Ming Multitude Bird and flower painting

Back to the Birds. More comments on cultural diversity next post.

The Ming dynasty seems to have produced extra-ordinary excellence in bird and flower paintings with complex compositions and rich detail. Notice that while this painting is called Birds with Peonies the artist has also included willows and plum and the wonderful contrast of black and white smaller birds with the flashy peacocks and one silver pheasant counterbalancing that contrast. Then you have the tail of the upper peacock perched on the rock leading your eye up and down the painting paralleling the tree trunk. A masterpiece of detail color layout and composition.

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!

FAHUA GARDEN STOOL and Chinese Industrial Design

#fahua #gardenstool #industrialdesign #chineseceramics

This is a special object Read Why >>

You've probably seen one of these or something very similar in any store that sells #Chinese #Ceramics. There are a lot of modern copies of this #Ming #Fahua garden stool. Hundreds. Thousands. BUT That testifies to its success as industrial design.

Once upon a time this was an innovation. Someone had the splendid idea of combining the new turquoise and indigo mid-range glazes with a shape normally used with bamboo or saw an upturned barrel or storage container being used as a stool or maybe they lived in or visited a high rain fall subtropical region and were fed up with the garden furniture  wood or bamboo turning green with mould or drying and splitting? 

Its an easy shape to create and copy on a large scale by hand or mold. 

Its a simple yet elegant contrast of colors.

There's ornament to catch the customers eyes.

Centuries later these are still being made and sold because they are good design.

They may not be porcelain famille verte or wucai Qing court vessels but they are useful surprisingly sturdy and have popular appeal

I also suspect some one was sick of garden furniture in lighter materials being overturned or damaged in storms and having to be dragged in and out of storage.

True there are some modern copies that are obviously mass produced and not the same high quality but this simple design really should be used as a textbook example in design texts, industrial or ceramic!