About Chinese traditional brush painting
SHI Tao (1642
- 1718), a master Chinese artist living during the early Qing Dynasty, once said that a landscape painter should experience
as many mountains as possible to prepare his draft. This means more than simply creating realistic depictions, for Chinese
traditional painting gives the artist great freedom to express his or her most personal sentiments via material, color, structure
and technique. Beneath fine-boned brush strokes, ethereal ink washes and delicate mineral tints flow subtle feelings
and ideas.
Deeply rooted in traditional Chinese culture, Chinese brush painting is not
just a visual art, but a reflection of Chinese philosophy. Appreciating the art from a philosophical perspective, the viewers
will get a better understanding of it.
The use of empty or blank space is a good example. Unlike Western classical
painting in which artists tend to fill every space, Chinese painters use space as an important element in composition. In
traditional brush painting, empty space may represent sky, cloud, mist, river, sea and so on. The root of this idea can be
traced to Taoism. Taoism believes that everything in the universe is formed by the movement of positive and negative force,
or Yin and Yang, in a vast empty space. In this sense everything originates out of nothing. So for Chinese
classic painters it is very natural to leave empty space in their works, which also give the viewers tremendous room for imagination.
The principle to produce a brush painting
in the freehand or Xieyi style is another example. Artists of this school try to use simple strokes to grasp the
inner spirit of the subjects. From the view point of Taoism, all natural subjects have their inner character, or chi.
Artists are encouraged to represent their feelings and their comprehension of the true nature of the subjects, instead of
merely copying their form. The subjects in Xieyi paintings - birds, flowers, trees and mountains - are not portraits
of any specific objects but abstract images reproduced with artists’ feeling.
In Chinese traditional brush painting, many subjects have specific meanings
echoing their “character”. For example, a picture with a crane and pine tree signifies longevity. Another example
is the “Four Gentlemen” and the “Three Friends in Cold Weather”. The “Four Gentlemen”
refers to plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum. Plum blossom heralds the spring and brings hope; orchid is soothing
and elegant; bamboo, being straight, represents honesty and integrity; and chrysanthemum, blossoming in autumn, stays firm
and tranquil. Plum blossom, bamboo and pine trees are also referred to as the “Three Friends in Cold Weather”,
as plum blossom in winter, and bamboo and pine leaves stay green all year around even in the harsh weather of late autumn
and winter.
