Gou, Chuen, Ts'a, R'an

Gou, Chuen, Ts'a, R'an are the 4 required elements to execute a Chinese brush landscape painting.
This is a continuation of my last 2 blogs; "Stone Paper Scissors" where we tried to make sense of all the lines that are associated with rocks and mountains, and " What Chuen" where we delved into the application of  texture to the object.

The loose translation for these 4 elements are as follows:

Gou  means to outline, to scribe.  This is the process when we lay down the initial outline of the landscape.  The requirement for this element is that the line must not be "drawn", and must be "written."   The line must possess the quality of change, from start to finish.  The viewer has to be able to feel the variations in brush speed, pressure, center or side tip.  Hence "GOU" carries the connotation of not tracing but etching and carving.














After we have the outline done, it is time to garnish it with "Chuen" and this is the process when we can provide a qualitative description of the texture of the landscape.  In this particular example, I've used mainly the "AXE" chuen and a little bit of the "HEMP" chuen.












After texture is provided, we provide the the painting with "Ts'a"
Ts'a means scrub or rub.  This is when we used a very dry brush to rub the landscape to give it a general sense of texture.  This texture is quite generic, unlike the more specific axe or hemp chuen.
The Ts'a process is often  mingled with the Chuen process.  As one is laying down the more specific texture, one can also add the non specific texture.  In a way the Ts'a process can be deemed a prelude to shading.  The important thing to remember is the Ts'a still requires the artist to follow brush strokes, paying attention to using either the tip or the belly of the brush, or both.  This is definitely not a random, omnidirectional wild circles of shading.

The last element of landscape painting is R'an, which means to dye (wash), to shade.  This is the time when we use a very diluted ink wash to accentuate the shaded areas of the landscape, to effect a more 3-dimensional presentation of the work.  It is important to note that the R'an process must be done with patience.  It is only after repeated attempts to selectively augment the strategic areas of the landscape, each time with different dilutions of the ink solution, does one succeed in a painting that is pleasing to the eye.

This patience has to be tethered with experience for the effort not to be futile.  Xuan paper gives off a false and exaggerated saturation profile when wet.  For beginners ( and impatient journeymen alike), the wet Xuan seems to function like an abyss, where it will take up a large amount of ink and showed little difference in the apparent "blackness" until it is irreversibly too late.

This is an example of a wet Xuan,  The R'an seems more saturated than it really is, giving one a false sense of security.

The above picture is the same as  the wet Xuan picture, except that now it has dried.  As one can see, the really dark  areas are no longer pitch black.  Thus for those of us who are not patient, we will try to attain this with one step, one layer of R'an and that often ends up in overkill, and renders the painting rather unnatural.

 (example of color added)

At this point, some artist like to give the painting an overall wash, often times with the brush wash, to give the painting a more coordinated look.  Many artists dislike this process, for it tends to take away the "punch" of the painting.

If one chooses to add color to the painting, now is the time.   Color often is considered a distraction, and is typically not applied until the painting is deemed satisfactory and coud be presented as a black and white on its own merits.

What "Chuen"

Interestingly enough, when What "Chuen" is translated into Chinese and pronounced in the Cantonese dialect, pronounced "mud chuen", it carries the connotation of WTF......naughty, naughty.

After this tidbit of irrelevancy, let's get down to business and explore "chuen".

"Chuen" can be loosely translated as the act of applying texture to an object (could be tree trunks, rocks, hills etc.).  Since the cardinal rule of brush painting says one should apply "chuen" more in the shaded areas, and since the manifestation of light values in classical Chinese Brush painting is less evident, a lot of people mistake "chuen" as the equivalent of shading.

Historically there are many different methods, or styles of "chuen", and "chuen" can be done with dots or lines.   The different "chuen" imparts a different description of the object.   Let us explore the more common ways of "chuen".  Please refer to my last blog  Stone, Paper, Scissors to see the relationship between "chuen" lines and contour lines.

First is the Hemp chuen.    This is typically a dash initiated with a tapered point.  Think of this as a hemp fiber, with one end kneaded and ready to be threaded through a needle.

Hemp chuen

An embellished version of this is the Unravelled Ribbon chuen.  This can be best described as a bunch of Hemp chuen in close proximity to each other, as if a ball of ribbons of hemp fibers in unravelling.

The "chuen" can be done in any orientation... vertically, horizontally, sideways, etc.

