua style is important to create feeling as somewhere not far away from that place people lives. So all natural objects represents a power of landscape mixed with human existance. Here it is a long stair in stones winds up and up.

A simple colour seems flat so it is good to make it more interesting by mixed shadows.

Here it is the result of watercolour painting but it is ot the final picture… It needs more details.

Black ink is my favourite. I like how it smells, and the feeling how my brush slids with it. Also black ink is the ideal way to create depth. Several strokes with black ink and see the differencies:

Now this is the time for something green. Every mounting has own features how grass and trees are situating on rocks. I made trees with light green colour and then it was clear how to make surface of  rocks and bluffs. As I realized it was a huge amount of it in one not very big picture!

chinese brush is the best for details, I like it for it`s possibilities for painting and  for it bamboo handle. Bamboo is one of my favourite matherial.
 

Details, details for trees:

... and for another trees. Actually I was not a zealot of details before but after thet picture it changed.

Here it is the result! Be sure that hogback with rocks, stairs and everything now lives in my head. I remember every rock as if I travelles here during a week.

I have to make a summary for that experience. Before it I didn`t  work with many natural details and that experience was important to make changes both in my habits in painting and in my character. Sure I will use it in future projects.

Everyone has own weak points and I am not an exception. It seems stupid but beeing a mathematician by my first education I feels myself not confident enough with numbers and sheets. Actually I hate it. It makes me crazy and now it is the one of things I have to do working with students. It`s hard to me to estimate their knowledge because I am sure the marks system becomes out of date, it made students nervous and demotivated to make new creative decisions… and so it is the uncorrect way to estimate modern people. Damning system! But it is still alive. Hopes it will die, it must kick off!!!