The College of Design held a ceremony to open a gallery of artwork from the Wuhan University in China.  All the artwork was created by faculty members at Wuhan University. 

Through “The Highest Good is Like Water” gallery, students are able to learn the essence of art from a beauty point of view and not just a scientific way said Chiu Shui Chan, professor of architecture. 

“I hope that students can learn from the technique of doing artwork, not just in the pure art but also in the application, how to make it beautiful,” Chan said.

As a week long event, the gallery is open to the public from Feb. 12 – Feb. 21. However, there are workshops displaying the artwork techniques during the week as well. 

The gallery opening served beverages and snacks while people viewed the artwork. Students and professors from the College of Design as well as Zhang Ming, dean of the School of Urban Design at Wuhan University, attended the ceremony.

Jingyu Feng, senior in architecture, said he can learn a lot from the art because it was done by professionals at Wuhan University.

Rachel Anderson, graduate student in landscape architecture, said she was amazed by the watercolors because they were so realistic and vivid.  She said she had never seen that much control in that style of art.

“The ones that really touched my heart the most were the ones by Xia Lijun. I love that they seem playful and the bright colors. They evoke kind of this happy feeling,” Anderson said.

Feng also liked the watercolors because of the full colors and the original technique the artist used to create a realistic piece of art.

Watercolor is one of five different art techniques that will be demonstrated throughout the week at the workshops.

Chan said the five demonstration components were sketch drawings, watercolors, glaze painting on ceramic tiles, photography of traditional Chinese buildings and stone engraving.

“I hope that students can learn from the technique of doing artwork. Not just the pure art, but also in the application,” Chan said.

Chan said the ability to draw things beautifully and skillfully helps a lot for designing.

“For the program here, I really want the students to learn how to see artifacts from different perspectives. In other words, they can see the design not just from the American way of doing things but in the oriental way of doing things,” Chan said.