Beyond Exposure, Understanding

All of us have been exposed to Chinese Brush Painting. So what is Chinese Brush Painting. Does the painting have to look "Chinese"?? Can a "western" motif painting done with Chinese brush be called Chinese Brush Painting?? How do we appreciate Chinese Brush Painting??

Chinese Brush Painting is an art of form and lines. Well that sounds pretty generic. Chinese Brush Painting is all about " Be Fa", the method of the brush. It is closely linked to the practice of calligraphy. Chinese calligraphy is not just a bunch of symbols or characters, but each stroke has characteristics of "press", "turn", "lift","hook" etc. Each line is like a human body, it has a head, a body, bulky at some places, and skinny at the other places. A bad line is like a bad body shape...... that's the only way I can explain it. With these attributes, then you assemble the lines not only in the form of the character that you intend to write, but assemble it in a pleasing manner! There is a belief that if one cannot do good calligraphy, then one can never be a good painter. Perhaps that's why I am having a hard time with my paintings...... I am a disaster when it comes to calligraphy. You rarely see any writings on my work This is in stark contrast to a lot of the current pseudo Asian art, especially in mixed media, collages, where people clip off prints or newspaper with Asian characters ( Chinese, Korean, Japanese) and paste them into their work and pawn it off as "art". As far as I am concerned, this is a huge disrespect and shows complete lack of understanding of Asian calligraphy. Calligraphy on Chinese Brush Paintings usually involves the title of the painting, and perhaps a poem about the painting. There could be narrations on the occasion for which the painting was done.

Chinese Brush Painting in the classical sense involves a lot of "rules" and "formulae". For example in the Flowers and Birds genre, we are taught how to paint bamboo, chrysanthemum, peony, ,orchid, plum, blue birds, etc, etc. There is a certain, dictated method and strokes that one does these themes. Go to the library or bookstore and look up Chinese Brush Painting and you'll find all kinds of prescribed methods of how to arrange rocks, how tree branches should be arranged. In other words, there are "poses" that we subscribe to. None of the teachers that I've ever had showed a real example of the subject matter. Sketching is totalling absent. The down side of this training is that all works look alike, they are all "templates". A lot of the Chinese Brush Paintings in the "tourist" districts fall into this category. It is exotic, yet familiar, easy for the palate. Unfortunately this has led to the wrong impressions about this form of work. Again I would have to equate this to when the uninitiated considers " chop suey" as real Chinese food.

When I say Chinese Brush Painting is an art of lines and forms, then one has to appreciate it from that perspective. I'll use some landscape topics to illustrate my point.

The insert where there is an example of 2 rocks, the top one is done with quite a few different techniques, and compare that with the one on the bottom . Both have shading applied, but the top one is definitely more interesting. These 2 are basically of the same form and line frame, but because the characteristics of the lines are different, hence the effects are different. The bottom image resembles line sketches. Lines that are uniform, uninteresting and lifeless. Yes, there are those of us that considers pixels as an art form, therefore one can argue that an image from newspaper magnified a hundred times to show extreme pixelation as a piece of art, and therefore lines, no matter how mundane, serves the purpose. Well, I beg to differ.

Now look at the other 2 images. One is the image of a rock laden with lines, boring lines. The other one employs the brush to do its thing, giving "life" to the lines. Can you tell which one is which? And which one do you prefer??

These examples are devoid of color on purpose, to emphasize the one most important aspect of Chinese Brush Painting. It is not about color, it is all about the characteristics, the persona of the lines and brush strokes. It is about "Be Fa". It is about painting, not drawing, lines with feeling.

It is about whether the brush stroke is heavy or light, fast or slow. Is the line painted with straight tip, side tip or broad tip and how wet or dry is the brush.
Again, using a stringed instrument as an analogy, many people can enjoy violin music., but it takes knowledge of the techniques of vibrato, fingering, harmonics, double stops, staccato,
playing at the frog or at the tip, whether it is up bow or down bow to truly appreciate the virtuoso.

Maple Bridge Mooring At Night

When I was preparing the "One Person One Stroke" project, I was using a painting from the late Master Qian Sonyan (1899-a985) as an example. I had tried to paint it just to show my group that it is a "do-a-ble" project. I just dug up my copy and mounted it.

I am posting all 3 versions for you to observe and appreciate.

The one on the bottom is the original work by Master Qian.

Top left is the group effort version.

Top right is my rendition.

Click on the image to enlarge them, and pay attention to the line qualities. See if you can pick out the differences.

Xuan Paper Delight

The title of this blog sounds like one of those dishes you can order from your local Chop Suey joint....... Yuk !

