Ancient Furniture in Panlilou Villa, most important villa in the big house.

Traditional Chinese painting. Last weekend I happened to see the painting exhibition. To be frank, I also cannot understand the paitings. Can you see something from the drawing?

The top looks like mountains with occasional trees and houses, and the bottom looks like red flowers on a tree branch. Doesn't quite look like a cherry blossom tree though.

Unless you're referring to an emotional reaction from these paintings, in which case, yes, they evoke tranquility to me.

The top one looks like a fog-enshrouded mountain valley.

The Mountain is in the fog and cloud. In the bottom there are chrysanthemum, megranate, lotus and cherry.

To be frank, I also cannot understand the paitings. Can you see something from the drawing?

What did you mean when you said this, Billy?

I don't know how to judge the beauty of the paintings and what the painter want to express.

Its been my experience that often painters are not intending to express one exact thing, particularly when their images are more loose or abstracted. Many are hoping their work inspires an emotional response, personal reflection and curiosity- viewers make the meaning, based on what they bring and know. Of course, sometimes you know alot about the context in which something was made, sometimes not so much!

I wonder if the landscape is based on a real, recognizable place, or references a work of poetry or other literature. I wonder if the multiple panels tell a story, what the calligraphy says. And I wonder if there is some sort of cultural symbolism attached to the series of 4 plants depicted. Seasons? Blessings?

They are previews from the next episode of Survivor.

The first landscape is really based on Jigong Mountain. The four plants present four personalities.

Maid-in-Waiting. She became old and still served in the Place. She sit on the chair alone. The olny task is to wait for the death.

That is very beautiful. the explanation makes it possible to understand the hunched sadness of the woman.

The small number of brush strokes makes a very powerful statement.

Do the strokes which form the chair also form a word in calligraphy? It looks as though it might ... if it does, what does it say?

Gee Wolf just when I think you are a gun totting bad ass with the educational background and career that gives you all the more reason to shoot people you go and say something deep. Though I do agree with your thoughts on the painting. I am always amazed how a few simple strokes convey so much.

God Damn....that's a depressing painting. The old maid schoolmarm that never had time for children of her own, the old soldier that preserved other's lifestyles so well he had no life, the reward for years of selfless dedication is emptiness. :(

I cannot believe that you like this drawing so much. I also don't know if the chair presents something. Maybe the drawer knows it.

The following is the lotus in four seasones. The first is a bird singing on the green lotos. The second is the flower of lotus. The third is the fruit of lotus. The fourth is a bird singing on the sapless lotus.