Li Shu on a painting

I went to a recent book fair a charity sake of used books and found a copy of late 1980s copies of Chinese Literature a magazine you used to see in some libraries or leftwing bookshops. 

I used to buy an issue now n then if I was in the city from one particular ship now closed because I also visited for the chinese art materials and the translations of chinese poetry 

No not Wills Quills at Chatswood but a store down in Sydneys version of Chinatown 

Anyway the mnagazine had an article on a 20th century chinese painter and tbis one i m age caught my eye because it featured the Li Shu script variant of Chinese characters.

The illustration was printed on a rather shiny paper so the image is not perfect.

Hers another image showing most of the painting as illustrated in the magazine. 

I t didnt say whether he used paper or silk.

Huang Qiu Yuan is the painter and the Chinese literature issue was Spring 1987

Sorry if I havnt posted for a while but I want to have something special to share 

Next time probably Haiku again! 

GUAN TONG _ MOUNTAIN

 I"m thinking about mountains and one of the mostfamous paintingsof a mountain is this one by GUAN TONG whichI haveposted about before but its such an amazing work

There's just so much in this scroll painting on silk. The clouds and mist the peaks and ridges the waterfall flowing down from the heights the trees in the bottom foreground the tonal gradient the touches of yellow on the leaves marking the season as Autumn.

Enjoy contemplating it. 

A note on Buffalos and other bovines

 #yanciping #waterbuffalo #Chinesepainting #yearofthemetalox

A note on buffalos and other bovines 

Yan Ciping

I have noticed over many years a tendency of any bovines in a Chinese painting to simply be labelled oxen or cattle regardless of what kind of bovines they are. For examples this painting's description does not mention this is a WATER BUFFALO COW with her CALF. 

In a couple of weeks its the year of the Cow / Ox / bovine in the East Asian and I'll be sharing images of bovines in East Asian art with you. AND I will try to remember to focus on actual oxen.

Yes Water buffalo are bovines of the GENUS BOS but they are a completely different species!

Another Ink Master - Mi Fei

 ANOTHER INK MASTER - MI FEI

#mifei #ink #inktober #Chinesepainting

Why is this special?

It seems quite simple doesnt it to modern eyes used to seeing pointillist techniques in both Asian and Western painting but MI FEI was one of the first if not the first Chinese painters to use this technique of black ink and textures built up using dots not strokes! While other painters were suing minimalist sweeps of the brush Mi Fei concentrated on texture while still creating traditional S curve compositions using "empty" space and voids.

Join me for the next inktober Inkmaster post 

Black Ink in Guo Xi's Early Spring.

 #inktober #chinese inkpainting 

For Inktober I'm focusing on Chinese and Japanese monochrome ink paintings.

This is a cropped closeup of part of Guo Xi's Early Spring.

An European painter might have chosen to emphasize flowers and green leaves but this is early spring in northern china and the artist choose to emphasize the first signs of spring as a change in structure with branches dotted and darkened by dots and strokes of black to show emerging growth but lighter grays used to suggest a middle ground and vegetation on the upper left.

Here's all of that same work.

Again the black ink creates tone structure and texture ! 

INktober and Monochrome Painting

 #inktober again so lets look at monochrome paintings this month

Here's a very famous Chinese painting of a horse.

Its possible there was originally some tinting given the age of this work but black is the dominant color and it certainly shows how a Chinese brush maestro could do with a limited palette but superb mastery of ink and gradients ranging from solid darks to lighter washes and lines.

Follow me this month for more masterworks using ink!

Chen Hong Shou - Plum

Some #ChinesePainting for a change #plumtree by #chenhongshou

There are dozens of plum tree paintings online but this eye caught my eye during a random search due to the curve of the branches around the rock. Its Ming dynasty.

