Week two of Chinese calligraphy was full of exciting projects. Thursday featured a guest speaker, Yanwen Tan, who taught students the art of bamboo painting. Students had the opportunity to paint their own pieces and to practice signing their names. The painting class provided students with a glimpse into the rich history of Chinese painting and showed them some examples of the many intricate links between Chinese painting and calligraphy. For example, the stems of the bamboo are painted as a vertical line similar to the 竖 (shù) stroke or a rotated 横 (héng) stroke in calligraphy. Meanwhile, the leaves resemble a 撇 (piě) stroke or an elongated 点 (diǎn) stroke. Some student work is shown below.