Anyways, in preparing for the Portland Open Studios event, I am trying to "merchandise" my goods by providing alternative ways of "packaging" . Here again, I am trying to exploit the translucent property of the Xuan paper.

I have done these small 5x7 paintings and instead of the traditional mounting on Xuan backing, I just slip them inside a 5x7 glass block or acrylic block. This way the painting can be viewed from front and back. This is especially interesting when the frame is placed against a window, and it offers a different flavor when viewed in direct light or in transmitted light.

The top 2 pictures are frames placed in front of a shop neon, hence light is transmitted through the Xuan paper. The bottom frame is the same painting

viewed through normal, direct lighting.

Camera work here does not do justice for discerning the different effects. I think the photo voltaic activity tends to average out the curve too much...... but you can still see the difference a little bit.

Xuan Paper on Canvas

This is another attempt in painting the Columbia River Gorge, the same vantage point as the "View from Woman's Forum State Park". I moved the furniture in the front to give it a cleaner look. I decided to clawed the edges of my Xuan paper to give it a "custom" look. I inadvertently splashed a couple drops of ink on the paper ( my friends say this is my trademark....being sloppy. Guess I should change my name to Joe) so I covered them up with flying geese. It works !!

Readers of my blog would recall this image from my "RICE FIELDS" post. This is the mounted version. I mounted my Xuan paper on a 18x20 canvas. If you click on the image to enlarge it, you can see the texture of the canvas coming through. My technique enables me to exploit the transparency of the Xuan paper and fortified it with the texture of canvas.

When I attempted this painting, I only had Mt. St. Helens in mind. I wanted to paint the meadows coming back; in contrast with the downed timber. After I was done with the meadow, I ran out of steam, so I kinda blocked in the rest of the painting....... I guess technically I would have classified this one more like a water color than a Chinese Brush Painting.

This painting tried to emulate the antique style of the more traditional, classical Chinese painting with faint, almost monochromatic color scheme. This one was one of my practice pieces, but Portland Open Studios is staring me in my face ( October 17,18) so I might as well include it in my portfolio.

View from Woman's Forum State Park

This is the finished piece of the sketch from the last paint out. Let me begin by saying that I don't like the painting as a whole. I can't quite put my finger on it. Perhaps the frame needs to be wider to capture the grandiose feel of the Columbia River Gorge, ala a wide angle view. I was trying to make the foreground darker and present the effect of looking into brighter skies to show the depth and I failed miserably. It all has to do with my bad habit of laying down too heavy a stain to begin with. Patience is a virtue I must learn. The overall effect of the painting looks "dirty", the lines were not deliberate enough. I guess I have gone over these lines one too many times !!

But aside from that, let us look at other merits of the painting.

The cliff rocks showed up quite nicely with that 3-D effect. This was helped by the dark and dense vegetation around the rock formations. The branches and leaves on the fir were done with an old brush that had lost its point, and is perfect for this "split brush" technique. I had to go over the green parts quite a few times to give it the required color saturation, so that we know these are objects in the foreground.

The mist not only softened the harsh hill lines laid down initially, but it helped to create the meandering effect of the river. The gorge itself is very wide, but such a wide body of water would make the painting less interesting. Depth is achieved by the detailed depiction of the cliffs and the saturated color of the trees, contrasted by the lack of details on the distant hills.

I have moved the protruding rocky formation in the distance to the middle of the painting and made it darker so that it would give us a distant focal point to look at. I decided that the body of water was too bland, so a few sail boats/wind surfers were in order.

Chinese Brush Painting embodies the philosophy of the Ying and Yang, and in the Chinese lingo, it is coined the "Shu" and "Mi". "Shu" means vague, empty, light" and "Mi" means solid, heavy and real. In short, it demands contrast; the solid and real versus the vague and emptiness. The artist is judged not only by his/her skills in the brush strokes ( brush line and point quality, as in calligraphy), but also by how he/she manages the opposing forces, the dark/light, hard/soft, tall/short, motion/stillness etc. This sounds like mumbo jumbo to the un-initiated, but it is after all, a philosophy, a discipline.

Landscape paintings perhaps do not demand strict adherence to this philosophy as floral/birds paintings do, but somehow the artist still has to manifest it; if not in the whole painting, at least in each sub-groups of artifacts. Thus the distant rocky formation is darker than its surroundings, albeit a distance away and should be lighter. The two trees in the original draft now numbers 3 !! A third, faintly visible tree is added to balance the "Mi" with the "Shu". So within that group of 3 trees, there is a relationship, a differentiation of solid vs vague. The brush marks on the bottom of the trees are left not filled in, to contrast with the colored vegetation on the right. So, are the trees the on the same level of brush marks, or are they on a slope beyond the brush marks??

