* More paintings were done but not updated online yet
Dec 21 2020, instead of Santa, we got lockdown X in London. Looking at the grey British sky outside, anyone had a 3 year old and two 65 year old+ all together would know how dark this winter would be.
Crying solves nothings, so I decided to take things the positive way and launched a little project of "one painting a day keep depression away". Gathered some friends who are on the same road of desperation with little monsters, we did 40 minutes everyday of painting, yes everyday 75 days until school reopened on Mar 8th, we painted 700+ paintings except for 2 days only - Xmas day and Chinese new year eve. We are not talking about colouring in Peppa Pig, serious art and creativity exploration planned as sincerely as possible.
I started the classes by studying master's work with them, $50m+ valued paintings, and we did most in the weekends as many moms were very interested too. We painted 3 Van Goghs, 2 Kandinskys, 5 Monets, 2 Gaugains, Klimt, Cezanne, Paul Klee, Derain, Hockney, Chagall, Turner and Most expensive Chinese painter Wu Guanzhong and Zhou Chunya. Each class is recorded below and YES every painting was done in 40 minutes (well or 50 when my monster screamed for help after peepee)
Here they are
https://www.onepaintingaday.org/daily-painting-sessions/categories/learn-from-masters-painting
As creativity is the essence of art, I also launched a series of playful classes to explore ways to make creative composition like constellations, different mark making ways (wet on wet, drip, card, stamp..), response to music (Elgar's enigma variation etc), creating snowflakes with positive mind energy and more.
https://www.onepaintingaday.org/daily-painting-sessions/categories/playful-creative-painting
Last but the most exciting for me, was the series of combining painting, music, drama, documentaries, creative story and more with learning Chinese characters which ARE abstract arts themselves. From painting creating story inspired by nursery rhymes to mini theatres puppet show of stories of Aesop and Chinese wisdoms, Puccini's opera and 2021 haute couture fashion show. Every image made by the little 3 and 4 year old are so fascinating full of life and amazing story plots. Every mind blowing story is recorded on the blog and Hollywood should come for a visit for the next screenplay. Inspired by children imaginations, I try to make every single class another level of surprise too and enjoyed it hugely. Not to mention the famous paintings we studied in the process from Master Qi Baishi to Bella's running dogs. (yes we painted all the animals too, and studied the most famous painter who painted them..well except the dinosaur session).
To conclude, like my last class of the famous Chinese tale of Mr Sai who lost his horse - Yes it was the worst of the times, but yes it was the best of the times because we made it. It might have been the darkest winter we ever lived, but it became the best after we converted 700+ white A4 paper to 700+ pieces of colourful images with lively stories, and gave confidence to many 3- 69 year youngs to explore the beauty of colours and lines and see the world with a thankful mind.