So the Summer Challenge is officially over and all things considered, it was a phenomenal success! We  had more participants with a collection of very diverse and unique styles and the overall quality was higher than it has ever been. Especially rewarding for me is to see the artwork of previous contest participants improve, evolve and develop.

Before we get into the official commentary, I wanted to publish some of my thoughts regarding the dynamics of the contest and the original intention behind it. When we envisioned the contest our first and foremost goal was to give our OAS community a platform for which to showcase their artwork. We know firsthand how rewarding it is to see one’s artwork on display and often when there is a show, contest or some other type of deadline, it often encourages artist to produce work in a more formal, structured way with often outstanding results. Secondly, we wanted to produce a format that encouraged a collective promotion effort. This was the reason for the “contest” format and the idea that we would open the submissions to a public vote and award winners accordingly. Although this may seem like a competition, in our minds it was not. We do not see art as competitive. Now of course, a format like this may encourage people to become competitive (I for one can be a very competitive person). This of course, is a personal choice and as always we say “To each his own.” However, our main intention is that all participants, regardless of results or awards feel encouraged by the Challenge. Having processed and reviewed every single submission, I can confidently say that all participants deserve recognition and encourage for their efforts. Fantastic job everyone!

Now we proceed to the commentary. I am intending to provide some of my thoughts on the Top Vote Getters and OAS Favorites featured in the Spring Newsletter.

Top Vote Getters

Beginner’s Category

1st Place Spring Blossom Trees by Doug Saball

Lovely, simple composition with classic theme and confident cutting of white space by the land elements of the painting.

2nd Place Between Us by Deanna Kitay OAS Favorite

Absolutely delightful! Feels very effortless and the amount of character depicted in the birds with very few strokes is quite impressive.

3rd Place Spring Falls by Doug Saball

Composition shows strength. Nice harmonizing of east and west styles.

General Category

1st Place Lotus in Pond on Gold Speck Rice Paper by Helen Curcio

Skilled use of the quality of the paper. Lovely, balanced composition with clear “host” and “guest” elements. Beautiful use of color with nice variation and accents.

2nd Place Gong-bi Roses by Howard Meyer

Lovely composition with clear host and guest groupings. Use of color shows thoughtfulness and skill especially in the flower petals. East meets West blending of style.

3rd Place Flower on Silk by Helen Curcio

Lovely use of silk to create soft texture. Impressive color intensity. Delightful color choice on orange background flower.

Master Category

1st Place
Wallkill River by Roberta Rosenthal

Breathtaking, gorgeous painting conveys a clear sense of the artist’s emotional relationship to this place. Lovely reflections on the water and grass accents in the foreground.

2nd Place Carp in Autumn by Roberta Rosenthal

Classic subject matter depicted with a touch of modern whimsy. Lovely representation of the sparkle of water on the surface of the pond.

3rd Place Jay in Winter (moon palace paper) by Katherine Thompson OAS Favorite

Stunning depiction of a lovely scene with a clear sense of season. Detail work shows a master’s touch especially with paper choice. Rendering of snow skillful, detailed but still gives a sense of being natural.

OAS Favorites

Bird on Bamboo 3 by Maureen Hastings

Flush with the spirit of Master Chao. A skillful Ling-nan style entry that is both refreshing and classic.

Pinecone on Branch by Jen Hess

Unique composition choice showcasing nice brush skill and use of texture. Simple and spontaneous.

Moonlight Games by Stephen McDonough

Selected as a representative of an impressive submitted body of work. Thoughtfully honoring classic styles and showcasing impressive development over time. Rendering of carp and lotus leaves is skillful and full of personality.

Bird Resting by Nicolae Sinu

Selected as a representative of an impressive submitted body of work. Perhaps the work that shows the most innovation. All submitted pieces were noteworthy, this being the most accessible. Very unique use of color and textures.

Whooping Crane by Victoria Jones

Classic subject, rendering with impeccable skill and a modern eye. Wonderful texture contrasts between the feathers, legs, and beak of the bird.

Moon & Wave by Fredrica Marshall

Masterfully skillful reverse rendering makes for a striking and impactful composition. Brush work is confident, spontaneous and full of energy.

Waterfall Landscape 63 by Jane Von Bosse

Selected as a representative of an impressive submitted body of work. The artist’s journey through a world of mountain and water is evident and meaningful. Nice balance and depth on this piece.