Then we have the Lotus Leaf Vein chuen.  As the name implies, this style mimics the veins of the lotus leaf.  It is a effective way of animating the topography of a landscape, giving the viewer a perspective of the ridge tops and valleys and lobes.


Finally, we have the Axe chuen.  This style is used to document straight line fractures, fissures commonly seen in granites or lime stone layers.  Imagine swinging an axe into a hard surface.  The resulting sharp edge and the splintering along the sharp edge defines this method of "chuen".  It is done by using a dry ink brush laying on its belly with a sharp rubbing.

To witness how these different "chuen" are applied to a real painting, I like to borrow a magnum opus from the late Master Zhang Da-qian; his Lu Shan painting. (painting of Mt. Lu)

Please click on the pictures to enlarge them so you can see the pasted remarks.

The final picture below shows the segment of the painting where I borrowed as examples to illuminate the concept and application of "chuen".

Hopefully we have all gained a little bit of insight into contour lines and "chuen" lines by now, and we won't be uttering "what chuen" (tongue in cheek) when we are asked to write a landscape painting.

Stone, Paper, Scissors

I am going to delve more in depth with painting rock(stone) or hills(mountains).  I have discussed this topic briefly in my "Ridge top Explained" and I hope to use more illustrations to explain away the fear of tackling this discipline.

Hills and rocks are the backbones of Chinese landscape painting.  When we consult the bible of classical Chinese Brush Painting, the "Mustard Seed Garden", we would be told that to paint rocks(hills) we have to convey the 3 facets of the rock.  We have to demonstrate that the rock possesses energy(ambiance) to form the backbone of the universe.  The ability to express this quality depends on the artist's expertise in rendering the personality of the rock(hill, mountain).  Thus the Alps would flaunt the soaring chiseled lines that inspire awe, and the Appalachians with its soft and open embrace.  This blog however, is not to discuss how to depict the temperament of the landscape, but rather on how to physically render the lines of a rock(hill, mountain).  By the way, a lot of us who learned to paint the traditional way, learned by the method of rote, and our reference book is the Mustard Seed Garden.

In this art form of traditions, it is prescribed as to how to group together multitudes of rocks (or multitudes of hills, land masses).  It is suggested that aestheticism is attained  if these rules are followed.  Therefore when we paint 5 rocks, it would be most pleasing if we place them according to the bottom arrangement.

The MSG (Mustard Seed Garden..... not monosodium glutamate !!) also stipulates that the contour lines of the rocks(hills, mountains) should be done with stops and rests abundant.  The lines need to show variations in ink tones, speed and direction.  We then adorn the contour lines with "chuen" (rubbing technique, to describe texture) and shading, thus we are able to form the 3 facets of a rock, i.e. a 3 dimensional reveal of the landmass.

To have a clear conceptual picture of a rock(stone, hill, mountain) I used a stack of left over mat boards and cut them into the profile of a hill, hence the title Stone,Paper, Scissors.  As I found out these boards are too much of a match for ordinary scissors, so I cheated by using my Dremel.  Each piece of mat board now represents one slice of this landmass, and the aggregate stack of all these pieces gives you the 3 dimensional form.

  As I carved away with my Dremel, the straight edges represent the center tip strokes of the brush, and the beveled edge exemplifies the side tip stroke.  Thus the outline of each piece is analogous to the "contour line" that we shall paint, and the twist and turn of the cuts, mixed with the straight and beveled edges represent the requirement of varied speed, hesitation, center tip and side-tip strokes.

Now with this contraption,  I can stack these cut-outs in any fashion I wanted  to acquire the desired morphology of the land mass.

By placing a piece of paper ( I used a hardy typing paper instead of the flimsy Xuan) against this stack and rubbing it with charcoal or crayon or just a pencil in this case, I transferred the profile of this structure onto the paper.  Each line that is transcribed represents a "contour line" of our make believe rock(hill).

By selectively erasing all or part of these "contour lines" we now have a drawing that is made up of   longer, more complete "contour lines" that describes the profile, and short, broken lines (which are remnants of the original "contour lines") now helping to highlight or accentuate the characteristics of the mass, and these now become our "chuen lines".

I shall now go over these pencil markings with ink and brush and the resulting image is more reminiscent of what we see in traditional Chinese landscape painting.

