I have painted for over 30 years, primarily preferring to work in watercolor. For many years I worked in traditional western watercolor techinique, which emphasizes filling the paper with color and the materials allow for a certain amount of reworking. I decided to study Chinese brush painting, figuring I would learn what I needed to apply to my western-style of watercolor in a few years. Well, it has been over 10 years now that I've studied and practice this technique, and I feel I still have much to learn. The materials themselves are very different from western watercolor materials. First, the xuan (rice) paper is very thin, almost like tissue paper, so there is not much "reworking" an area; thus the emphasis on perfecting the brush strokes. The chinese water color themselves are hard, mineral-based chunks which have to be wetted prior to use. Control of water is essential to the success of this techinique. In terms of composition, there is much emphasis on leaving "white space" as part of the compositional elements of a painting. The style I work in, called xieyi, is expressive and relies on the artists imparting the feeling, or impression of the object to the painting rather than detailed study. I hope you enjoy viewing these paintings as much as I enjoy painting them!