A Very Fast Mouse by Jan Zaremba

Endless hours of appreciation in so few strokes is the signature of a masterful artist. Spontaneous and skillful use of moisture. A signature delight from a wonderful artist.

Well I hope you enjoyed the commentary. Please make sure to check out all the winners in our Spring Newsletter, and of course all the submitted works at the OAS Summer Challenge Gallery. Once again congratulations to all the Summer Challenge participants. We are so proud of you all!

Until next time…Aloha and Mahalo!!

by Evan Yeh

I was very pleased to be able to participate in the entire OAS Life Workshop as a host, instructor and student. There were many highlights that I am excited to share with those of you who could not be there. In so many ways this workshop is an intimate representation of who we are as a family. It is us inviting people into our lives and sharing with them the joy that we experience in the jewels of Chinese culture.

What a First Day!

Each part of the workshop was special in its own way for me. I enjoyed watching my mother kick the event off with her calligraphy class. She gave a unique calligraphy class that was grounded in tradition but wonderfully flexible and accessible at the same time. Everyone produced wonderful writing and developed deeper understandings of the Chinese ideas of love, fortune, and harmony.

Lingchi prepares garlic chive potstickers as an appetizer

My mother’s endurance was on display as she took everyone to one of our favorite Chinese lunch spots and followed it up with a tour of our local Chinese market. I never realized how much I took for granted having access to such a large Chinese market. The diversity of produce and prepared foods is a special benefit of living in the area that we live.

We then went back to our house, had some wine and got a preview screening of my father’s brand new Dream Journey DVD. If one were to tell the story of my father’s life, I think that this past decade was his development into a filmmaker. My father has many gifts, but his storytelling is one that I appreciate deeply. His ability to weave Chinese history, stories, and legends into everything that he presents makes experiences with him one of a kind. You can see China with many different people and in many different ways, but my father’s China is a deliciously full, life-changing travel experience and other than going with him on the Dream Journey, the DVDs are the best ways to see China through his eyes.

Dream Journey 2010 DVD

The first of the Dream Journey DVDs to be filmed in High Definition Video, China’s exotic beauty and grace jump off the screen like never before.

The Dream Journey DVDs in general, and this one in particular, are wonderful sources of inspiration for a variety of subjects, especially landscapes.

Ning’s wonderful narration envelopes stunning footage of Yellow Mountain, Zhangjajie and much more.

Dream Journey 2010 DVD

DVDCT10: $25

Ning offers a toast as we enjoy a seven course feast courtesy of Lingchi

After the DVD screening, my mother began her cooking demonstration. My mother is the best person I have ever seen at preparing large amounts of delicious, healthy, food in miraculously short periods of time. Her food is soul gratifying, authentic Chinese food – fresh, tasty, and mindful of the waistline. After a full day of hosting and teaching, here she was explaining all the details of how she was preparing this seven course feast, serving appetizers, and answering questions with a smile. We sat down for an amazing feast accented with wine and delightful conversation. As the night was coming to a close, I considered how much we had experienced in just the first day. OAS Life indeed!

Day 2: African Violet with Ning

Although the first day was quite an endurance test for my mother, most of the participants found it perfectly paced and a wonderful way to ease into the event. Calligraphy is such a great way to develop confidence and a rhythm with your brush and paper. But Day 2 found us shifting gears and increasing the intensity. I’ve taken quite a few brush painting classes with my father, but this time I saw his unique qualities as an instructor more clearly that I ever have before. He brings such personal energy to the classroom. It is almost like we get to “plug-in” to this high-powered battery and allow the current to carry us to more ambitious results than we ever thought possible. Given how we have limited the seats available in the OAS Life Workshop, this is the most intimate setting and the most one-on-one attention that you could ever get from my father.

We spent the entire day working fairly advanced techniques in the context of the delightful African Violet and every single person regardless of their experience level produced admirable work. My father led us through the entire composition, stroke-by-stroke, and then reviewed each of our paintings personally making encouraging comments about what went well and showing us how to finish the work with composition enhancements and signature and seal. He even created Chinese names for the workshop participants that did not have them. This is a very special treat in and of itself and takes someone with my father’s unique background to do it well. It is a very special experience to see him choose a Chinese name for someone as he choose characters that have such deep meaning and poetic qualities. When people receive their name their faces light up.

NEW African Violet Lesson Booklet

After the OAS Workshop, Elyse, one of our newest OAS employees sat down with this African Violet Lesson Booklet and produced a very lovely painting.

