Chinese Brush Painting Lessons

These illustrated lessons are written and taught by Nan Rae at The Huntington Botanical Gardens and Library and in her Burbank studio. All are written and illustrated in detail for learning at home. Nan especially recommends the Four Gentlemen Notebook for a comprehensive learning experience. Lessons are available as single subjects or in multi-subject notebooks.

Chi of the Brush by Nan Rae
The Chinese have a saying, “From heart to arm . . . to hand . . . to brush . . . to paper.” This epitomizes the concept of Hsieh-i, or the “written idea,” the spontaneous, expressive approach to Chinese brush painting known as the Literati, or free-form style. In The Ch’i of the Brush, artist Nan Rae illustrates the fundamental elements and traditional motifs of the Literati style, which seeks to transcend the mere representation of a subject to capture its ch’i, or life force, by using a minimum of brush strokes for maximum effect.

Class Lessons

These illustrated lessons are written and taught by Nan Rae at The Huntington Library and her Burbank studio. All are written and illustrated in detail for learning at home. For online classes CLICK HERE

When I first started my journey in watercolor, I came across this amazing lady on youtube. Nan Rae not only has this beautiful spirit about her, but has a wealth of knowledge about her subjects. Everything is painted spontaneously, yet deliberate. I find most of her work comes together like a symphony, each element playing its part to tell the story. I can’t help but to hear background music in my head when viewing her work ☺️

Angie (@_anjee3)