2009 Workshop in China with the Linden Center

Yunnan, China: February 23 - March 6
This is a two week workshop I am running in partnership with the Linden Center, with the second week optional. The majority of the teaching will take place during the first week, with the second week planned for you to practice the skills you learned in the first week. The Linden Center will also help you arrange a third week of traveling if you would like to see more of Yunnan and explore this beautiful part of China.

Overview
Date: February 23-27, and March 2-6, 2009
Length of workshop: 10 days (5 days teaching during the first week and 5 days painting on your own in Xizhou on the second week with 2 critiques)
Focus: painting the figure in the landscape

Cost
Tuition: 700 Euros (575 first week, 125 second week) payable to Barry John Raybould. Full tuition fee is required upon sign up if less than three months before workshop. If student cancels the workshop, the workshop fee may be applied towards another workshop for the following 12 months only.

Linden Center: $100 per night payable to the Linden Center. Covers three meals a day at the center, and lodging in a double occupancy room. A deposit of $250 is required upon sign-up, the balance of your account will be charged 1 month before the workshop begins.

Other costs: You will need to pay all other costs directly:
- your own airfare to Kunming airport KMG, China
- overnight hotel in Kunming (the Linden Center will help you with booking this)
- transport from Kunming to the Linden Center (again, the Linden Center will help you with booking this). About $40.
- model fees (if you want to work from the model). About $4-$8 per day
- transport in and around Xizhou if you want to explore the area (very cheap)
- alcoholic beverages at the Linden Center
- your visa for China

Schedule
Sat Feb 21: Students arrive in Kunming, go to hotel in Kunming, and meet other students.
Sun Feb 22: Students travel from Kunming to the Linden Center by coach (4.5 hour coach ride, plus short taxi ride)
Mon Feb 23: Workshop starts in the Linden Center. Lectures and coaching in the morning, practice assignments in the afternoon.
Tues to Fri: Continue same activities as Monday (lectures and coaching in the morning, practice assignments in the afternoon.
Fri Feb 27: Last day of lectures and assignments
Mon Mar 2: Start of second week, when we will be working on finished paintings
Tue Mar 3: First checkpoint critique of Monday's and Tuesday's work (in evening)
Thu Mar 5: Second checkpoint critique of Wednesday's and Thursday's work
Fri Mar 6: Last day of painting together
Sat Mar 7: Students depart for Kunming (or do some sightseeing in Yunnan)

The purpose of the trip is to spend some time in an authentic village in China, with the special opportunity to work with the figure in the landscape. For beginners we will go through all the essential elements of painting, including notan, atmospheric perspective, color and brushwork. For advanced painters we will focus on figure techniques, and Barry will go over some of the new material on planes of the figure and portrait from an upcoming course on figure and portrait that Barry has been working on for the past couple of years. China is a fascinating destination and here you can still see traditional people living as they have done for thousands of years of human civilization and culture. We will be staying near the beautiful Lake Erhai, near Dali (more photos) in Yunnan province of China. Yunnan is one of the most beautiful provinces in China, with many authentic villages and lovely mountain scenery, and home to many of the various ethnic minorities in China. This makes it a very colorful place to stay and paint. Our village has many original homes built in the traditional historic architectural style of the region.

Lake Views
Here are some pictures taken this August of Lake Erhai. (These photographs were taken August this year, In March you will see a lot more sun).
Click the photo for a larger version and slide show.


Xizhou Village
Xizhou town, is about a half an hour from Dali, one of the top tourist attractions in Yunnan province. The small village of Dali has not been affected by tourism and retains its genuine charm and character. The local people are the Bai people and many of the women wear traditional Bai costume. Horse drawn carts are common, as well as tricyles and small three wheeler taxis. The village has remarkably well preserved traditional Bai architecture, including many intact buildings from the Qing and Ming dynasties, as well as many traditional Republican style houses, with walled courtyards and intricately carved gates.


The Bai People
The Bai people live around the Dali area and have a long history. We will hire models and paint them in the village and in the courtyard of the Republican era house we are staying in.


Temple
Less than half an hour from where we are staying is a large and historic temple complex which will provide a very interesting setting for us to paint.



Our location: The Linden Center
The place where we plan to stay is a renovated old Republican Period building. It has several private courtyards and some indoor spaces, where we can work on figure paintings.

Here are some photographs of the center. This slideshow shows the architecture of the center, and the accommodation. Click on the album to see larger photographs.

Optional travel in Yunnan
If you wish, we can help you see something of other places in Yunnan. A couple of very interesting places are Yuhu village, and Lijiang, and Zhongdian. Here's some more information on Zhongdian. Lijiang is about three hours bus ride away and Zhongdian is a further three to four hour bus ride away.

Lijiang and Yuhu Village
Lijiang is where most of the tourists go, and is worth about a day or two to visit since it is quite unique and beautiful. A very interesting place to visit that is very close to Lijiang is the village of Yuhu. There is a nice little guest house there, which is a traditional Naxi house, built around a courtyard, and a very friendly family who will cook all your meals for you. The village is small, and full of character. The scenery is magnificent since the village sits at the foot of the Snow Jade Dragon Mountain.

Zhongdian
Zhongdian is also known as Shangrila, and has a lovely little old town, and a temple nearby that is like a miniature version of the Potala Palace in Llasa. The old town is much smaller than Lijiang and has a much different character. It is much more like a Tibetan frontier town, with fascinating Tibetan architecture and many small guest houses with a lot of character and charm. The people are really friendly. Here you will see a Tibetan race, that is completely different race from the Naxi people of Lijiang. One of the interesting features of Yunnan is the wide variety of ethnic groups you meet in just one province. Every evening people all meet to dance together in the small town square. This is traditional Yunnan dancing, (and it is not put on for the tourists). All the locals join in (including my taxi driver Nungoo, who helped me a lot during my stay in August 2008).