After the OAS Workshop, Elyse, one of our newest OAS employees sat down with this African Violet Lesson Booklet and produced a very lovely painting.

Tiny jewels of purple amethyst set against distinctively patterned, dark green, leaves. Very accessible composition made possible for artists of any level with clear, step-by-step instructions.

African Violet Lesson Booklet

WS8001 $7.50

After a thrilling day with my father, my sister and I hosted a dinner at our family’s favorite Chinese restaurant. I like this restaurant very much because the decor is modern and the food is authentic, flavorful, and light. We shared wonderful conversation during dinner and got to know our fellow workshop participants better. The highlight of the meal was a white fish poached in a light sesame oil sauce with scallions.

Day 3: Bearded Iris with Ning

After an encouraging first day of spontaneous style brush painting with the African Violet, we tackled a more ambitious subject the second day: Bearded Iris! The bearded Iris is a stunning flower with giant, crown shaped petals. It is a good subject to develop your sense of abandon because both the flower and the leaves are quite large and dynamic. It is a noticeable change from the restrained daintiness of the African Violet.

Using our initial day of success as a confidence booster, my father constructed a lesson plan that had us finish two complete Iris painting in a single session. Everyone in the workshop showed that they were becoming more familiar with basic techniques like brush loading, moisture handling, and “lowering the boom” so the Iris paintings look quite wonderful and we were quite pleased to have two paintings to show for our efforts.

Day 4: Fineline with Lingchi and Rhythm/Chi Workshop

After a thrilling two days of spontaneous style brush painting, we all were ready for something with a more deliberate pace. Enter my mother with a fineline lesson on the Lotus. If you know my mother well, you would be quite surprise to see that she has taken a liking to the fineline (gong-bi or meticulous) style of painting. My mother has always been a “just do it person.” She is very good at “winging it” which is what makes her such a wonderful cook. She is adaptable and responds well to dynamic situations. So to learn that she had used fineline painting to develop more detail-orientation and deliberateness in her nature is quite surprising to me.

The lesson was quite well constructed. The group was small enough to allow everyone to work at their own pace and my mom did a great job and supported everyone even as the stage where each of us were started to stagger. This lotus composition is a very delightful single flower, with lovely color detail and great opportunities to layer colors to show off classic fineline techniques. The group progressed quite well through the line work stage and started to have lots of fun with the layering of colors. In the end, everyone finished the composition (quite unusual for a fineline class) and for me personally, this painting was probably my best of the workshop.

After dinner, we reconvened for a rhythm/chi workshop. I had a fun time leading this workshop and found it a very nice way to combine a number of things that I have spent the last 10 years studying. My whole family has had lots of fun over the last decade studying ballroom dancing. I, in particular, have studied it quite vigorously participating in national level competitions with very satisfying results. One thing that studying dance has show me is how connected all forms of movement really are. Whether it be dance, martial arts, or painting, it all starts with an awareness of your center and setting intentions from your core and move your energy through space. If you develop aptitude in one of these disciplines, it translates very well into the others. That is mostly what we worked on in the workshop. We focused on feeling and connecting to our centers through breathing, then played some music and did some simple movements as a group feeling both the rhythm and the flow of the music. When my father paints in his studio, he is always playing music that he loves. He connects to the feeling of joy that the music swells up inside of him and then channels it through his brush and onto the paper. Towards the end of the workshop we were able to practice how the concepts we were learning would translate into painting.

Day 5: Mounting Workshop with Ja-Shin

One of the most satisfying experiences for the rest of our family is to see my sister shine. She has always been the most supportive member of our family and seeing her giving the mounting workshop reminded me of when my mother, father and I used to delight in her when she was a baby. She was the cutest baby and all three of us would gather around and gawk at her while she made her cute noises, did her funny dances, smiled and clapped her hands. That being said, now she is a full-grown, articulate, intelligent woman, a stellar business manager, a homeowner, engaged to be married and one of the most critical reasons for OAS’ current and future success.

My sister patiently demonstrated the Chinese wet mounting process. This process is quite remarkable, because, when done properly, it returns a painting colors back to their full glory. Everyone who has done Chinese Brush Painting is very familiar with the fact that when the colors are wet, they have stunning vibrancy and beautiful variation within each single stroke. As the colors dry, they begin to fade. When a painting is wet-mounted, the colors come rushing back and are even more brilliant than when they were first applied. It can be stressful to wet-mount your paintings, so it is a special treat to have someone walk you through the process step-by-step and to be there to reassure you that things are going well. Our method of wet-mounting is sort of a family secret that we have crafted and tweaked over the years and like many things in our family harmonious blends Chinese tradition with Western technology to create optimum results.

