Hood River

Media: Chinese ink and color on paper with traditional paper backing

Date: 2017

Inscription: The bridge across the Columbia River at Hood River, Oregon—the river too calm today for windsurfing. Based on a sketch in the Mustard Seed Garden Manual of painting. Completed in the year of the Fire Chicken 2017 by Lu Kesi .

Seals: Lu Kesi (upper right, under inscription); de yi (lower right)

Click on the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of the image to see a larger version.

Description

“The bridge across the Columbia River at Hood River, Oregon—the river too calm today for windsurfing.”

A color painting by Lu Kesi based on a black and white woodcut illustration in the Chinese Ming dynasty Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting. I like to copy ancient paintings for the sake of practice, colorize them (most old Chinese landscape paintings are in black and white), and sometimes add something—like this title—that updates them. Except for the style of the bridge, this could just as easily be the Columbia River Gorge where I grew up as somewhere in old China.