Paul Wolber Art Studio

Water Lilies of Kunming, China
Acrylic on gessoed Masonite®panel
6in. x 6in. (15.2cm x 15.2cm)
SOLD

To buy a painting or for more information send an email to:
wolberinchina@hotmail.com

This is the second part of water lilies from Kunming. It is a mountain city with one of the world’s largest botanical gardens. The surrounding countryside is lush with vegetation. There are many parks and gardens in Yunnan Province where this kind of vegetation can be seen. We went there to escape the stifling heat in Beihai on the Gulf of Tokin, which is a subtropical climate on the same latitude as Cuba. The elevation here in Kunming is high enough to keep the city cool at night but not high enough to get cold.

It is said that Yunnan Province was one of the entryways to the old Silk Road from China to the West. It’s still a tourist entryway into China, especially from Li Jiang. The Silk Road caravans did not only carry silk but all kinds of articles for trade to and from China to the West.

These two small paintings can be purchased separately or together as a diptych.

Wu Dong Houses Detail
24in. x 66in acrylic on gessoed Masonite® panel

You can see the complete painting above on my blog header

Photo taken of Bullfight at Wu Dong, Guangxi, China

STORY OF A CHINESE BULLFIGHT

Since I’m waiting for a new camera and can’t photograph new daily works, I’ll tell you the story of our Chinese Bullfight experience.

We were in north Guangxi Province and were invited to see a bullfight. I had no idea what it would be and had visions of the Spanish bullfight where the matador attempts to kill the bull. We traveled several hours by dirt road up into the mountain village of Wu Dong. I was the only foreigner in the village and some of the children had never seen a Caucasian like me, so I was more of an attraction to some of them then the bullfight.

The bullfight was between two water buffalo bulls, not man against bull. The bulls are territorial so one would be sent up river in the water and the other would come down river. When they met, they would fight for territory. There were forty bulls in all to fight that day, so there were 20 runoff fights, then the winners would fight until all the bulls were eliminated except the grand winner and the fights lasted all day. A fight could last five minutes or in some cases half an hour. The bulls would sometimes lock horns and we saw several bulls lift his opponent off the ground by the horns as they struggled. The bull that turned and ran was the loser and the one who stood his ground was the winner. The most we saw during the day was a bloody nose, never a duel to the death. Winning bulls were highly prized and could be sold or bred for a lot of money, so the bulls were carefully cared for.

There was no danger to humans as the bulls were fighting. People were standing all around during the fights and the bull handlers where right beside the bulls during fights. We ask one man about the fights and ask if the bulls were ever injured in a fight. He told us they were highly valued so they would never fight to do much damage to each other.

At noon, a young teacher came to us and invited my wife and I to have lunch with the elders of the village. We joined them for a lunch of vegetables, rice, various kinds of meat and raw fish. I was asked to drink a toast with the top elder who then declared me an honorary member of the village tribe. I’m usually not a drinker of much alcohol, but in this case I did drink the strong rice wine to make the toast as I figured it would cleanse any bacteria in the raw fish I was eating. This was just one of the many fantastic experiences we’ve had in our many travels in China.

Water Lilies from Kunming.
Acrylic on gessoed Masonite®panel
6in. x 6in. (15.2cm x 15.2cm)
SOLD

To buy a painting or for more information send an email to:
wolberinchina@hotmail.com

Kunming is in south China in Yunnan Province. It’s called the City of Perpetual Spring with the average temperature of 65 degrees year around and it has four growing seasons.

Americans are well known there because General Joe Stillwell, known as “Vinegar Joe” brought American flyers there to fight the Japanese invasion of China before the US had formally declared war on Japan. There is a Stillwell Museum in Kunming, showing US involvement in China during that time.

Almost any kind of plant will grow there because of the mild climate. These lilies were growing in a pond in one of the many parks around Kunming. We stayed there for a couple of nights then went on to Dali and Li Jiang, located on the road to Tibet in a region widely regarded as being one of the most beautiful in the world. Li Jiang also is a tourist city partly because of the famous old village in the center of the city. If I ever decide to go back and live in China for an extended period of time, Kunming is a place I’d consider because of the climate and because the air is clear with no industrial pollution in that area.

Whispers
6” x 6” acrylic on gesso primed Masonite®
For current price and shipping cost send email HERE
To see all my past work on this blog click HERE.

The intricate metalwork on this door fascinated me. Age has created a patina on the surface of the metal and the ring has been welded together from damage. I’ve always wondered if this door was meant to keep something out or to keep something in. One can almost hear the whisper of voices behind this door.


© Copyright 2007 by Paul Wolber

Organic Table
SOLD

THIS DETAIL IS LARGER THAN ACTUAL SIZE

At 3” x 7” this is a true miniature painting. It’s modeled after a study I did once for a very large commission, which ended up being 40 feet long! I believe a miniature or very small painting should have a “jewel-like” quality.

When I was a teenager, I worked one summer as a sign painter. The experience was great because it gave me a new appreciation for doing a small study, then translating it into a much larger scale. It was good training for later study in painting as fine art because it taught me to pay attention to the size and scale of things. The detail you see above is about one third larger than actual size of the painting.