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There is a Beas River in Hong Kong near Fanling and Sheung Shui. The name of the river has an interesting history: its English version does not seem to have any relation to its Chinese origin. It appears that an Indian surveyor hired by the British to survey the rivers in Hong Kong took his fancy to name all the rivers he surveyed after the Indian rivers he knew from home. Thus Hong Kong got a Beas River after the famous Indian one which stopped Alexander the Great’s advances to conquer India in 362 BC! I am more interested indeed in the trees around the area the majority of which have probably a much longer history than the river’s English name – and of course, the origin of the Chinese name “Sheung Yue” which believably has more to do with Hakka than Greek culture.
香港有一條雙魚河，在粉嶺和上水附近。它的名字由來有一段有趣的歷史: 它的英文名好像跟中文名沒有什麼關係。原來早期英國人派遣了一位印度的測量師來測量新界的河流，這位印度人沒有理會河流的中文原名便用他家鄉祖國印度的河流來命名，於是香港便有了一條用印度的河命名的河流，這條河也就是西元前362年亞歷山大大帝停止進攻印度的最東邊界！我其實對這地區的古樹比較有興趣，這些古樹大部分比河流的英文名字有更悠久的歷史。當然我也想知道河流中文原名的典故，但我相信「雙魚」這個名字應該與客家而非希臘文化更有淵源。
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This view of Ko Lau Wan was seen from the top of Grass Island as one descends from the grass land park towards the ferry pier. The area is in the easternmost part of Hong Kong surrounded by the country park of Sai Kung. The magnificence of the gaze includes not only the horizontal tip of the land protruding into the bay but also the vertical tip some distance behind from the Sharp Peak, known as the most dangerous peak of Hong Kong. Historically Ko Lau Wan was a very important midway port for merchants travelling between Hong Kong and the Mainland but otherwise it is not a famous tourist spot even for the locals. However, a 2005 French movie La Moustache shot part of the film in the fishing village of Ko Lau Wan Tsui. Although not a box-office success, the movie portrayed the place as context of the main characters’ struggle between reality and imagination by shaving off his moustache.
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I was travelling alone in East Taiwan and wanted to catch the beautiful bloom of Orange Daylily (otherwise also known as Golden Needle Flower) to the south of Hualian. This flower is called Hemeracallis in Greek (hemera – day and kalos – beauty) which means “one day of beauty”. Thus the flower will only bloom from dawn till dusk. According to the Chinese herbology Compendium of Materia Medica, the flower is called Xuancao, also known as Nepenthe (a plant medicine to forget sorrow). There are three famous spots to enjoy the flower bloom in Taiwan, two in Hualin and one in Taitung County: in Haulian, Chike Shan in Yuli and Liushidan Shan in Fuli Township; in Taitung, Taimali Shan in Jinfeng Township. My very first trip to see Orange Daylily was in Chike Shan at full bloom and I could not help making this sketch on the spot with my folding stool amidst the tourists.
我單獨在台東旅行，目的是去看金針花海。金針花，希臘文原名是”一天的美麗”，因為花只開一天，故又名”一日美人”。《本草綱目》稱它為萱草，又名忘憂草，是男兒離鄉別井時種給母親的象徵花。臺灣最著名賞金針花的景點有三處，兩處在花蓮，一處在台東県: 即花蓮玉里鄉的赤科山和富里鄉的六十石山; 台東金峰鄉的太麻里山。我第一次是到赤科山看金針花海，正當盛開的季節，面對遍山橙黃的壯觀，忍不住馬上在遊人如鯽的現場坐下來紀錄了這一刻的印象。
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It was not my first visit to the West Lake of Hangzhou. But this time, I have chosen to stay at a hotel right next to the lake so that I could admire its beauty all day (or rather, at different times of the day). It was a meeting of the European League of the Institute of the Arts hosted by the China Academy of Art. Hence it was only natural that they chose a hotel next to the Academy for the conference participants, which was a bit far from the business centre and main viewing spots of the lake. It was around sunset that I finally made my way from the airport to my hotel and I could not help sitting down, like so many tourists that came to the city, to lose ourselves in front of this wonderful beauty of a brief moment.