MA YUAN and the Lonely Fisherman

probably one of the best  if not the best known painting on the Lonely Fisherman Theme is this one by #MaYuan

This Song dynasty painting was probably inspired by this poem by Liu Zong Yuan a Tang dynasty writer noted for both poetry and prose who wrote "River Snow"

This is a very loose translation

Over a thousand mountains the flight of birds has ceased
On ten thousand pathways human tracks have disappeared
In just one boat in a reed cloak and bamboo hat an old man
Alone he continues fishing on the cold river in the snow.

Ma Yuan fisherman is not in the snow and his hat and cape are piled neatly onto of his boat but the general mood is similar ... one man alone ...

Some critics think Liu's poem refers to himself but I wonder also if he saw from a riverbank one fisherman so desperate for a catch they worked even as snow begun and continued to fall?

I have some more Fisherman paintings to show you

Do consider following ! ?

The Lonely Fisherman

#Chinesepainting

The Lonely Fisherman is a cliched theme now but originally it was inspired by famous Tang dynasty poems by one poet. That will be the theme of the next few posts but first let us study this work.

There are towering peaks in the background and a fisherman anchored in a quiet backwater with not even a hint of ripple. The ink wash lead our eyes up to peaks across water and valleys from a starting point of a branching tree mirrored across the waters by other trees. We don't think of Chinese ink paintings as being tonal but look at the layout of the washes the shadows shaping the roof of the boat and the sides of the peaks. The dotting technique is used carefully for emphasis rather than wide brush strokes.There is only one human but a crowd of peaks. It seems very minimalist plus to the use of greys and blacks but there is actually quite a lot of detail. 

Year of the Dog East Meets West

A certain painter best known of his horses also created an album of dog portraits in a fusion style.
Yes I'm talking #Castiglione again ! The posture also works with the pattern of branches above and the white flowers in the foreground complement the dogs white chest patch. Ink is used to suggest shadow and form in a way compatible with Imperial Court Standards but also clearly showing Western influences.

More Year of the Dog art soon!

Butterflies - Zhu Rui Ning

#zhuruining #qingdynasty #chinesepainting #butterflies

Another Qing dynasty Painter who depicted butterflies with exquisite mastery of color and line was Zhu Rui Ning

Notice the careful balance of colors and tones. I suspect there's just a little indigo mixed in with the ink for the grasses and likewise a little ink with the green of the leaves.

Two Eagles

#asianart #chinesepainting #japanesepainting #eagles

I though these two images might show how Chinese and Japanese painting can differ?

Chinese Painting Zheng Jie 

Ito Jakuchu Japanese

The same medium  brush and ink on a scroll but note the differences !

SANSUI Closeup and Tonal contrast in Chinese Painting.

Here's a close-up  of one area of a famous Chinese #sansui #landscape.

People wirte about how chinese painting doesn't use tonal contrast or shadows to create depth and yet in works like this contrasting tones of ink near black and lighter grays do create an illusion of depth, of water flowing past and thru dark recesses and cliffs from a higher place downwards into a larger body of water and note how the plainer tones contrast also with the texture strokes in the foreground!

One should also bear in mind the silk this was painted on may have darkened since this is hundreds of years old but the darkening has strengthened the contrast.

Another Cockerel for the Year of the Rooster

#yearoftherooster #yearofthe firerooster #shenzhou #chinesepainting #ming.

Here's an image of a rooster by Shen Zhou a Ming Dynasty Chinese Painter also famous for landscapes and calligraphy.

Its a slightly scrawny scruffy bird fluffing its feathers and clearly looking back at the artist. 

Perhaps a favored pet wandered into the part of Shen Zhou's residence where he had his studio pavilion? Its not a pretty bird but definitely one with personality and attitude.

The brush styles used for the feathers complement and contrast with the different types used for the branches and then there's the restrained and careful use of brown coloring to admire too!

Zheng Jie A Demanding Eagle!

#zhengjie #eagle #yangzhoueccentric #chinesepainting

Zheng Jie is better known for using bamboos and epidendrums as a theme.