The preceding is an attempt to dissect the construction of all the lines that make up a rock(hill, mountain) and to entertain the relationship of "contour line" and "chuen line" when applied to the subject matter.  Obviously we do not paint this way, but this is a good tool for forming a mental image of what we are trying to accomplish on paper.  Thus for the novice, the brush strokes have at least a purpose and methodology to it, hence Bi-Fa.  And of course for the viewer, a better comprehension of what is involved.

PAIN

The post at hand is not about Bi-Fa, nor composition, nor methodology, nor scatter point perspective, but is about our conversation to the audience, the emotional content of our work.

I assume we paint for different reasons, fun, self-expression, commercial endeavor.  Occasionally we find a piece of work that makes a connection, not only with ourselves, but with the audience.  We might be painting something because that is what everybody else is doing, or some great master was doing that in the past and we try to emulate their works, their styles.  We might get the technique down, but the work is silent, like a perfect mannequin, well proportioned, great poses, but lifeless.

I did this painting when I was dealing with some personal problems.  Yes I did it with Chinese brushes just because that's all I have in my sushi  blanket.  I painted it on the back side of a piece of paper that came with a frame.  The paper that had a generic wedding picture printed on it.  My "wants" at that moment was to find a conduit to release my emotions..... the choice of medium was not my concern. (fortunately I did not release that on a person :-

I had absolutely no idea of what I was doing.  There was no technique, composition, color wheel,  nothing.
I had some faint idea of where to paint in shadows etc. to show the contours, and that was about it.  When I finished the "unleashing" process, I found the dabbling to be dark and full of tension.  I had no idea that I painted a person of unknown gender and  that the wine bottle and glass was not symmetrical and all that.  I was not going to make any alterations.  I just wanted to let the dabbling stand, as a witness to that particular moment of my life.   Perhaps I had given the title "PAIN" to the painting, I was getting some feedbacks, some voyeuristic inquisitions from my acquaintances as to the circumstances ..... but I wasn't going to reveal my innermost secrets. 

A dabbling with no aspirations or pretension to be a piece of art somehow is making a few chattering.  The only explanation I have is because it is not only raw, but brutally honest.  I have also been accused of painting a nude in this painting.  If I did, where did I hide it...................................

Remedy for "Multnomah Fall"

The more I looked at the "Multnomah Fall" painting, the more I was itching to do something about it.  As I mentioned in the blog, it was the bilateral symmetry that really bothered me.  I made the painting look like an insert for a tourist guide, or something I lifted from a photograph ( those of you who know me, know how I feel about painting from a photograph..... the resulting work is often  2 dimensional;  without a soul)

(before remedy)



Since the painting was already mounted on canvas, there wasn't a whole lot that I could have done, else I made the Xuan paper too moist and it would wrinkle again and become separated from the canvas.

I used jet black ink to go over the "chuen" again on the left hand side, to try to increase the density of that area.  I did the same for the trees on the right hand side; to add more body to the foliage and to mask the lower black line of the lower fall even better.

At the same time, I added the bright greenish yellow moss on the rock surface.  I did that with my worn brush, using the "split hair" technique.  The moss added some realism to the scene ( hinted the area of the water spray), but most importantly it imparted a lighter color to the back walls, thus helping to pull the background further away from the foreground.

To add a little bit of drama, I put in a few circling birds.  I needed to cover up the messy ink splashes in the sky anyways ( my trade-mark ).

(after remedy)

Now that I am pleased with the remedy, I went ahead and sealed the painting with a gel medium.  The gel makes the painting water resistant and as an added bonus, helps to bring out the depth of the color and recovers some the lost vibrancy.

The changes were minor and not obvious, yet they helped to restore some balance to the painting.  I am biased, obviously, since I am the architect behind all this,  but it is my sincere hope that the correct remedy was applied.

Scatter Brain revisited

In my Scatter Brain blog, I mentioned that I got carried away from my original premise, which was a blurry vision of a bridge ( I used a Flying Dutchman  to describe it) set against a lily pond.  Well this brew had been fermenting in my brain for quite a while now.  I finally decided to do something about it.  This time it will be a little more impressionistic, more provocative than descriptive.

To accentuate the "Flying Dutchman", I decided to use a simple warm tone to achieve an overall personality of the painting.  I shall then play with my light values within the confines of this monotone.  I shall paint the lily pads with a saturated tone to set against the foggy image of the bridge and the sky.  I wanted to take advantage of the high contrast neck of the Canadian geese, which complements the flow of the leaves.  Cloud drafts or rain streaks would be used to break up the vast blank space of the sky.  I worked out these details on a plain typing paper.

