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This is our big day of waiting!!  Waiting to get a call that our new visas are ready, and waiting for hubby Rob and son Kieran to meet us here in Chengdu.  Unfortunately due to misfortune of Kelsey's lost passport and misfortune with delays we were not able to fly to Beijing to meet the guys.

Kelsey is delighted to be done her practicuum.  I am happy that the weather is pretty nice and so we decided that we should go to the lovely Baihutan park in Chengdu for tea and a walk while we do all of this waiting. 

Our lovely Chengdu neighbourhood friend Sandy decided to take us for a visit to the lovely historic village of Huanglongxi, which I believes means something about a yellow stream.  It is a beautiful place on the river with many streams, waterfalls, sculptures, boat rides, fantastic shops, pavilions, tea houses and is often used as a set for movies and TV shows. 

Angie up the stream near the waterfall.

All dressed up with a matching wreath.

Because the village has so many shows filmed here it is filled with costume shops.  For around $1.50 you can rent a costume from ball gowns, traditional historic costumes, wedding attire, to mao suits are available.

This afternoon we visited the amazing art community of Songxianqiao in Chengdu.  While there were many antiques and craft shops what caught my attention were the many artists studios of all traditions.  We especially enjoyed meeting several oil painters who were so kind.  Most did not speak english but welcomed us in to their studios and somehow we communicated with them and had a wonderful afternoon. 

Kelsey has met this artist on a visit on the weekend and he was happy to see her again.  He invited us to sit down and he showed us many of his paintings and his listings in major shows and reviews of renowned artists.  He showed us his painting process and also showed us where a beautiful river and treefilled village he likes to paint is located an hour and a half south west of Chengdu.  We actually might go visit there if we have time next week when Kieran and Rob arrive. 

These artists can speak some English.  He showed us paintings he has done of Tibetan people as well as portraits of his mother and son.  His wife is a wonderful charcoal sketcher.  He is famous in Yunnan province where they lived for several years.  While we were there they were wrapping up artwork to send to Shanghai.  He showed us his oil paints and explained how he uses a nontoxic solvent for painting and linseed oil.  He  also uses soap and maybe citrus oil to clean his brushes.(Something I learned to do when I oil painted my house many years ago and couldn't tolerate the chemicals in terpentine).   Kind of like I used to do my oil paintings here.  Unfortunately I didn't know there was an art store at this artist village that I could have bought some of the nontoxic citrus solvent and some real non-additive linseed oil which apparently helps paint dry quicker.  He uses the citrus stuff to thin the paint for the underglaze and linseed oil for overcoats.

Here are some of the other artists we met--they were so kind!

Can't believe it is the last day of Kelsey's teaching practicum at the Lonjiang Middle Road Elementary School in Chengdu China.  She has had a wonderful experience working in the classroom of all of the 1200 students.  She has had the most fantastic teacher mentors who have modelled fantastic classroom teaching styles.  Kelsey started off as quite a shy newby.  Today I was lucky enough to be allowed to observe her last classes and I was so amazed at what a dynamic, enthusiastic, outgoing teacher she has become.  She has managed to develop exciting lesson plans that are thoroughly enjoyed by the students.  She has found ways to engage the children and I can see how much they adore her!  What a perfect experience to the start of her teaching life that she has gotten here in China. While Kelsey is sad that her time with the students is over, she is also kind of excited to be on the start of her summer break!  Congratulations Kelsey and thank you to Luis, head of the english language department and teacher mentors Luis and Casey!  I am so lucky that Kelsey allowed me to accompany her during her time here--what a perfect excuse to have the past 6 weeks to paint!

Spent the day finishing up the painting we started en plein air on Monday.  The acrylic of the Bronze Urn of Lotus Blossoms located on Kuan Street at Big and Little Alley, Chengdu China  is 12x16 inches.

After spending a very low keyed weekend sniffling in my room with a cold we decided to head out to paint at Big and Little Alley in downtown Chengdu. We wanted to see how lightweight we could make our backpack to see how little I could get away with taking to paint on the trip later when we are travelling.

First we scouted out the wonderful streets and took photos. It is a very busy place and so we were looking for an unobtrusive spot with a nice scene to paint.Atlast Kelsey spotted a very sheltered little corner at the front of a tea house with the view of the old doorway and big pots with lotus blossoms. It was ideal. We could sit tucked away
in the back and paint. It would be quite difficult for people to get around us to snoop because we were in a tight corner and most people wouldn't even notice us there as we put our paints and water and brushes down on a chair. With boards on our laps, not easels, we were hidden by our lovely table with a tablecloth. It was great and we worked away for a few hours.

I think that we mainly only attracted a small bit of attention due to our hair colour and so we had our pictures taken a few times.

Matt Vegh, a Canadian who has lived in Chengdu for 12 years spotted us and came to talk with us, delighted to find we were fellow Canadians. He's from Toronto. He was helped open an English language business school in Chengdu and taught at universities all over China. He has written family friendly comic books (he has a great Chinese illustrator), has published a magazine, tourist brochures, story books, and has an animation studio where he has converted his comics to videos and e-books. He is presently writing a feature length film using his many comic characters. After he found out about the networking aspect of my website www.WorldArtTours.net and how I am working to create connections between artists and communities around the world to improve cultural life in the general population he asked us if we would like for him to see if we could attend a Canadian  Business Consulate dinner at a nearby restaurant.

There was a delegation from Ontario that were being brought out to Chengdu by the Canadian Consulate Business Division in Chongqing that were meeting for dinner with the Chengdu business consulate branch. What an interesting night!  Mayor David Craig    of Cambridge Ontario is a big supporter of the arts and a former elementary school teacher.  

Kelsey really enjoyed talking with Catharine who has just graduated in urban planning and Nick who is the president of the Student Union of Sir Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo who were with the group.

Sherry, one of our lovely Chinese friends had bought us tickets to attend the amazing broadway musical style stage production of JinSha. It is based on the historical excavations near

Chengdu where they have found a human settlement from 3,000 years ago. When the show started I said to Kelsey well I guess we won't be able to take pictures of this one just as a sign went up and said No Cameras--but then I saw it continued--No Cameras With Flashes.  Wow--only in China.  We can take photos of the show!

At a local Chengdu archeological dig they found a gold mask and some sort of fire and pheonix symbols and so this major production was
put together and has been presented at the Chengdu museum site in a lovely theatre built 2 years ago.

It is a powerful love story filled with battles, lights, falling flower petals, waterscreens, and flower fairies, lights, acrobats, face changers, and flame breathers. It was an exciting show and anyone visiting Chengdu shouldn't miss it.

Tickets are around $30 each but well worth it--the same on Broadway in New York would be well over $150 and it is so unique in that it attempts to explore local history in a fantastical way!

Daughter Kelsy was inspired to paint the battlescene in acrylics.