Stain Painting Lab
"Painting Laboratory with Stains" - Prof. Luciana Rago “Painting is an attempt to take on life. There are as many solutions as there are human beings” George Tooker
The creation of the STAIN PAINTING LABORATORIES within the framework of the training proposals of the Shodo Cretivo pedagogical program arises as a natural development in the course of the creative process. Within the great tradition of monochromatic painting that arises in China, we have focused particularly on the stain school, which characterizes the pictorial production of southeast China and which later passes to countries such as Korea and Japan, among others. Investigating the use of Chinese ink implies accepting chance as part of events, it is developing a capacity for attentive observation minute by minute while the stains behave in an arbitrary and fascinating way on the sheet of paper.
Stain Painting Laboratories are monographic workshops that mix some principles of the Eastern pictorial tradition, concepts of contemporary artistic practices, the conscious and awakened use of the body, unprejudiced experimentation and play as a guide.
Why did we create this lab? 1 - Because we are interested in opening a space for experimentation and enjoyment through painting, without having as our goal the learning of a "motif" or "theme", but giving more importance to the laws that define the decisive moments of creation. 2 - Because we want to dedicate real time to painting and its own language. 3 - Because we are interested in learning to look at our own work and that of others, in order to understand the laws that govern each of the images created, while at the same time understanding the meaning of each of the stains generated. 4 - Because by painting we connect with the materials of our work, which is also connecting with the most vital thing in us; and in this way the creative process flows and materializes on the smooth surface of the paper.
How do we work? In order to find new paths, it is necessary to resort to various methodologies: 1 - We will rely on the projection of images of relevant artists from different pictorial traditions, in all cases images whose use of stain and/or ink is an essential element. 2 - We will propose very specific exercises in relation to the properties of ink, the qualities of papers and specific operations such as covering, covering, opening, copying, enlarging and veiling, to name just a few examples. Luciana Rago
