Cody with a lotus painting from BK11: Drawing Lotus and insects from Q025: Butterflies and Insects

In this Issue:
Lotus and Transcendence
NEW Lotus Painting Challenge
“Painting Lotus” Book and NEW Classic Lotus Lesson
Three Lotus Leaf Painting Masters
Bamboo, the Gentleman of Summer
Secret Weapon Brushes for Painting Bamboo
Book of the Bamboo by Su-sing Chow
NEW Landscape Painting Challenge and Landscape Lessons Book

Lotus and Transcendence

by Evan Yeh

Lotus Painting from the book “Drawing (Painting) Lotus”

History of Lotus in China

Lotus has a significant place as a symbol in Chinese culture. We see Lotus rising out of the muddiest and murky waters to appear beautiful and pristine. Therefore, it has been adopted as a symbol of purity, and transcendence. In particular it has been adopted by Buddhism as one of eight sacred objects.

Process of Transcendence

The definition of transcendence is: exceeding usual limits or extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience. Stories of transcendence are usually large and impressive like Nelson Mandela surviving twenty-seven years of wrongful imprisonment and then being released to become the leader of the country that once accused him of being a criminal.

But the process that is relevant to the great majority of people is smaller. This process boils down to how we tolerate a situation or circumstance that is less than ideal while preserving a good attitude and eventually creating a change in our circumstance that moves us closer towards our ultimate desires.

Claiming the Power of Your Mind

It is important to understand and claim the power of your mind over your experience. Suffering is largely a product of the mind. We know this because people can be suffering even if everything around them would suggest comfort and abundance. We can even go as far as to define suffering as the act of focusing your mind on something that you do not wish to experience.

This comes in many forms. When we focus our minds on undesirable things and speak them aloud, this is called complaining. When we focus our minds on things undesirable in the future, this is called worrying. This tendency and all of its forms is the opposite of transcendence. It is locking yourself in a box defined by your circumstances.

Therefore the process of transcendence can be simply defined as the process of focusing your mind on what you desire regardless of your current circumstances. This act creates a feeling of contentment, anticipation, and positive expectation and eventually your circumstances reshape themselves to reflect your mental focus.

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OAS Painting Challenges

Gear up for our Painting Challenges! Countless members of our OASLife Facebook group say how painting challenges are what inspire them to continue painting consistently. We have witnessed firsthand how drastically artists improve when they paint daily!

How Do I Join?

If you haven’t already, join our OASLife Facebook group - participation is free. All you have to do is commit to painting every day, take a picture of what you’re working on and post it to the group (you can write about what you’re working on, what materials you’re using, what instructions you’re following, etc).

15-Day Lotus Challenge

This painting challenge will start July 17th and go through July 31st with the focus on painting lotus.

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Lotus Leaf Painting Masters

These four brushes are the best for painting large, spontaneous lotus leaves, each with their own unique differences. The Unicorn Brush is the largest out of the four brushes and the most functional with its ergonomic handle. The Phoenix Brush is an OAS classic, with its ornate wooden handle. Hold onto this brush and pass it on to future generations. The Full Lotus Brush is the most practical due to its size and is a great “all-purpose” brush. The 3” Wash Brush allows you to effortlessly paint dramatic, large leaves that are found in lotus paintings.

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Bamboo, the Gentleman of Summer

In Chinese art, the Four Gentlemen represent each season: plum blossom(winter), orchid(spring), bamboo(summer), and chrysanthemum(autumn). Theses subjects are used by brush painting masters to teach their students the fundamentals of brush painting. Once you learn the strokes of these four gentlemen, you will be able to paint other subjects in Chinese Brush Painting with your knowledge of these fundamental strokes.

Bamboo is a symbol of strength through flexibility and is considered the perfect gentleman. It allows itself to bend but when released, it returns back to its original shape. The farther it bends, the more speed and power it demonstrates when it returns back to its original shape.

Or stream DV04-06: Chinese Brush Painting - Bamboo on https://ningyeh.vhx.tv for 9.99/month

Secret Weapon Brushes for Painting Bamboo

“Secret Weapon” brushes are brushes that have a combination of hair and shape that make them specialists for doing a certain stroke. Each brush has its own unique usage for painting bamboo.

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Book of the Bamboo by Johnson Su-Sing Chow

With its popularity beginning in the Song (Sung) Dynasty, bamboo painting has grown to include color (instead of solely monochrome ink) in spontaneous style and fine line/gong-bi styles. This book teaches all three methods (spontaneous ink, spontaneous color, and fine line/gong-bi).

63 pages, Chinese/English

M003: Book of the Bamboo $15

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60-Day Landscape Challenge

This painting challenge will begin August 1st and go through September 29th with the focus on painting landscapes. If you prefer structured challenges, try painting through Ning Yeh’s Landscape Lessons Book 1.

It includes fourteen in-depth landscape painting instructions, each broken up into 5-8 steps. If you have never painted landscapes before, we believe that painting through an instructional guide will be immensely valuable for you.

Thank you for reading our Summer 2023 Newsletter!
Browse our full Summer Collection here