Andy Evansen - Artist's Network

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Wingchi Ng’s garden Goose Shack reference photo Goose Shack (watercolor on paper; 10x14) Diaolou reference photoearly morning or late afternoon sunshine fordramatic lighting effects. Yet what the weatherseemed to lack, the subject matter more thanmade up for.“Our first morning in China, we had breakfastwith our hosts in Mr. Ng’s garden [see photoabove] before they drove us around Kaiping andto some of the outlying villages to give us a feelfor the environment,” he says. “From that introductorytour, we decided to paint in Zili villagethe following day, our first full painting day, andended up spending a couple of days there. In all,we visited four or five of Kaiping’s surroundingvillages, including Chikan village where Jasongrew up.”Evansen’s paintings of Zili village reveal alush, green landscape. “The villages are verysmall. We didn’t have to drive far outside thecity before the landscape transformed intopicturesque countryside with mountains in thedistance,” he says. “Going into the village feltlike stepping back in time. It marked just oneinstance of a frequently stark contrast betweenthe old and the new.”Emphasizing that sense of the old were thediaolou (see photo on page 5)—unusual towerlikestructures—unique to this region of China.“The diaolou were built beginning in the 15thand 16th centuries for housing, and for protectionof the citizens from bandits and extensiveflooding,” the artist says. “Today the buildings[of which 1,800 still remain] are preserved,though you can go into them. Some still haverelics of exquisite shrines with gold leaf andstatues.” To capture a different perspective ofthe landscape, one that offers a glimpse of moreof the area’s pastoral setting, Evansen painteda scene from atop one of these multi-storiedstructures. (See View Atop Diaolou, on page 5.)People WatchingIf the villages were quiet and remote, the artistsfound painting in Kaiping (a city of approximately650,000) to be highly stimulating. Thecity streets, riverfront and constant action oflocals going about their daily lives were an endlesssource of fascinating subject matter. Yet tothe Chinese passersby, it was Evansen and hisfellow artists who made for a captivating sourceof interest; wherever they set up their easels,they attracted a crowd. “When we painted inthe village, a few of the villagers would stop byto see what we were doing,” he says. “Paintingin Kaiping, however, I’d soon have 50 or morepeople crowded all around me—some evenstanding directly in front of my view. There waslittle sense of personal space there. Often, atleast one person would videotape the wholeprocess. When I finished a painting, everyonewould applaud and then they’d all pull out theircameras to have their picture taken with me.”This kind of intense interaction with thepublic was at its height when Evansen paintedDowntown Kaiping (on page 3). “I was drawn tothe old clock tower with the bright red banneracross the street. I had a huge crowd around methat day; people just kept coming and coming,”he says. “Then a truck came and parked rightalongside me, so I had to pick up all my gear.Some of the onlookers helped me reposition View Atop Diaolou (watercolor on paper; 10x14)www.watercolorartistmagazine.comwatercolor Artist | May 2008 online exclusive
on very thin paper,” says the artist. A foam boardbacking, Black Velvet round brushes in sizes 12and 16, Winsor & Newton watercolors and afull-sized John Pike palette rounded out hispainting gear. “Most of my paintings took aboutan hour to paint; you don’t have much moretime than that en plein air. I try to finish thepainting in three washes by getting down thewhites, knocking in all my middle tones andthen adding my darks to accent and define thepiece. And that’s it.”Although Evansen worked directly from eachscene, such as the one depicted in Fishing Nets(on page 9), he always began by taking a digitalphotograph (on page 8). “Often I’ll do a largerstudio painting of the image, using both myplein air painting and the corresponding photoas reference,” he says. Yet his camera served theplein air painting process on location as well. Heused his camera’s viewfinder to crop the sceneand referred to the display screen to quicklydraw structural composition lines on his paperbefore closing up his camera to paint. Thetranslucent fishing nets with the old houseboatsand mountains in the distance attractedEvansen to this particular sight. “I liked theunique shapes of the boats,” he says. “I alwayslook for interesting shapes—I don’t necessarilygo for the prettiest scene.” By squinting athis subject, the artist painted the large shapesMidday Umbrellas (watercolor on paper; 14x19)my supplies several feet forward along thesidewalk. Everyone was so encouraging andobliging.” The original plein air painting of thatscene, which Evansen subsequently donated tothe Kaiping Art Gallery, didn’t include the manwith the ox. “He came around the corner whileI was painting. I stopped everything, pulled outmy camera and snapped a photo of him as thecrowd cheered me on. Later, when I re-createdthe image in my studio, I inserted the manand the ox,” he says. “The crowds in Kaipingwere quite phenomenal because of the energythey gave. A few times, I found myself gettingdistracted and working too fast, but overall thatenergy seemed to help the paintings vibrate.”A more regular presence among the artistswere the 10 or 15 students from the KaipingArt Center who observed the group of travelingartists as part of its sponsorship. “We hadso much fun,” says Evansen. “They’d find outwhere we were setting up in the morning andthen meet us at our location. Despite the largelanguage barrier, Evansen and the studentsmanaged to communicate. “We laughed a lot,even though often I didn’t know what about!One or two students could speak broken English,but for the most part I was surroundedby all this chatter that I couldn’t understand.As the week went on, it was really hard to saygoodbye,” he says.Getting In the GrooveOne thing that interested the art center studentswere Evansen’s supplies, which he pareddown for the trip. “They kept checking out mySoltec easel and Arches 300-lb. cold-pressedwatercolor paper. They couldn’t believe howthick the paper was. They paint, in comparison,Street Vendor reference photo (above)Street Vendor (at left; watercolor on paper;14x10)www.watercolorartistmagazine.comwatercolor Artist | May 2008 online exclusive
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Andy Evansen - Artist's Network

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