The Future of The China Painting List

To my new readers, Welcome, and I hope that you enjoy your visit; and to my regular visitors, Welcome back. I hope that you all had a happy Christmas and wish you all the best for 2012.

It's hard to believe but I've been compiling The List for a bit over 11 years. It has grown enormously in that time - it now has 1143 entries - and I must have spent many hundreds of hours keeping it going.

I've enjoyed most of my time as editor, but it really needs more time than I can afford to give. I've therefore decided to cut back on the subjects covered in The List, and have made some change to my newsletter.

The Scope of The List

Firstly the subjects, which I call Categories (you can see them here). They're quite wide-ranging and include related topics, such as kiln and paint manufacturers. Since I can no longer cover them all, I am now concentrating more on adding personal sites (hopefully including some of the non-English sites not listed previously because of time restraints). I'm gradually dropping some of the Categories I used to cover, starting with:

• Brushmakers
• Kilnmakers
• Paint Manufacturers
• Marks (pottery marks)
• Organisations (Friends, collectors' societies, etc.)

The Newsletter

As forecast, I've also made some changes to the newsletter. To help with the costs involved, I now issue it in two versions: a 'free' abbreviated issue, and a full-text 'paid' issue.

Below is an example of a typical entry so you can decide which version you prefer.

As you can see, the Free News gives only the most basic information about new listings. It does not link to the sites, or describe them: for that, you have to visit The List itself – or subscribe to the Paid News.

The Paid News is available for a yearly donation - of any amount. There's no fixed fee, and no minimum, so you can give whatever you are comfortable with. After a year I ask subscribers for another donation, or offer a switch to the abbreviated Free News.

I put all donations towards the costs of running this site and the newsletter.

If you’d like to make a donation now (through Paypal), please choose a button from the side menu.

I hope you will also take the time to visit and enjoy some of the wonderful sites you'll find listed in these pages.