March 16, 2020 – April 10, 2020

Instructor: Bao Lin

Teaching assistant: Yang Shuwen

The COVID-19 outbreak forced us to move courses online. Normally bustling streets were quiet. This spring was mostly gloomy. The sun only came through occasionally. Colorful flowers were already beginning to bloom but people rarely went out to enjoy them.

 

The junior students of the painting department were in different places across the country. Some places already ushered in the spring. Some were still covered by snow. The Hubei-born Wang Yuanxing could neither return home nor come to school. Wang was forced to stay in Tangshan during the epidemic.

 

This sketching classes were different from those in the past: for the first time we did not stay in the same studio, for the first time we drew different objects, for the first time we drew different scenes ... At eight o'clock every morning, sleepy students appeared in front of their devices. The course lasted for four weeks. We started each day by announcing the number of infections.

 

It was my first time to use video-conferencing app. The app makes it very every easy to attend online classes. It switches the video feed to show whoever is talking at the moment and all recordings can be converted into text, which was done by Yuanxing on the computer in the case of our class.

 

What we discussed most other than the art of drawing was isolation which we were forced into due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The word 'isolation' reminded us of notions related to space and emotions such as isolation, prohibition, closure, depression, irritability, anxiety, and longing. We were asked to examine objects around them, inside and outside the window: window screens, grilles, curtains, glass, plants, reflections, etc. Their homework assignments were based on these objects.

 

Obviously, things like environment, events, and atmosphere can change people's emotions. My student and I, couldn't find back the kind of calm we used to have when we took class in our studio. Everyone was alone in an enclosed space. Other than things inside our rooms (including ourselves in mirrors), we could only see things through the windows of our rooms or surf the Internet on a smartphone or computer.

 

The classes and sketching assignments during the epidemic were not organized as well as in the past. Those drawings composed of brush strokes and scrubbed-out areas are illustrations of our own situations and expression of our own emotions. Light and smooth lines or intricate light and shadow transitions which had been often seen in our paintings before the epidemic were replaced by uncertain shapes. During the summary section, some students raised a question: What is the use of painting at present? My answer is that at least we can use our brushes, which are not quarantined, to record this spring.

Bao Lin,

April 30, 2020

Student Works

Wang Yuanxing

Ao Man

Li Xiangyi

Liu Qianqian

Liu Wenyu

Liu Yuhan

Jin Zhaoxi

Zhou Runjie

Ding Xin'ge

Source: Bao Lin, Professor at Department of Painting

Editor: Zhao Ruohan