City: Suzhou
Hand-painted silk fans are a representative cultural product of ancient Suzhou. Literati and artists often painted landscapes, flowers and calligraphy on round fans to express their aesthetic taste and personal feelings. The soft silk surface, delicate brush lines and gentle ink colours perfectly match the poetic mood of Suzhou's classical gardens. These fans were popular accessories for scholars and noble ladies during the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties.
In this workshop, professional Chinese painting teachers will demonstrate basic ink-wash painting techniques. You will get a blank silk round fan, brushes and mineral pigments. You can draw simple classical garden scenes, such as pavilions, bamboo, lotus or lake rocks. The tutor will give step-by-step guidance to help you finish your painting. After drying, you can take your hand-painted fan away as a beautiful memento of your Suzhou trip.
For adult travellers, this relaxing creative activity brings you close to Chinese ink painting aesthetics. For overseas student delegations, students can learn the core ideas of Chinese landscape painting and connect the fan art with the garden architecture they visited earlier on the tour. Students can observe how painters condensed the beauty of large landscapes into a small fan surface.
PandaStudyTour prepares all painting tools and blank silk fans. We can adjust the painting difficulty for different age groups. This Su-style fan painting experience can be integrated into your classical garden tour or cultural study programme.
