June 2011

Hangzhou Sketches

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To celebrate the ‘”Year of China” in Italy and intensify cultural exchanges between the Orient and the West, HANGZHOU BRAND PROMOTION CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (China) organized an event called:

“Following the path of Marco Polo”Italian Artists Paint Hangzhou

This event included an invitation to 100 Italian-based painters to spend a week in the city of Hangzhou for the purpose of studying, admiring and representing the charming and enchanting landscape of the city through works of art. These works, completed in Italy after the trip, will be displayed in both Italy and China.

I participated in this event and packed my bags with drawing and watercolour materials on the first day of June, 2011.

Travelling includes waiting so I started drawing right away at Fiumicino airport before my connecting fli-ght to Amsterdam via KLM airlines.

I can’t describe my pre-fli-ght temperament. I really didn’t expect this operation to come off. Imagine: one week in China, all expen-ses paid. This included flight, room and board in a 5-star hotel, a personal tour guide and an air-conditio-ned bus to take us around the city.

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Finally, when I arrived at the airport, I started to believe that I really was going to see China.

The flight went from Rome to Amsterdam and then directly to Hangzhou. I began to notice the prevalence of oriental faces on the second flight.

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The flight from Amsterdam to Hang-zhou was about 10 and a half hours. Of course there were crying babies on the flight.

I began to become aware of a certain lack of discipline in the Chinese pas-sengers.

For example, when the plane was landing, the ‘fasten seatbelt’ light was on and all of the crew was stowed in their proper place, I saw one of the attendants waving her arms wildly towards something at the back of the plane.

I turned to see that many of the passengers were standing near the windows gawking at the sce-nery. One guy was laughing and pacing back and forth in the aisle.

I arrived with another 10 artists at the hotel in the late morning. Walking around the neighbou-rhood surrounding the hotel, I made my first sketches on Chine-se soil.

Observing the body position of the figures of my studies, I could generalize that there was a more relaxed posture of my models; maybe in the way that one tries to find the most comfortable way to stand or sit.

I would later verify this observa-tion in the way that the Chinese freely walked, ate, practiced Thai chi chuang, belched and spat.

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One of the first stops for a group of artists is for art supplies. This was also my first attempt at dea-ling with Chinese merchants without a common language.

I was aware that the customer has to make every attempt to bring the price of the desired good down. Numbers were dealt with through handy calculators that the mer-chants had.

My final offer of 100 yuan (8 euros) for a beautiful stick of Chinese red ink (worth 60 euros in Rome) was met by the merchant as he made a ‘harikiri’-like gesture with a paintbrush upon taking my money.

That evening I made an ink painting of the urban landscape that I could see from my 13th floor window.

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The next morning we walked through beautiful parks with poetic names like “Orioles Singing In the Willows” and “Friendship Garden”.

Elderly people practiced Thai chi chuang and eve-rything seemed to take on a peaceful impression in silvery undertones due to the heat and humidity.

I’ve never seen such large expanses of green-area parks taken care of so well. No graffiti, no garbage, not even any weeds.

Just beautifully-preserved walking paths through one surprising vision after another of the beautiful ‘West Lake’ that was crea-ted in the middle of the city.

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Here and there, I encountered im-perial architecture, stone gateways with inscribed calligraphic poems, and small restful pagodas where you could sit, listen and observe.

In one surprising encounter, I wan-dered into a pagoda with a group of people singing. One man accom-panied the singers with a strange 2-corded guitar between his knees. It would not be the only time that I experienced this scene.

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In addition, many ancient buildings, stone caves and engraved tablets in surrounding areas are among the most cherished national treasures of China, with significant artistic value.” Wikipedia

“West Lake is not only famous for its picturesque landscape, it is also associated with many scholars, national heroes and revolutionary martyrs, thus embracing many aspects of Chinese culture.

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We visited the Lingyin Temple where we were able to observe aspects of the Buddhist religion.

Many of the monks were busy with conversations on their mobile phones but the atmosphere was none the less exquisite.

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Our tour included a day at the Xixi National Wetland Park. The park is full of various ponds, lakes and swamps.

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XiXi Wetland has a history of more than 1,800 years and an abundant cultural he-ritage---it’s the original site of Chinese South Opera. It just so happened that we were able to witness the traditional Dragon Boat Contest and we were able to see the life of a water village as it has been for the last 150 years.

The smell of the tofu production was a little difficult to stomach.

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Our tour guide was anxious to show us as much as her itinerary allowed.

We were walking to the tune of 7 or 8 kilo-metres in the morning, taking a nice break in a Chinese restaurant for lunch and then out again for another 5 to 10 kilometres in the afternoon.

It rained 4 days straight but that didn’t stop us. We visited marvellous museums dedi-cated to jade production and seals, bronze objects and calligraphy.

We also had the opportunity to visit the Academy of Fine Arts for art stu-dents and the private studios of some of Hangzhou’s contemporary artists.

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The former residence of Xueyan Hu was breathtaking and I made a couple of sketches there.

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The biggest problem with this pace was the lack of time to work. It would have been fantastic to have been able to draw and paint more.

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On the other hand, I retreated to my room each night to execute an ink painting with my newly-bought supplies.

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When I had time in the morning, I also painted the breaking daylight from my room.

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I spent 7 days and 7 nights in the beautiful city of Hangzhou. I don’t know what the rest of China looks like, but if Hangzhou is just a taste, I can’t wait to go back for more.

Anthony Lombardi Rome, ItalyJune 20, 2011