Guangzhou China Citybook & Large Sketchbook

When I wasn't sleeping during the 18 hour return flight, I sketched Northwest Business Class. I floated the watercolor into the sketch, when I returned home.

The above sketch was completed in my small watercolor sketchbook. Since it was the only painting in that sketchbook, I decided to paste it into my large sketchbook to condense all my china paintings into the citybook & my large watercolor sketchbook. I pasted only the left edge so I could read my journaling on the backside of the painting. I scanned the Dragonboat cover of the small watercolor sketchbook so I'll have a copy of the cover painting. The small watecolor sketchbook will be recycled, probably on a Florida trip. First of all, the Chinese people were as wonderful as I had been told they would be, because being a red headed caucasian, there was no way I blended in with the native chinese. Since I walk around smiling all the time at least on vacation, I got lots of smiles & a couple of giggles from the Chinese police/soldiers. Now, when I paint, I really don't notice to much of what is going on around me, otherwise, I loose all concentration. This is why, I always try to paint in a safe area, which Sha Mian Island & everywhere I painted in China was safe. I sat under a gazebo next to the Pearl River with a couple of chinese grandparents & started to paint. I had sketched in the drawing, when I saw a young boy, his grandmother, & mother cross through the area I am painting. People are always strolling beside the Pearl River & under these trees the grandmothers do their Tai Chi. So I didn't think anything of it, until he made a bee line for me & the gazebo. From then on the grandson was my comentator hovering over my shoulder. Refocusing on my painting, I continued on as he would flit from shoulder to shoulder, back & forth between me and the grandmother & mother. Looking up 1/2 way through my painting, I noticed that every seat on the benches under the gazebo was packed with chinese grandparents. I smiled and continued on, while the grandson flitted between them all. At the end, I said thank you, Zhen, Zhen with a slight bow of the head & hands together. This is the celebration thank you, which I certainly felt I had a lot to celebrate with a good painting & wonderful experience. I do wish I had showed my work all around to them, but I rarely paint with anyone else, let alone in front of a crowd so I didn't think of it. Next time, I will share my work right then & there.

A beautiful, barely teal colored teapot on the table at the White Swan Canton restaurant caught my eye & had to be painted. Again, the staff discretely hovered watching me paint, but didn't intrude at all. Wonderful shrimp dumplings for lunch & the tea was delightful.


Above, is my favorite side of a double spread collage, you can see the other side over at my flickr along with more chinese paintings & photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/26331259@N06/collections/72157607856381647/ . These are packaging materials that caught my eye as we dined on fabulous canton, shanghai & thai food. Included in the above collage are the chinese dried fruit packaging. Whenever, we travel I put together gorp, this is dried fruit, nuts & a bit of chocolate for snacking. Chinese fruit was very different & even now, I'm not sure what we ate, but it was delicous, although not as sweet as american fruits.