Chinese Landscape Painting Introduction

Landscape
Most people think of soaring mountains and tall waterfalls seen through the mist when Chinese landscapes are mentioned. This is not a misconception, as the written characters for landscape are “mountain” plus “water.” The geography and topography of China have inspired artists, calligraphers, and poets for centuries. It is the grandeur of the natural scenery which captured their imagination. Many Chinese court officials retired from public life to remote rural positions, spending their time painting, writing poems, or indulging in philosophical discussions with like-minded peers. Their world was rather fanciful , and certainly left out any unpleasant features.

In the time of Confucius, it was stated that there were five pure colors-red, yellow, blue-green, black, and white. Confucius himself only wore robes of black, white, or yellow. From this strict dictate, later scholar-artists assumed that very little color should be used in paintings. Color later played a minor role because of the manual labor involved in preparing the pigments and the smaller number of servants available to carry out the work. From this time the “five colors of ink” became important. Even mineral and vegetable colors enjoyed their fashions, the former in the Tang Dynasty and the latter in the Ming Dynasty. All this led to the appearance of ‘ink and light color” in traditional landscapes. These marvelously evocative scenes only show what the artist wanted to portray.

The Chinese knew about perspective from about the 8th century (knowledge that was not widespread in the West until the 15th century ) and then completely ignored it; artists were not interested in realism, but only in creating a particular impression.. There were various traditional points of view for a scene, from low level (Fig. 1), where trees and other features would form a large part of the picture, to high level (Fig.2), where the trees were at the foot of towering mountains. It is the latter that most viewers are familiar with in Chinese landscape paintings –almost as if you were looking from one mountaintop to another.

Composition
Along with these viewing levels, there were many composition patterns. These are divided into “great,” or “big,” compositions, and “little,” or “small,” compositions. The first is a description of the overall appearance, the division of the paper and where the marks are made. The second category refers to the detail, the arrangement of secondary elements. I am indebted to Qu Lei Lei for making all of this clear to me, and for the ideas used in the sketches. For ease of illustration, the brush sketches are shown in the same size and proportion-adapt this to your work.

The following composition patterns are illustrated; interlocking, where elements overlap each other(Fig.3); diagonal, the pathway shown around the mountain (Fig.4); separated, showing each side of the river (Fig.5); concentrated, focusing on the bridge and house(Fig.6); open flat, with low ground near water (Fig.7); and opposite, as in the gorge(Fig. 8) There are also upright, broken, unbalanced, geometric, and conversation. (The latter is where elements have a relationship.)

The “little” compositions include linking (Fig.9) and layered (Fig.10). Others are called evenly arranged, open and closed, separated, snaking, and “living eye.” Most of these are self-explanatory, except for the last, where the grouping draws the focus in toward one corner(such as the source of a waterfall, for example). It is fun looking at paintings and deciding which category they fit into, and it also helps viewers to study paintings with a more critical eye.

Other elements must be considered within the composition of a traditional landscape. The main three are rocks, water, and trees. Rocks are regarded as the skeleton of the land, full of force and strength. These should be painted with vigor, taking care to paint the “three faces”; look at the sketch of the blocks. The water seeps and flows through the gaps in the rock formations, always fluid and flexible, like the flesh or muscle of the land. Trees are seen as the clothes with which the land is covered. They take on the character of the setting. In a wild and rocky landscape there may be rugged, even windswept, pine trees. In a wide, fertile valley, trees in blossom add color and softness to the scene. Decide on the effect that you want.

Trees
Trees can soften a scene and mark the seasons with color, shape, and amount of growth. They can also indicate weather and conditions. In order to facilitate this, different shape and styles are used for the foliage of many tree types, such as pine, maple, willow, round-leafed, fine-leafed, single-leafed, and multilobed leafed trees etc. Used either in outline or as solid strokes, these patterns can suggest delicate or robust growth. Likewise, the trunks and branches also help to show the character of the trees. The amount of detail, such as marking on the trunk of a pine tree, for instance, will depend on the size of that tree in the landscape. Pay attention to the attitude of the various trees: some are stiff and upright, others are soft and drooping. There strokes also have particular names: “crab’s claw.” ”feather ,” “pepper dots,” “rice dots.” and “bowed-head dots” are just a few.

Bonsai
Bonsai trees are popular in both China and Japan. Another work by Joseph Lo, part of a series, shows a wonderful, twisted pine tree in a pottery container. The contrast between the smooth dish and the rough surface of the tree is very marked, and this choice is often made to show the variation, and to add drama to the composition. Both elements owe something to human activities-the bowl has been formed by a potter, while over a long times pan the tree has been guided into portraying a miniature scene.