How are you? Have you had a good weekend?

Until this Sunday, I have been in China Central Academy of Fine Artfor 10 days and I have gotten so much.

First of all, I have involved myself into the art learning deeply.

-- Every day, I attend professional lessons and I have learned to paint from life - the true people/models; meanwhile, I have made up one of the lessons that I had missed. The first lesson that I chose to catch up is Chinese Baimiao. I have completed a part of the assignments already. I am going to visit our tutor of this lesson, to see how I should do.

-- Tuesday morning, Professor Li Tiesheng came into our classroom to comment every student’s Chinese landscape paintings. He asked me to read some Chinese painting theory at the first, since I came here late so that I have not completed any assignment yet. Then the tutor of our class -- Mr. Li Gang will offer some lesson for me next week.

-- Wednesday afternoon, with my classmates together, I visited an art exhibition of an assistant dean of Chinese Painting College of CAFA ? Professor Ping Chen in the Chinese Art Gallery.

-- Sunday morning, a famous artist offered us an extra sketch lesson.

These professional lessons, lecture and art exhibition have really helped me so much and opened a new window for me.

Secondly, the fight with my sickness is still going on.

-- Before I left for Beijing, Dr./Director Yu Liu in Beijing University Shenzhen Hospital checked my blood and offered me the medicine for 40 days. The bag of my medicine occupied more than 1/4 of my suitcase. Then the vice president of Shenzhen Far East Women and Children Hospital ? Dr. Qiujuan Zhang checked the wound of my third surgery and gave me a lot of detail doctor advices.

Even though I can often feel that my hands and feet are bigger than usual or uncomfortable here or there; the good news is that my eyes are getting better. I can re-paint Chinese Baibiao/Gongbi right now.


Thirdly, I am attracted by the serious, tight and excellent teaching style of CAFA.
-- Every day, include Saturday and Sunday, we have lessons. Except the 16 kinds of lessons in the syllabus, every weekend, we were offered some quite good opportunities to touch some top artists and professors in China. In case we finish the study in CAFA, we should be able to touch at least 24 professors and tutors.

-- Every tutor in CAFA not only asks us to attend all lessons in the syllabus, to learn the knowledge and skills from every tutor, to make a wide and strong foundation, then, to choose a main developed direction, but also, they ask us to start from a high point, to learn the greatest artists in the history and the works in their late time. The most impressed is the 4 elements to make a success on art: Talent, Diligent, Luck and Life Span. I have listened to the first 3 elements before, “Life Span” is something that I first time to think of and I do think it is quite reasonable.

Lastly, I do feel lucky to be among the 36 artists and a quite good class. Here in CAFA, I have not only gotten much help on my life and feel warm in the cold winter, but also, I have gotten a lot of actual help on my painting learning from my classmates.

-- Mr. Li Gang who is our tutor works with us for about 14 hours almost every day. He not only cares for everyone’s study, but also, he cares for every student’s life and our growing up. Within the 10 days, he has organized two class meetings, to talk something important for us.

-- Mr. Yang Guangyin who is our monitor, lives in Beijing, he can complete his assignment at home, just for the service for the students, every day, he comes to the school and every noon, he just has a short nap on the chairs in the classroom. Another monitor Mrs. Tian Runji, always works for us at the first and enjoys herself behind.

-- Most of my classmates were art teachers, professional artists or someone worked in the art field before they came to CAFA, about 75% of them graduated from art colleges or the art departments of the universities. Therefore, I do feel that every one in the classroom can be my teacher. So, even though I have rented a comfortable apartment near the campus, I keep staying in the classroom as long as possible, try to be among of my classmates, to learn from each one.

As the students who pay the expensive tuition by ourselves, every one cherishes his/her time in CAFA, but, when I joined them, all my classmates opened their arms to welcome me and helped me. Mrs. Caifeng Hao offered her notebooks to me and told me to “be responsible to every line that we are painting” on a Chinese Baimiao. Mrs. Qian Gao often checks my work and to gives me some good directions; Mrs. Hui Wang not only offers her notebook to me, but also, she would like to offer me some lessons on Traditional Chinese Landscape Paintings; Mr. Jianhua Cui taught me a lot of knowledge about the structure of a person’s head; Mr. Zhong Wei told me how to use the lines, and how to paint the hair of the model; Ms. Le Kang showed me how to express a person’s eyes…

By the strict requirement of ACFA and the sincere help from my calssmates, except attending the lectures and exhibition, I have completed 6 pencil sketches, one Chinese ink sketche, I mean to paint from the life (true people/models) and 4 pieces of Chinese Baimiao already, and I have made some progress so that many people said that my painting from the life (true person/ model) seems like “ Comfortable”.

Right now, I would like to share 2 of them with you with this letter and hope to bring you a big smile. :-)

With a grateful heart, I would really like to cherish my luck, to protect myself and improve my health, to learn from my professors and classmates with a sincere and modest attitude, to make progress as much as possible…

How about you? Do you have anything special in your week?