Simple Life

Still Lifes

yet not Still lifes

rather

they are food that we ate

we cherished 

we happened to found

: tomatoes grown in the garden of an old lady from Mui Wo

Clams and broken cup we collected from the sea

cezanne looking pears

Qi Bai Shi’s favourite Pi-Pa Nespole 

Chinese medicine recalling my father who was an expert

a beautiful gift - the illustrated book with prints titled Connie by my professor Alberto Manfredi

long forgotten sweets bought in Wanchai as offering to my ancestors

during Ching ming festival

then

a tribute to Uncle Ng Wui who

taught me how to make a lantern from a pomelo 

as well as other interesting looking fruits : rambutan from Borneo and moondrop grapes from who knows where

days are slow 

slower than usual

with the watercolour and small paint brushes

as an attempt to try and balance perhaps

the fast and unfocused life sensed in Hong Kong

and then

it is as if difficult not to use the iphone

to do drawings inspired by Hockney

so during every boat ride

some sketches are done

amazing

the idea that no colours need to be mixed

the medium gives you full range of possibilities 

within seconds

what to choose

which to pick

a decision has to be made 

faster than in a normal drawing with classical medium

it is a very strange tool

it tells you to make the decision right away

it is in that split of a second

somehow you make a surprised decision

and because it is a surprise

it is delightful

and delightful indeed is

when life is simply lived

slow with watercolours

fast with iPhone drawings

happy life

happy drawings

the simpler life is

the fuller we feel

Bernadette in Mui Wo

10/04/2019