Chinese Painting

Today I participated in a Chinese painting class at my school. The
teacher was obviously very talented with a brush, and he showed us
numerous examples of works he'd done himself or that he had in his
possession. I'm not really sure which, though, because he was speaking
in rapid-fire Chinese about a topic I know nothing about...and still
know nothing about, except that I've tried my hand at it. After almost
an hour of him "explaining" Chinese painting to a classroom full of
exchange students that probably didn't understand more than 10% of what
he was saying, we were given paper, a brush, some black ink and water.
Everyone did their best to draw a bamboo grove, with long, straight
strokes for the trunk of the bamboo, and then a few thin branches here
and there, with short, quick strokes for leaves. The teacher made it
look so easy. Mine was alright, although I think it was probably more of
a bamboo jungle than a sparse grove.