Where he could have seen eagles living in Yangzhou I don't know? It's a lively energetic work.

He worked as a magistrate in Shandong province. Perhaps there?

Retiring to Yangzhou in his later years and being pestered by fans for paintings in exchange for "gifts" he is said to have put this notice on on his front gate along with a list of prices for each scroll size!

"Gifts and foods are not as good as cash, since what you give me might not necessarily be what I like. If you present cold, hard cash, then my heart swells with joy and everything I paint or write is excellent." 

Zheng Jie is regarded as being one of the Yangzhou Eccentrics group.

Some people were "gifting" artists with "tokens of appreciation" by providing rent free housing or rolls of silk or bags of rice or swapping collectibles. One was supposedly to refer to these as gifts.

Being totally honest about how a retired magistrate who painted made money from his art was apparently "eccentric" in 18th China?! 

Zhao's Hoopoe

#zhaomengfu #chaomengfu #hoopoe #chinesepainting

While searching for images of hoopoes for a different blog I cam across this.

Zhao Mengfu is usually mentioned as a LANDSCAPE painter in texts on Chinese paintings but he also painted bird and flower themes but frankly I like this one better than the landscape usually shown OVER AND OVER again in most books! Also the various collectors and previous owners had the good taste to apply their personal seals in the blank spaces at the edges!

Also bear in mind some old European oil paintings the colors have changed over the colors. I suspect the greens were once much stronger. There's still a lot of exquisite detail despite this being a lower resolution web file and image much smaller than original scroll! Enjoy!

Plum Series - Jin Nong

One of the most famous painters of #Plum trees and blossoms and other plants  was *JinNong  / #ChinNung a 18th c. Qing dynasty member of the 8 eccentrics of Yangzhou.

He combines the boneless / mogu technique with a lighter more delicate touch for the blossom which contrasts with his unique calligraphy style a fusion of three different scripts types!

The 3 Friends of Winter

The Three Friends of Winter is an theme in #chineseart that groups #bamboo #pine and #plumblossom

I suspect its popularity is partly due to it being a great way to show you have mastered a variety of brush techniques !

In this one piece you have an outline style for the blossom solid ink for the bamboo leaves and fine yet strong lines on the branches and pine needles.

Note also how the three plants  contrast in both tone and texture and the use of angles in the composition.

Monkey Year Monkey Art ONE

#chinesepainting #gibbons #yearofthemonkey

Its the Year of the Monkey so  lets look at some art featuring monkeys !

After some considerable searching and scrolling past dozens of copies of Mori Sosen works and weird sumi-e gibbons and monkeys clearly painted by people who need a trip to the zoo urgently ... I found this image.

Horses and gibbons seem an odd juxtaposition. 

Gibbons are creatures of the far south in modern China and while it may be the painter was indulging his imagination given this is a very old work its not impossible the painter might have seen such a scene. 

The habitat for gibbons was very more extensive in the Tang dynasty and there are many poems mentioning gibbons being seen in areas where they are never seen today. 

While Chinese has several words for monkey and gibbon they seem to have NOT distinguished between monkeys and apes with words used to describe species shifting over the centuries. In most Tang poems however its gibbons that are mentioned yuan not hou ...that however is a topic for another post ... 

and there are several more in this series!



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Where are the women in Chinese landscapes?

Hands up and on to the Keyboard if like me as much as you like Chinese painting you wish someone would depict a female poet wandering the hills?

Okay so maybe there is a scroll in a private family collection or paintings were burnt during the Cultural Revolution but in the many years I've looked at Chinese art I think I've seen one qing dynasty work of a woman in a library and far too many works of pretty maids and boys serving scholars in gardens or during picnics.

Surely there must have been at least one painter who did a genre scene of women picnicking while visiting family tombs or a womens quarters tea party or daughters instead of sons and could one "contemporary" artist please subvert the One Hundred Children meme by making them ALL GIRLS?

I love Chinese painting but sometimes ...