Everything pretty much went according to plan.  I was being real patient with the sky/background, so I took my time and stained it quite a few times,  intensifying the effect as I went.  Rain streaks was difficult to lay down on moist Xuan.  The streaks would diffuse out too much, so I was happy to make do with light beams peeking through the low clouds.                                                       

(note the flying geese)

Everything went fine until Murphy paid me a visit.  Whilst I was being careful and patient with my washes, I inadvertently splashed some ink onto the sky.  Normally I could blot that off when it was fresh, but I made

the discovery too late;  the ink had fixed.  My innovative brain told me to paint something to hide those splashes.  But what?       How about a few Canadian geese flying overhead;  they would tie in with the pair in the pond nicely.  The problem is that the ink splashes were so much darker than the sky, so I had to paint my flying geese much darker than I would prefer.    I tried to  paint in a few dark clouds but they seemed out of place      After a few attempts, I decided that I better quit while I was ahead.  I felt that I was making the painting worse instead of better,  all because of Murphy.                                                                             

     

                                                               Finally when I mounted the Xuan on canvas, I left all the creases and wrinkles in.    The painting had that feel and look of an antique painting, and I  believe these minute details addsto the ambiance of the painting, albeit not readily perceptible. 

(wrinkled Xuan on canvas)

                                                         

In the end, I am not displeased with this piece of work.  This style of work is particularly suited for the Xuan on canvas mounting.  You really get the benefit of watercolor wash/diffuse effect spliced into the feel of canvas.  In fact I like this one a whole lot better than my original bridge on lotus pond.  Now I just have to get busy making a frame for this piece of work.

Small Wonders

The kids, whom I mentored at their art club  at a middle school showed some pretty amazing works.  We started out by learning a little bit about Chinese brush painting.  They were introduced to the brush and Xuan paper for the first time.  I picked the subject matter of bamboo because it harbors the most basic form of the brush stroke.  The bamboo helps to hone a person's skill on using the center tip; along with varying pressure and ink tone and moisture content, the practitioner can achieve many "happy accidents".

By mentoring these young citizens, I hoped to dispel the notion of China Town art.  I did not want it to be paint by numbers.  Nor did I want it to be stencil work.  At the very minimum,  I wanted the kids to appreciate the techniques involved in using the center tip to effect different shapes.  Of course kids at this age are  a little bit too tender to deal with the so called "virtues" of the bamboo.  Nonetheless, I brought in a live bamboo branch so they could have a first hand tactile connection with the subject.  It is my theory that if you can "feel" it, that feeling can sublime into your work.  My emphasis for these kids was energy over form.  The form would come if one becomes more proficient with the brush, but the spirit still needs to be manifested.

We also did our own mounting of the finished painting.  This allows the first timers to experience the entire process of creating a painting and preserving it.  Interestingly one of the kids  inadvertently tore her painting into halves during the mounting process and was a little distraught.  I was able to mend the halves, perhaps an opportune time to demonstrate how to overcome obstacles, and to remedy mistakes.  Nah, I wasn't that noble, but there is some truth in what I said.

Finally I showed the kids how to cut mats.   I threw in a math problem in the process.  I had the  kids calculate the width of the margins, given the size of the mat and the size of the opening.  I wanted them to be able to at least present their mounted paintings in a matted format, to be able to show off to their parents and friends.  Most importantly, however, is to be able to build a positive self esteem.  To have a sense of accomplishment.  And accomplished, they have!!

The accompanying  pictures are some of the finished works.  (the ones not shown are not because they are not up to snuff, but rather the kids were eager to take them home, before I had a chance to take pictures !)  One must appreciate them not by technical merits ( they had maybe 40 minutes of training ) but from the perspective of a maiden voyage into an alien creative field.

Bamboo Tutorial continued

The painting I took to class was very two dimensional and lifeless.   Somehow it looked like a manikin.  I suppose it was sufficient for instructional purposes.  I figured since I do not paint bamboo that often, I needed the practice.  I ended up with the one shown above.

I attempted with different ink tones to show the spatial relationship of the different stems and leaves.  The bold ink color of the lower vertical stem gave anchor to the painting and helped to defuse the parallel lines.

My painting colleague had this critique............. a weak left flank.

But I had already mounted the painting.  Any alteration now will disturb the sandwiched starch layer and cause the paper to warp.   Oh what the hell, it's only a piece of paper.

