In a video lecture, Mr. Tang analyses in detail a famous work, the“Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow” by the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian in terms of its artistic characteristics and the stories behind it. It is the first lecture of an online community Basics of Painting class given by him at the Open University of China (OUC). Hundreds of students are being introduced to oil painting via these lectures.

Tang Yingshan recording a lecture

Flexible and Convenient Online Learning

According to students,“Studying painting online is flexible, and video lectures can be watched repeatedly and on our own time.” They also praise the lectures as affordable, and, most importantly, delivered by professional teachers from fine-arts colleges.

The outbreak of Covid-19 greatly increased demand for online programmes such as this, which covers courses such as “Salute to Master Monet”, “Everyone Can Create a World-famous Painting”, and “Oil Painting for Beginners”. By the end of January 2022, more than 36,000 students, not only from the China’s mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, but also from the United States, UK, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Japan, Malaysia, Kenya, and other countries, had signed up for the lectures.

Xiao Fei tutoring online

Distinctive Course Design

Creating art is hands-on work. How can teaching it be effective, then, without face-to-face interaction, and for such a varied audience covering all ages? It is a genuine test of teaching skills.

“My decades of teaching art have shown me that everyone can learn to paint,” says Xiao Fei, a professor in the Academy of Fine Arts at Jiangxi Normal University of Science and Technology, and mainly responsible for teaching an advanced online oil-painting class. “We don’t teach our students to imitate the masters, but train them to observe the world and express their feelings toward it artistically.”

Plein-air painting

Art Lights up an Ordinary Life

“Painting helps me forget my age, live happily, and feel alive”. “Learning oil painting enables me to see beauty.” These are the kinds of heartfelt thoughts the students shared.

Growing demand enhances the development of services such as these, while the internet allows them to spread widely, and will continue to promote innovations of content and form to the public benefit.

Source: People’s Daily Overseas Edition