這不是我第一次到杭州西湖，但這一次我選了一家在湖邊的旅館，可讓我整天(或更準確地說:在一天不同的時段)欣賞西湖的美景。我是來參加由中國美術學院主辦的歐洲美術院校聯盟的年會，故此大會選擇了在中美院旁的酒店作大部分會議嘉賓的旅館，但地點離中心區和主要景點觀賞區稍遠。我抵達杭州從機場坐公交到酒店已是黃昏，但像大部分到杭州的遊客，我忍不住要坐下來，陶醉在眼前短暫的日落美景中。
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I have wanted to visit Jeju for a long time. With its beautiful flora and fauna and sceneries for all seasons, there are hundreds of reasons to go there to admire the wonders of nature, especially if you are a painter and always have an impulse to capture the beauty of a moment with your brush. Thus in one October break, I finally managed to pack up and go, this time alone for a week, to be free to roam around the whole island to paint. I have read through the tourism guides to plan my route but I must admit that among all the attractions from both nature and culture, there is only one thing that attracts me deep in my heart – the pink muhly grass that blossoms on the island during the autumn season – and I really wish to make a sketch with that lovely plant!
我一直都很渴望到濟州看看。那裡當然有美麗的花卉和四季怡人的景緻，讓你可以想出百多個理由到那裡走走，假如你是一位畫家，那更有衝動要用畫筆捕捉一刻的驚豔。有一年十月的假期，我終於收拾好一切單獨前行，這次我有一星期在島上自由自在地溜覽。出發前我參看了許多關於濟州的旅遊資料，但在我心深處，卻只有一樣東西引發我最大的興緻，想用繪畫來描述它的美態: 那就是濟州在秋天盛開的粉黛花海！
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Compared with western architecture, there are very few surviving buildings in eastern timber construction older than 1000 years. The Phoenix Hall of the Byodo-in Temple in Uji Kyoto of Japan is an examplar. Converted from a villa originally built in 998 in the year 1052, the first year of the beginning of the end-of-the-world (Latter Day of the Law or the Degenerate Age) according to the theory of Three Ages of East Asian Buddhism. The importance of this building can be seen in its adoption as image for the Japanese 10-yen coin, and also in one of the versions for the 10,000 yen note. It was designated as UNESCO World Heritage in 1994. The vantage point of my painting is one of the best angles to view the temple with the pond, and also the closest!
比起西方建築，東方木構建築超過一千年仍然尚存的例子非常少。日本京都府宇治市平等院的鳳凰堂是其中的表表者。這座建築最初是在西元998年興建的大宅，1052年改建為佛寺，這一年正是東亞佛教三期法運論中的第三期「末法」，即世界步向完結的第一年。這座建築的重要性可以從日本國把它作為十圓硬幣的浮雕，及一萬圓紙幤其中一款設計看到。1994年聯合國教科文組織也將它列入世界文化遺產。我這幅寫生畫選擇的觀點，是可以同時看到建築和水池最好和最近的角度!
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Yangming Shan is often referred to as the back garden of Taipei. There are many scenic spots to explore in the mountain according to the seasons and from a distance, its beauty is changing even during different times of the day with the movement of clouds and their shadowing from the sun. If the icy solidarity of the Alps is like a nun (Francis Money-Coutts) or maid, the sunny playfulness of Yangming Shan is surely like the “impetuous fire of a youth” (Nino Rota).
“The mountain sat upon the plain/ In his eternal chair,/ His observation omnifold,/ His inquest everywhere.
The seasons prayed around his knees,/ Like children round a sire:/ Grandfather of the days is he,/ Of dawn the ancestor.”
The Mountain, by Emily Dickinson (1896)
Source: Dickenson, Emily (1896). The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Series One. Boston, MA. Roberts Brothers.
