At the end of September, the Ukrainian Chinese artist Qi Xiaoting visited our institute for the 6th time, giving 4 Chinese painting and 1 Chinese calligraphy workshop.
After living in Ukraine for many years, the artist was forced to leave her home and is currently living in Germany.
Taking into account the wishes of our regular workshop participants, this time we have chosen an even more varied and appealing workshop theme.
We started with a Chinese painting workshop and the participants painted a lotus荷花
This flower
is a symbol of honesty, kindness, beauty and purity in Chinese culture. It is a unique plant, sometimes even referred to in literature as the 'green fairy': 'its green leaves can stretch as far as the purple horizon, and its lotus flowers are exquisitely shining in the sunlight'.
In the evening, participants could try Chinese calligraphy书法 (shūfǎ), writing the hieroglyphic jìng xīn 静心, which contains the meanings of calmness, concentration, and tranquillity.
The second day was devoted to Chinese painting and involved the painting of two perhaps the most important symbols in Chinese culture: in the morning workshop, the plum blossom héhuā 梅花, a symbol of strength and perseverance, and in the evening workshop, the carp lǐyú 鲤鱼, a symbol of wealth and abundance.
The workshop was crowned by the beautiful jǐnkuí huā 锦葵花 flowers, which we can admire in our country as well. In China, however, this flower is very popular in Sichuan, symbolising longevity, fertility and endurance. The plant is particularly frequently described in Chinese literature, including the poetry of Du Fu, Su Shi and Li Bai.
In this workshop, we invited the participants to get acquinted with Chinese painting and calligraphy as it is the key to the mysterious world of Chinese art, which helps you to feel and try to understand the different Chinese culture.
We are delighted with the large number of participants, especially our regular workshop attendees. We invite you to follow our news and look forward to seeing you at our next events.