Armed with concentrated ink right out of the bottle, and a very dry brush ( really too dry to paint bamboo leaves, but I had few options), I attempted to build on the left side.

One thing is for sure, this painting has more spunk than the one in the last blog.

I had to do another class demo, so I tried my hands at bamboo again.  This time paying a little bit more attention to contrast and harmony.  The more noded stem has denser and adhering leaves, versus the less noded stem with sparse leaves that hang away from the main stem.  More or Less.

Finally, the painting is cropped and mounted on canvas, and I even made a frame for it.

P.S.  For more material on bamboo leaves, please watch video on my blog on Bamboo Leaves and Pronation published on Oct 29, 2011.

Bamboo Tutorial

I admitted to not being proficient in painting bamboo.  My excuse was that this was not my genre of work;  I prefer landscape paintings.  Thus when I was taking lessons, I skimmed over this topic as much as I could.
Now that I am giving lessons and mentoring, the table had turned. I understood that despite its apparent simplicity, the bamboo painting encompasses a lot of the basic brush stroke techniques and aesthetic arrangement and the importance of ink tones.  It is now my job to try to convey and convince others that the simple bamboo is nothing to sneeze at.

I often expressed my dislike for "stencil" work, i.e. painting with all the rules and prescribed composition that the resulting work lacks spunk.  But how else should I pass on the basics of a bamboo painting?
I needed to demonstrate the nodes on the main stems.  I needed to note that the segments are shorter towards the base.  I needed to point out that the little branches grow on alternate sides of each node.  I needed to explain how the leaves are grouped together.  I needed to .................................

Segments grew longer as the plant grows taller.

I had to deal with this dichotomy of being compliant and original at the same time.  I thought the best way to do this is by showing the real examples of the bamboo, rather than someone else's work of what a bamboo looks like.   So I took a lot of pictures of bamboo, all the while trying to categorize the characteristics of a bamboo painting.

Branches grow on alternate sides of stem

Bamboo leaves

A live model

These photographs were used as teaching material for my adult students.  For my younger middle-school kids I used an actual plant.  The tactile experience, along with the visual cues, help the younger audience to comprehend the subject matter a little better. 

Sample painting I took to class for middle -school kids

Fortune Birds

I am just playing with words in Chinese.  The pronunciation of "SIX" and "FORTUNE" in the Cantonese dialect is the same.  Hence the Chinese Title of " Fortune Birds Singing" rather than "Six Birds Singing".  After all, who does not desire fortune, especially around New Year's time.

I chanced upon this photo on the net that showed some finches.  I liked the photo because it showed the birds in various attitudes of attention.  The picture claimed no copy right and in fact welcome other users to find good uses for it.

So I decided to arrange the birds on a tree branch.

I wanted to capture more than the different personalities.  I wanted to create a subtle tension... the fact that 5  birds have occupied one section of the branch, and the odd bird is off to the side, trying to assimilate, or lure?

So I produced this sketch as my practice sheet.

I painted in the birds first, and completely finish them before I put the branch in.  This way the tree branch can better hug the birds and minimizes the embarrassment of having to make a sitting bird stand!  As a last  step, I used  the brush wash as a final wash for the whole painting, leaving the center brighter, creating a focus area.    Brush wash is used because it captures the colors that I have used, and would be naturally in tune with the painting.  I intend to mount this in the Xuan-Boo style.  I am trying extremely hard to not crowd the painting by adding flowers or bamboos as commonly done.  I want this to be a simple and elegant painting.  Less is More!

As a post-script, when I finally get to make the frame for this painting, I decided to give it an "antique" look.  The painted frame was sanded down to reveal the primer and bare wood.  I admit that this is gimmicky, but it lends itself pretty well to this occasion.  It only took me 7 months to figure this out.

 

Happy New Year Year of the Rabbit

Wishing you a

Safe, Prosperous, and Peaceful

New Year

Multnomah Falls continued

After weeks of piling on more pigments on the rocks an adding "chuen" (texture), I grew more and more unhappy with my lower fall.

Unlike the upper fall, where I was able to reveal some of the spraying and pulsating energy of the water, I have painted in 2 parallel dark lines into the bottom fall.  What was I thinking.

I pulled out my cardboard framing borders and was trying to see where I should cut the Xuan paper so that I could pretend that the mistake never happened.  Then I thought about an old trick that I've described in my previous blogs..... using a transparency.