陽明山被公認為臺北人的後花園。在山上有四季不同的景點，而從遠處觀賞陽明山，在一天之內因為陽光與雲霧的移動也有變化莫測的美景。假如阿爾卑斯山冰冷的外觀像修女(庫茨)，那陽明山調皮的日照肯定像”年青小夥子如火的熱情”(羅塔)。
「山嶽坐在平原上/ 在他永恆的椅子上，/ 他的觀察無所不包，/ 他的查詢無處不在。
四季在他膝下祈禱，/ 像父親的兒子:/ 他是每天的祖父，/ 是黎明的先人。」
《山嶽》，艾蜜莉·狄更生 (1896)。
中文作者譯。
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This sketch was done on a train traveling through the Alps in Switzerland. I was amazed by the beauty of the monochrome of snow in varying shades of greenish blue. This moment of icy immersion is relatively short on the scenic and colourful journey of the Golden Pass stretching from Lucerne to Montreux. The English poet Francis Money-Coutts had once compared the Swiss Alps as nuns remote from the worlds below - lonely and pale:
“Ye lonely peaks, with brows of ice!/ Ye lonely peaks, with breasts of snow!/ Like nuns remote from worlds below,/ Pale with the pain of sacrifice!”
Swiss Mountains by Night, by Francis Money-Coutts
https://discoverpoetry.com/poems/poems-about-mountains/
這幅速寫是在瑞士阿爾卑斯山的火車旅程上繪畫的，我被單調的冰雪所呈現的多層藍綠的色彩所感動，但這段沉浸在冰天雪地的光景只佔從盧塞恩到蒙特勒多姿多彩的黃金快車旅程的一小部分。英國詩人庫茨曾經用修女比喻阿爾卑斯山的孤獨與蒼白:
「您孤獨的山峰，滿頂的冰！/您孤獨的山峰，滿胸的雪！/像遠離凡塵的修女，帶著犧牲的痛苦與蒼白！」
《晚上的瑞士山嶽》，庫茨。
中文作者譯。
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For many people, this might not be an unfamiliar sight: the famous Lake Louise in Banff, Canada. A search on the web reveals hundreds of paintings already done with this “super” gaze. I have indeed been immersed in this real scene in many trips to the place before but this was the first time I had a go with painting it while watching my boys canoeing in the water – hence the subject of many boats on the lake. My early fantasy of Lake Louise interestingly came from a Chinese love story novel of the same title written in 1978 with the following beautiful description of the place:
“Why is this lake so colourful? Across the lake is pink green, in the middle, emerald green and nearer the shore, dark green; one can even see the white pebbles on the bottom… How I wish to jump inside and embrace a rainbow of full colours!”
對許多人來說，位於加拿大冰府露意湖這一块著名的風景並不陌生，網上也隨時可找到數百幅畫這景點的作品。我到過這裡多次，但這是我第一次在露意湖的寫生，還邊看著我的小孩們在湖中划艇，所以畫中有許多獨木舟。我對露意湖最早的幻想，源自作家東方白1978年同名的長篇愛情小說，書中對湖光山色的美景有如此的描述:
「這湖為什麼如此多彩？對岸是粉綠，湖心是翠綠，近岸則是透明的墨綠，還看得 見湖底白色的石卵……我多想投入湖中，摟抱滿懷彩麗的虹！」
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“All Porto geese/ speak Portuguese.” Geese, a short poem by Volodymyr Knyr, 2014
It was a breathtaking view of the city coming across the Douro River on the upper deck of Luiz I Bridge. By the time one moves through the viewing spots either by cable car or on foot to the historic centre along the south bank, one already has a pretty good impression of Porto as the second largest city of Portugal and one of Europe’s oldest centres of culture. A vantage view along the river looking back at where one comes from would include a fleet of Rabelos carrying barrels of port produced from the wine cellars (caves) in the district, all facing westward as if they destine to reach the new world beyond the Atlantic…
https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/short/porto
“波爾圖鵝/ 都說葡語。” 《 鵝》, 一首短詩。沃洛迪米爾. 尼克爾作, 2014
從橫跨杜羅河的路易一世大橋的上層漫步，可以看到波爾圖驚險壯麗的景觀，假如你過河後乘纜車或徒步走到南岸的歷史城區，應該對這個葡萄牙第二大城市及歐洲其中一個最古老的文化中心有了相當的印象。沿著河岸回望大橋的方向，你會看到一艘艘運載從舊城區酒窖出產一桶桶砵酒的長尾艇，它們都列向西方，似乎要跨越大西洋到彼岸的新天地...
https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/short/porto. 作者譯。
