About the Course
All levels are welcome. Partial materials included.
Open to students ages 18 and up.
Learn foundational strokes of free hand style, Xieyi technique, and how to seamlessly blend Asian and Western wet-in-wet techniques to create beautiful watercolors and mixed media artworks.
Through demonstration, individual instruction, and critique, students will:
Create floral and bird paintings that have interesting and dynamic compositions.
Understand how to control water amounts when painting on rice paper to produce different styles and unique results.
Add final touches to their artwork using chops.
Materials List:
1. Chinese Painting colors (Regular Watercolors are fine)
2. Chinese Painting Ink (you may substitute with black color from Watercolor sets) *
3. Brushes: firm (like wolf-hair) and soft (Goat-Hair), or all-purpose one each in size XS, S, M.
Optional:
Old cardboard to carry wet paintings home.
8B pencil or charcoal
Hair dryer
Wear something casual but not loose sleeve
Apron
* Practice rice paper, student grade brushes, and ink will be provided.
Your Instructor
May Shei
May Shei was born in a HAKKA town in S. Taiwan, and grown in a very artistic family. May Shei (陳菊美) graduated from the Arts and Craft program at Tainan University of Technology (台南家專美工科) and the department of Art at Chinese Culture University (中國文化大學美術系) with a major in Commercial Design and a minor on Oil and Chinese painting. May is an art teacher and professional artist focusing on abstract, linear style, and contemporary art. She brings the richness of her country’s history into her artwork. May’s art blends the traditional techniques of Asian artists before her as well as her contemporary style. May often portrays the creatures of her childhood, now endangered and protected species, as well as ancient figures from Taiwan’s past. Her work examines the abstract and the natural, and the ways in which they collide with our modern world. May’s work blends eastern and Western styles in a contemporary fashion and has received multiple awards in a number of San Francisco Bay Area art competitions, she is an invited and featured artist in many galleries and Museum exhibits. She has held solo art shows in Taiwan, China, and the US. She gets the jury in for 2016 and 2017 Salon d’Automne Paris.