This is for you to figure out, or is this really important ?!

EXPLOITS

Today I need to vent. Sorry, nothing about paintings here. Thank you for your indulgence.

I am incensed about what happened to me the last couple of days, but perhaps I am more infuriated by how people "PRETEND" their "INTENT", and hide their personal agenda under the buzz word "HUMANITY"

The founder of Coloredpencils was calling for artworks for Midland county clinic ( clinic that serves refugees and immigrants of Oregon) to buy. This founder needed digital images of 3 art works, priced very attractively as the Clinic had only limited funds to procure art works. These images should be accompanied by the artist's bio, photo, price and size.

I submitted my works as per request and received the following e-mail. The founder needed my ethnic background and family history. Went on to say that the works will be displayed in clinics that served mostly immigrants/refugees community and that "WE" must make connection somehow here.

I can understand the desire to have certain genre of work to appeal to a specific audience, but I do not understand the need for me to reveal my family history. So my answer was that I am Asian and I do not share my family history with strangers. I further stated that art itself carries a voice, which transcends all racial barriers. Art is a medium where the artist can bare his/her soul. Any attempts to pigeon hole an artist on racial grounds is not acceptable. I therefore would not be part of this propaganda and withdrew my bid for the Midland Clinic.

For this I received the following response:

"by letting newcomers know a little of you we showed them that it wasn't bad to have to immigrate here.......We want to show them that many of us, our grandparents, and parents are adjusting and doing well. We want patience ( SIC) from afar to feel at home and inspired by many whom(SIC) arrived and thrived. We handpicked the most talent (SIC) artists and we used art that familiar(SIC) from home by our own people (not white American who try to do our native art) to heal patiences' (SIC) hearts while the doctors care for their bodies. Thank you for submitting your amazing art work. We regret that you no longer wish to be part of this humanity work."

How noble a mission ! So these refugees must look at their own people's arts to feel at home.
Should we have arts from Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Laos, Philippines, Russia, etc etc to shore up the Clinic? I certainly did not know that selling art works to these clinics is considered " humanity work."

As an immigrant myself, I loathe the idea of these condescending attitudes. This new shore is about new opportunities, new surroundings and an opportunity to acquire new knowledge. Whereas I shall seek my own comforts and familiarity I'll do it on my own terms. I especially do not need these faux do-gooders to help me, all the while fulfilling their own agenda, camouflaging their own shortcomings. These are your closet racists; snakes in the grass.

An interesting side note, the solicitation was facilitated by an Asian Art Association for which I am a member . Incidentally, we have several "White Americans" in our club. Had any of these "White Americans" submitted their works, would that be an automatic rejection?  Think about the implications!

Paint Out at Woman's Forum State Park

At the location paint out, I was demonstrating how I do my drafts with ink.

The points that I emphasized were that we did not have to paint everything we see in the frame, and conversely we could add objects to the frame, as per our mantra gather what you see, note what you know and paint what you like. In this sketch the trees on the left were borrowed from another frame, and the rocky cliffs were presented at a different angle from the real scenery.
I wanted the trees to frame the left side of the painting, and I wanted to
give more weight to the rocky cliffs. My drafts were to be done with medium light ink, but for the purpose of demonstrating, my lines were way too dark. I painted in the rocky surface to show the group how to render a 3 dimensional feel using the Chinese brush, and how to lay down contour lines. I did the trees this way because I was trying very hard to steer the group away from painting fine needles on the firs, as was usually done in class. My mission was to show the group what Xieyi style painting was about....( paint the meaning/feeling), so we could dispense with a lot of details. The distant ranges were all done too heavily...but that was good too, gave me an opportunity to show how to amend an otherwise failed painting.


Traditional Chinese Brush Painting does not place too much emphasis on
light values, and here is how I differ.
I use shading to augment the "chun"
I rendered on the cliffs to give it that 3-D look. I wanted to leave the tree trunk and the cliffs light to create perspective.
The "way too heavy" lines were remedied by painting in mist using the wet wash technique. I've lengthened the small flanking tree a little bit. Notice the upper trunk is not done with solid lines. They were done in an interrupted fashion, and yet one could clearly make the visual perception of the trunk. It is important because the smaller tree is farther away, and clear solid lines would not have shown distance between the two trees. This "broken line" technique is very important in Chinese Brush painting, and is considered one of the virtues of this art form. This is what Chinese meant by " broken lines, connected meaning/images"

One thing I needed to point out is that the addition of color helps to integrate the painting, but color itself cannot cover up flaws. In all my paintings, coloring is the last step; after all the contour lines, "chun" lines and shading is completed.

I shall go over more in the next posting with the finished painting