i began cheng creek this morning. cheng refers to li cheng (919-967) who developed the idiom of "crab-claw" (xiezhao) trees and "devil-face" (guimian) rocks, which were used as a model by guo xi (ca.1000-ca. 1090), who took it much further with his innovative brushwork & use of ink.
8/27 worked on this one a lot today. it's become a horizontal and there is some stuck energy right about in the middle of the right panel, where that brown semi-circle ends too abruptly in a straight vertical. so i'm about to go back into it. it's usually hard to go back in & keep my mind out, avoiding any tendency to hold on to a passage i'm attached to in favor of the whole. stay tuned.
later: a BIG old thunderstorm rolled in & the light was not great, so this photo needs to be retaken. i think it's improved, but i'll know better tomorrow.
8/27 FINAL version
8/27
stage 1 8/26
detail: guo xi
old trees, level distance