"Paint what you want to see!" Lian Quan Zhen's advice is simple but rewarding

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That's the message from internationally known artist, author and instructor, Lian Quan Zhen. I had the pleasure of attending his 4 day work shop this past week and my Art will be changed for the better. We traced two images provided by him ( 26 attended), one a floral and one a group of elephants. These two scenes allowed him to demonstrate his ability to use only 3 colors , red ( Naptha), yellow (Hansa) and blue (Antwerp) to create a multitude of colors and hues. He also wated to emphasize the immense changes in value that can occur with only 3 colors.  Using a TV screen that allowed him to zoom in on small details, we watched 4 or more demos daily as he taught his valuable techniques. He considers imperfect to be perfect and makes excellent choices to change shapes and values in his work. His use of negative painting may be the most imaginative tip I picked up...and there were many!
Lian Zhen Work Shop Feb 26-March 1, 2018


             Artists came from Georgetown, Fredericksburg, Dallas, Ft Worth, Colorado and even Panama to learn from Lian. It was a very fun, talented group.
Lian talking while he paints his lily pong complete with fish


                      
             The photo is for reference only as he encourages all to paint what they want to see, not what they see
The elephant family at sunset lives in a lovely setting, warm at the top, cool at the bottom
Elephant eyes have a glint and lashes, skin is wrinkly and mud caked


Here is my version....all 26 students had a different one. Lian made suggestions to each of us for completing our paintings.

Can you believe all of these were done with only 3 colors??

As most artists do, he had originals and prints, CDs and books to sell. I purchased "Chinese Painting" and encourage you to do that as he demos several paintings start to finish. It may change your painting for the better!

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