How are you? Have you started a wonderful new week?

Now I have been in Beijing for 20 days and I have totally involved myself into the art and English study.

This week, except attending the classes of Professor Liu Wanming – Associate Dean of Chinese Painting College of Chinese National Academy of Arts and a tutor of master students, I have painted from the nature 13 times for about 30 hours, painted 3 traditional Chinese Paintings and did 3 comprehensive examinations and 3 classified tests with the former true examination papers by myself, aimed my own problems, to study the parts I have not mastered yet.

In art, the more I study, the more I appreciate my Chinese Alma Maters -- Chinese National Academy of Arts and China Central Academy of Fine Arts. In the study in Beijing for 4 years, they have not only given me so much knowledge and so many useful skills, but also, and the most important, they have trained me to have a pair of sensitive eyes.

Every day, I can find something beautiful and I do desire to paint from the nature. It has become a habit, so that I can paint in any place at any time, no matter I was a traveler in the USA or I am a student in Beijing, even if on the street. Then in 2012, mainly I painted peach blossoms, peonies and day lilies out of the door; in 2013, mainly I painted roses, and in 2014, I have painted magnolia flowers 13 times, I will go to paint the jasmine flowers and peach blossoms in the upcoming days.

During the process, I did have some strong feelings:

-- Beauty is just beside us, as long as we pay a little bit attention to find it, it is just around us. Since I re-started to paint in 2013, I have been feeling about it. Now in Beijing, between my home and the classroom, on the road for about 10 minutes by walk, I have found magnolia flowers, jasmine flower, peach blossoms, roses, pine trees, phoenix trees, evergreen trees, poplars and many nameless plants... every one has its own special pretty and waits us to find, to express and to show it with some artistic style.

Life is same, there are too many beautiful things around us, the problem is : people are too busy to care for them. From this sense, to help more people find something beautiful in the daily life and to return the world with an appreciate heart, may be one of the duties of the artists and the educators?

-- Opportunity is just in our own hands, but it is transient, to catch it with an actual activity maybe the most efficient way to live and to work in the world. March 24, very casually, I found some magnolia trees that had blossomed near the school, then I decided to paint them. Then I have been doing it since March 25. Each day I went to paint twice for 4 or 5 hours, even if the atmospheric haze hit Beijing March 26 to 28, I kept working with some coughs, until I could paint the flowers from any angles without helping of any photo, picture and need not see them after I painted it 12 times by the trees for about 30 hours. This afternoon, I decided to paint my magnolia last time ( and the 13th time). Then I just found, they had been dug out and their roots had been packed already. Some gardeners would like to carry them away.

There were so much pity to the flowers and so much appreciation to the God in my heart. After all, I have completed all my planned paintings from the nature already. Just for I wanted to see the structure of the flowers last time before I started to paint the other flowers tomorrow. Then, I saw them at a zero distance – them had been dug out, and I could see the highest flowers so clear. At that time, I could not help thanking the God, it sounds like he was looking after me so that he gave me this opportunity to observe what I wanted to see in the nearest place. After all, this morning and noon, specially, I had come to see the structure 12nd time in the hot sunshine, but still I wanted to see it last eyes after I completed all of my planned paintings.

What lucky art student I was!

At that time, I could not help thinking, if I did not catch the time and the opportunity to paint every day, even if in the bad air March 25 to 28, what would heppen to me right now?

With the same idea, except working hard on my art study, by some phone calls, I ordered my lunch and dinner from 2 restaurants, then I have added 2 hours for my English study every day.

Nowadays, I work on English for 4 hours; paint from the nature for 4 - 5 hours; study and paint traditional Chinese paintings for another 4 or 5 hours... I am going to catch the last time as much as possible, hope to pass the national English examination while to complete my art study in the 4th year in Beijing.

Quickly, I have been a tan, but the cold has gone and the edema on my fingers have also sometimes gone. I am thinking that maybe the warm sunshine of Beijing helps me more than too much medicine? :-)

How about you? Do you have anything special to share in the past 8 days?


Sincerely,


Shirley Yiping Zhang
March 31, 2014 (Beijing Time)