Ink, Brush, and Paper

, originally uploaded by Craig Ryan Thiessen.

"Chinese Art Studio" is the proper title of the class I'm taking (with Jon Newman) in place of "Art Appreciation". Hands down, this will be my favorite class (well maybe Traditional Chinese Medicine will take the top crown). BUT the visual arts course is legit! We went down into the markets of Mong Kok to scope out some specific art supplies we needed, so after asking a few people we found this cozy art depot on the 9th floor of some generic building.
They sold everything from ink and paper to stone presses and broom sized brushes (it was awesome). We asked for assistance which was beneficial in the sense that we got everything we needed, yet stupid because I'm sure we paid more than needed; however, our 20% student discount was much appreciated! (Side note: After that we met up with our other friend who lives rather close to sketchy sleezy service shops on Temple Street Night Market. We decided to skip out on the "intimate services" (joke) and headed to a famed seafood restaurant on the street, my family will be attending me there when they visit in March!)
So Jon and I walked into class today with giddy smiles on our face and we we're not disappointed when our sensai like teacher informed us that we would paint for 3 hours. He described/showed us the simplicity of the Chinese brush, yet we still found ways to massacre the art of painting bamboo, waves, and flowers. Either way, we were thoroughly soothed and rather entranced by the work. Needless to say, I haven't been in an art class since like 10th grade so the return to the subjective setting was delightful, but I'll stick to photography for now (flowers turn out alot better when I'm not the one creating them).