Changsha Normal University

Stone Lithography Class 3 - 6 June 2014

During May - June 2014 I visited Changsha for Jie 界(Borders) - the joint exhibition between Professor Lu Yu (Changsha Central South University) and Paul Croft, which opened on Thursday 29 May at Changsha Houhu International Art Park. During the visit I gave lectures at Changsha Central South University (CCSU), The Art School at Hunan University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Xiangtan (south of Changsha) and at Changsha Normal University (CNU), which is one of China's leading institutions for Education and Teacher Training.

The art department at CNU is housed in a fabulous new building on the northern outskirts of Changsha and has facilities for drawing, painting, printmaking, graphic design, animation, ceramics, and sculpture. Head of Department - Professor Luo Xiangke and Liu Jing, who manages the print studio at CNU have been instrumental in developing relations between Changsha and Aberystwyth. Collaborations to date have included the two exhibitions Jie and Contemporary Chinese Printmaking - held at The School of Art Aberystwyth in November 2014. Coinciding with Jie - CNU also hosted The First Hunan International Student Printmaking Exhibition - which included prints by 13 of our students from Aberystwyth

Liu Jing is an accomplished artist and lithographer: he trained with Professor Bao Ping in Xian and Shenzhen. He also had the opportunity to work with Tamarind Master Printer Craig Cornwall in Washington State and he now makes his own rollers, crayons and tusche. The workshop at CNU is currently under construction so when we ran a four-day lithography workshop for thirty keen students - we had to grain stones in shifts on benches. Since then the studio has been fully equipped and they now have facilities for relief printing, etching and lithography.