Taiwan Plein Air Festival 2018

  

It was the National Plein Air Festival here in Taiwan.  The more formal outings were held in bigger cities but from the official Facebook page I could see there were also some small get-togethers in various towns. 

I joined the huge group of sketchers in Ximen Ding in Taipei. It's a district famous for old buildings as well as modern shopping streets. A place for the old and the new, just like the sketchers I saw that day. There were many professional artists doing plein-air painting demonstration as well as young children sitting on the ground drawing with crayons. 

I definitely enjoyed sketching and chatting with passersby, but I probably spent more energy examining all the interesting gear made by other sketchers. Here is a sketcher who uses a metal stand from a steaming pot to support her easel.  Below is a plein air painting box made by a couple who were just not happy with what they could find on the market. The plastic board is light-weight, affordable and easy to manipulate. They attached a rod (dissembled from a camera tripod) to the bottom of the box and just pull it up when they need to use it.  The custom-made box can store everything they need for painting outdoors in it, including a stool. 

So who wouldn't like going on a painting/sketching festival? You get to sketch, chat and see all the creative ideas in action. Just fun, fun, fun!

Tuesday Sketching- Monga, Taipei

I spent more than an hour working on the first sketch and it turned out terrible! So bad that I don't want to put it up here. I moved to sketch a few fellow sketchers close to me before returning to sketch the scene.

With only 20 minutes left before the throw-down, I decided to put colour blocks on the paper first before drawing the details. The loose drawing turned out better. A fellow sketcher, who is also an art teacher, walked over and gave me some positive feedback. He also suggested me to add something in the centre as the focus point. Therefore a washing line and a fire hydrant were added.

 Taiwanese street scenes is really difficult to capture!

Tuesday Sketching- 大稻埕

The 'Tuesday Sketching' group met at Da Dao Cheng, Taipei, today. Most people sketched the buildings. I decided to walk down the street a bit to sketch the famous temple: Xia Hai Chenghuang Temple. It's a praying site visited often by young people, especially young single women. In the temple there is a match-making god, whose job is like Cupid. According to the temple's record, every year more than 3000 people found their Mr. or Mrs. Right after they visited the temple.

I omitted quite a lot of buildings and structures in this sketch. I found sketching street scenes in Taipei is quite overwhelming. There are always cars and scooters in the scene; the colours of the buildings are usually a bit dull due to humidity; and there are so many buildings and structures to make the scene complicated. While sharing my reflection with another urban sketcher, who is also an art teacher, he said if I can make a good urban sketch in Taiwan, I will be able to make any street in the world pretty.

I didn't get to participate in the 2018 AsiaWalk but quite a few foreign urban sketchers joined us today after they finished the event in Taichung. Some of them are from Australia! It was nice to chat with them and see their sketches. I also learnt that art supplies such as Handbook sketchbooks are pricey in Australia. Hmm, I have to remember to pack as many art supplies as possible before heading Downunder.

The Little White House- a community shed

I set myself on a mission of investigating what is in the neighbourhood after we moved to Taipei. Every time when I am out running errands, I take a lane or alley that I haven't explored as long as it takes me to my destination. A couple of weeks ago I came across a small workshop-looking place full of woodworking tools. The people there on the day told me that the place is called The Little White House. It's a community shed, where local residents go and hang out while working on projects such as soap making with recycled oil, glass cutting and woodworking.

Sep 30, 2018 James doing woodwork at the community shed

All the tools and materials at the shed are donated by locals and everything is accessible to the public. A volunteer or teacher will be there for the project/workshop of the session and he or she will assess if the user is demonstrating knowledge of care and safety. 

I thought the idea is great and very similar to the Men's Shed in Melbourne, except the Men's Shed is really just for men. Living in an apartment means James can't set up a proper woodworking bench or using big cutting machines. At the Little White House he can have access to many tools and a space to work on his project. He definitely had a ball at the Little White House today while making a wooden tablet stand. 

Linsen Park, Taipei, Taiwan

Moon Festival is coming up this weekend. The holiday has another name: Mid Autumn Festival, meaning we are now in the middle of autumn. One might think that means here in Taiwan the weather is cool. Quite the opposite. We have been having cloudless sunny days with 32 -34 degrees Celsius this week. It's the Autumn Tiger, dry heat that comes in Autumn. During the Autumn Tiger, the best time of the day is the afternoon, when the sun sits low in the sky but still bright and the breeze picks up under big trees.

NTU Sports Centre

On Sunday James decided to try out the indoor swimming pool at National Taiwan University, which is pretty close to our apartment. I don't like swimming much but decided to tag along.

The sports centre at NTU was surely busy. There were various classes in session, including flamenco dance, ballroom dance, table tennis, Squash...and so on. I heard loud yelling as soon as I went into the building, so I followed the sound to find out what was happening after James went into the pool. It was Kendo in action! I have only seen Kendo in Japanese comic books and didn't know players have to yell throughout a game. Kendo looked fun but I prefer to watch on the side instead of being hit with a bamboo stick.

Gong Guan Riverside Park

Have you ever felt that some days you just have to get out of the house? Today was one of those days for me. It has been raining since we moved to Taipei. At first it was just afternoon thunderstorms and then it turned into heavy rain for a few days. Finally, today the sun came out and stayed, with nice breezes.

I spent my day sketching at Chang Kai Shek Memorial Hall before heading back home to finish some chores. After James came home from his Mandarin class, I dragged him out to have a walk along the riverside park nearby. Reluctantly, James gathered his fishing gear and came with me. While he was looking for a fishing spot down by the river, I sketched the people who probably also wanted to enjoy the dry evening out here.

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

Last time when I visited the Memorial Hall I was a primary school student, I think. After getting my renewed Taiwanese passport at the Bureau of Consular Affairs, I took a short walk over to see if the Memorial Hall has changed. If anything, the Hall feels much smaller. Even the main plaza seems smaller than I remembered.


While waiting for my passport, I tried out Carol Hsiung's technique of drawing. I stumped upon Carol's flickr page a few weeks ago and really like the way she leaves blank for views to fill in. It was a bit like doodling when I tried it today but nonetheless a fun way to draw.

My new neighbourhood

This is my new neighbourhood in Taipei. No, I didn't get the hair color wrong, and yes, the woman at the back is wearing a hijab.

When I moved to Australia in 2007, it wasn't common to see foreigners in Taiwan. Perhaps some in Taipei but definitely not that many in the rest of Taiwan. Now foreign faces are everywhere in Taipei and even in my hometown Tainan I see many western faces hanging out like locals.

On my way home I saw this scene and had to stop to sketch it. The little boy is wearing a uniform vest from a local kinder. It seems a great snapshot which captures the diversity of people in Taipei.