I fashioned a few trees using white titanium (for better contrast against the dark background) on this piece of transparency, such that I could move this about the painting and see the best placement to obscure the parallel lines. 


 Once I have the location finalized, I can now paint in the trees for real.  This transparency trick allows me to figure out the placement and size of add-ons without having to commit to it.

I've added 3 spectators to the bridge just to warm this painting up a little bit. 

I am not totally happy with the overall feel of this painting.  There isn't enough of a contrast between the front and the back.  I am afraid to make the front look too dark or I would lose the details on the rocks.  The other option is to darken the back, but that would regress my nice rock walls , which I thought is quite dramatic.  Besides, I thought my foreground is too dark for this set-up.   But wait, I have one more option.  Since I am going to be mounting this piece of Xuan on canvas (as in my Xuan-Boo technique), I can play with my canvas gesso colors to see if I can remedy my front to back contrasts.

What I do like is that I have at least tried to establish a yin an yang contrast.  I painted trees on alternate sides of the fall, to avoid a bilateral symmetry.  I've painted the left side lighter than the right and highlighted the trees such that illumination is from above.   I've tried to create contrasts within each sector of the painting.

I'll post my painting again after it is mounted and framed.

Like I said, come hell or high water, I've done it!

Multnomah Falls

Multnomah Falls is a hot spot in the scenic Columbia River Gorge.
I have wanted to paint this image for over 3 years now.  A night scene ?  A snow scene?  How about a perspective from the top?  My apprehension is that I don't think I can portray the Falls with my present stage of craftsmanship.  So I procrastinated.

Well 2011 is upon us.  I am not one to make any New Year's resolutions, but here is one.  I am going to paint the Falls, come hell or high water.

As in most of my work, I lay down the basic premise in medium tone ink.

I am trying for a perspective that is looking up to the top of the Fall.
I have contemplated in doing the scattered focal point perspective that is utilized in so many Chinese landscape paintings, but I must confess that I am having difficulty applying it here.  So here comes hell.

After the basic skeleton is constructed, I am working on "chuen" (adding texture) and shading, to give my work a more 3 dimensional feel.

More shading is done, and also an initial layer of vermilion is deposited.  This works to depict the high lighted areas of the rocks, and also blends well with the subsequent burnt sienna, ink and indigo that I'll be piling on the rocks.

The water itself is the blank space, brought to light by the dark contrasting margins.

Tradition, Tradition !

No I am not Tevye.  Isn't Fiddler On The Roof a wonderful piece of work!

In teaching my students about the basics of brush strokes, and Chinese Brush Painting in general, I cannot circumvent some fundamental painting techniques.  To make my case more poignant, I have to fall back on a favorite subject matter, the orchid.  Orchid is touted as one of the 4 "PALS" in Chinese painting, possessing the virtue of lady like elegance and arrogance.

There is a very hierarchical way of depicting orchid.  The insert is a page from my instructional material.

The lower half of the diagram dissects the composition of the orchid leaves.  It has to have a "master" leaf and a "slave" leaf and these two cast a general orientation of the plant.  The "master" and the "slave" leaves must form a "phoenix eye" at the base.  A third leaf ( No. 3 in the diagram) must break out from this "phoenix eye" to dictate the height of the plant.   In other words, if these 3 elements are not arranged in this prescribed fashion, then the painting is a failed one, or the artist has not done his/her homework.  In some ways, such paintings have absolutely nothing that remotely resemble a studio "still life" or an on location plein-air rendition of the plant, but more to do with the discipline of floral design and arrangement.  After all, the painting of orchid can be construed as an euphemistic expression of virtues and beauties.

Such conformity to "Tradition" in a way stifles the advancement of Chinese Brush Painting.  At the very least, it lends to create the impression that Chinese brush paintings seem to copy each other.  This is especially confusing with the influx of mass produced pieces of "art".  Yet if the artist was to be divorced from this tradition, then he/she could be inviting a brow beating and deemed being ignorant of the basics.

My intention here is to neither advocate, nor to destroy the adherence to "rules".  I am just trying to stir up discussion as to what is deemed "correct" or "incorrect", especially for the new enthusiasts in Chinese Brush Painting.  I encourage you to find your own orchids in the library, at your local galleries and research on the net and see for yourself.  Whether chop suey is Chinese food or not depends on your own sophistication.