Rainy in Zhouzhuang 雨中周庄
2017
30cms (W) x 40cms (H)
Oil on Panel
There are loads of "Water Towns'" near Shanghai; old towns build next to waterways, that attract a lot of tourists who sample the crafts and local foods as well as walk around the very atmospheric streets, occasionally taking a gondola ride on the waterways.
On the day I visited it was very drizzly, so every visitor was sheltering under either a mac or an umbrella. It made most aspects of the town not especially photogenic, as plastic overcoats or large umbrellas obstructed the usual shots of traditional architecture. I didn't get many good images, but then I managed to take some images where the colour of the rain covers was 'contained' and could be contrasted with the more neutral town scenes. Here the main challenges were how to represent an atmosphere of light rain, getting the right amount of detail in the people's faces (it's not about their faces but they need to have the right amount of detail given there's detail behind them) and also choosing the right arrangements of shapes and colours on the bridge. So it took a while to decide where to place umbrellas and also make sure the light/perspective worked.
The town here is called Zhouzhuang. In the end I hope that i've been able to communicate the atmosphere of what the town is like (buildings and infrastructure), the weather but also this stripe of people noise that runs through it and brings it to life.
上海附近有很多“水乡”。古镇傍河而建，游客来来往往，体验制作手工艺品，品尝当地美食，漫步古镇小道上，偶尔有游客乘摇橹船在河上观光。
我去古镇的那天，下着毛毛雨，所以游客有的穿着雨衣，有的打着雨伞。雨衣和雨伞挡住了古镇建筑，使得小镇看起来不是特别上镜。我没能拍到很多好的照片，不过后来我设法拍摄了一些照片，拍到了各色的雨伞，和中性的城镇场景形成对比。这幅画主要的难点是如何表现出小雨淅沥，和游客的面部细节处理（不需要很清楚地画出每张脸，但鉴于每张脸背后都有一些细节，所以需要有适当的细节处理），还有桥上砖头的形状和颜色选择。因此，花了一段时间才决定雨伞的位置，最终确保光线/视野。
画中的古镇叫周庄。最后，我希望这幅画描绘出了这个古镇的模样（建筑和基础设施），天气，还有雨中的游客带来的生机。