After the satisfaction of seeing all the results of the weekend, wet mounted and drying on boards around the room, we were given free time and free reign over the DVD library of OAS. OAS has an unprecedented selection of instructional DVD titles. At last count there were over 100 hundred different titles and having the ability to screen as many as we wanted in the remaining time was quite exciting. We also were able to take the time to reflect on a week full of new experiences, wonderful fellowship, and dramatic artistic and personal growth.

For me personally, the first OAS Life workshop was all that I imagined it would be and more. Even though it was a large amount of work for our entire family, we felt very good seeing all the participants taking in and enjoying the experience. I felt very satisfied and inspired by it all and am looking forward to doing it again in January! See you all then!

Many Musicians, But One Band

I have spent the better part of my life playing in bands. Bands are a fantastic demonstration of the benefits of creative collaboration. Some of the greatest rock bands in history like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and U2 are made of musicians who are not exceptionally talented as individuals. Yet, somehow this group of average guys gets together and their unique collection of complementary strengths mixes in just the right way and POW! Guys who previously could get no “Satisfaction” begin to “Twist and Shout.”

Although I have been in a rock band, my most satisfying creative collaborations have been accomplished in marching bands. The format of marching bands is one that encourages people to set aside their egos and focus their individual gifts towards a collective goal. As the drum major of a high school marching band and the student director of a college marching band, I noticed an interesting thing about collaboration – if players in the band would focus on playing in tune with each other, the band would sound significantly richer and louder. However, if they focused on playing louder as individuals, the intonation would suffer and as a result the band would sound dissonant, unpleasant and oddly enough – quieter. This fact is confirmed by science. When one observes two different notes that are played perfectly in tune, a series of harmonic tones are created that add to the richness and overall volume of the sound. Some of the most exhilarating moments of my life have been directing the marching band when e veryone was clicking just right and the result was the combined talent of hundreds of amazingly talented individuals expressed in harmony as “one sound, one band.”

If players in the band would focus on playing in tune with each other, the band would sound significantly richer and louder.

Collaborative Painting?

What does all this have to do with painting? Well, the other night I was thinking about the concept of creative partnering and lamenting about how rarely it is done in the visual arts. You see dance troupes, singing groups, bands and theater companies but I have never seen a painting group. Why must painting be this solitary activity for tortured souls like Van Gogh or Jackson Pollock? Then I remembered watching my father and my uncle collaborate on a painting during one of my father’s art classes. Seeing the two brothers exchange stroke for stroke was a thrilling experience as each of their distinct styles was harmonized into a single painting. Then the idea came to me! Why don’t we have a collaborative painting contest? We can encourage our customers (the OAS extended family) to team up and do paintings together. Then we can showcase these painting collaborations and let people vote on a winner.

What’s the Point?

Stroke by stroke collaborations are very effective for improving your individual painting talent. Bringing a western mindset to Chinese brush painting is a challenge because in the west, we like to be “in control,” to be “masters of our own destiny.” On the other hand, Chinese brush painting evolved out of the Taoist philosophy of seeing man in harmony with his nature and his environment. Too often when we are painting something unexpected happens and we immediately judge it as a mistake. In exasperation, we crumple up our paper and start over. How many unfinished masterpieces are sitting in our waste baskets because we misjudged something unexpected as a mistake? True masters realize there are no mistakes only “happy accidents.” Instead of starting over they realize that they are collaborating with the brush, ink and paper rather than commanding them. They interpret the new direction of their collaborators and do the next stroke. When the masterpiece is finished, they realize how many “happy accidents” it takes to make a masterpiece.

By doing a stroke by stroke collaboration with another artist, we learn to embrace this concept and approach our paintings without the constraint of expectation. We obviously cannot control what the other artist is going to do so we are left with our only option – to see what they did and to paint the next stroke. Collaborating in this way teaches us how to approach our solitary painting with an expectation free, spontaneous mindset. Our job is to become one with the brush, paper and ink and to ride a series of happy accidents on the way to the next masterpiece.

Watch as OAS staff, Kevin and Rachel, take a second attempt at painting the Koi!

Watch as OAS staff, Kevin and Rachel, paint their very own Koi -- for the first time!