brush and ink

The Chinese ancients used the expression“pi mo”(brush and ink) to describe the particularity of Chinese painting. Therefore brush and ink are not only deemed as a kind of materials just for the works of art;they are another interpretation of our philosophy of“Yin and Yang”.In traditional painting,using ink to good effect is prominent,for the subjects’inner qualities could be depicted delicately from the various comsistencies of the ink.Such significances rested in the subjects are in a static state and it is the meaning of“Yin”,so ink is related to Yin.

However the inner qualities have to be brought out,to make it visible,otherwise they

could not be seen and the aesthetic sensibilities of viewers could not be aroused.

Then the manipulation of the brush brings the inner beauty and meaning outwardly.

As“Yang”means dynamics and energy,the various strokes made by the brush are related to Yang.

In the photo we can see there are different kind of brushes to suit for our need of expression.The bigger ones are used to depict larger objects,for instance the leaves of lotus.The tiny one is used to draw insects or the tentacles of the shrimps.The hair of the brushes are from animals,for instance,normally from sheep,foxes and horses.But there are some rare kinds made from the hair of human foetus or the feathers from chickens.The brush with chicken feathers is the most difficult to handle,for the sopped feathers are as soft and weak as the cooked noodles.It is not easy to make it move on the paper.

In the photo we can also see the inkstick and the inkstone. There are shining decorative silver and gold patterns on the inkstick.Do you think that it is gorgeous?

Some inksticks even imbedded with pearls for the purpose of long-lasting.When the inkstick is ground on the inkstone with fresh water,ink of various consistencies can be prepared depending on the amount of water used.But nowadays we can save our labour by using the ink liquid.

A symbol of the Handover-----Bauhinia Blakeana (part 2)

In the year 1999 , I graduated from the Tsinghua Academy of Arts .Back to Hong Kong I depicted another picture of the same subject matter and the reason of it I had made it clear in the inscription, of which is the wish of Bauhinia as a symbol of the “peaceful ambiance” connecting Hong Kong and Mainland China. Although the mauve color of the Bauhinia is not so eye-catching as the golden souvenir being bestow upon Hong Kong, the auspice of prosperity is the same.

During the long history of China’s cultural evolution, the accumulation of our civilization has never ceased even in time of trials and tribulations. Now the commitment of inheriting our cultural heritage  has reached our hands to develop and pass to the future generations. If we are not aware of our responsiilities, it is meaningless to celebrate the reunification.  We could have clear minds in the  peaceful ambiance, and the direction of cultural innovation could be easier to identify.

A symbol of the Handover-----Bauhinia Blakeana (part 1)

Chinese civilization is one of the oldest in the world, and the powerful traditons attracted me, locally born and bred in Hong Kong, went to explore the territory. Before the reunification, I passed the entrance examination with arduous efforts and was admitted to study in Beijing Central Academy of Arts(Now merged with Tsinghua University). I studied the Master of Arts and Crafts at the key of university in China and could have the incidental chance of participating in the celebration of Hong Kong’s handing over to the mainland China. The university had winned the national open competition of disigning a souvenir to give Hong Kong as a present to commemorate the important event. I also painted a picture of Bauhinia Blakeana to pay tribute to the greeting gift.

The sculpture designed by the Central Academy of Arts used Bauhinia as a prototype, which is the five- petaled cluster of the curvilineal shape of glittering beauty and feature of this flower,and is a comparison of the painting in which the mauve, star-shaped blooms showing an auspice of prosperousness. It can be seen from the photo provided of placing the model of the giant sculpture in front of my painting. What is the reason that the Academy could win the competition? It is because the appearance of the sculpture is neither too figurative nor too abstract. It is not a real portrait of Bauhinia,but by viewing the visual elements constructing the form we could find the characteristics of the flower. The sculpture lets you know what it is and besides the pleasant image,there is something more in it. Taking a close look,we could see the thin and flexible filaments inside. We anticipate the full bloom of it. My painting is the adumbration of what would happen of the sculpture.

 Nowadays, the tourists come visiting Hong Kong would take photos of posing in front of the sculpture, which is situated before the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre , as the keepsakes. Such an interlude in the celebration of the reunification is little known.

A Spring Scenery in Loyang

Peony is a propitious symbol of wealth and prosperity in China long long time ago.Therefore in China,many places such as residences,restaurants and other business centres, paintings with the motif of peony would be hung as a mascot.

The most bright and colourful peonies are grown in the county Loyang, in Honan, China.The blossoming season of peonies is in the late spring;so the meaning of the inscription on the right is : A spring scenery in Loyang.

(dimention:28 inchesX18 inches)

Painting is a kind of two-dimensional works of art, thereby many artists facing the same problem of reproducing the all-aroundness of the visual conception directly in a single plane. We grapple with the problem of selecting the perceptually preferred aspects best suited to convey the visual concepts of the three-dimensional world. It is also related to the aesthetic senses which could develop and enrich gradually through the experiences of manipulating all means of two-dimensional expression, and to be built up to levels of higher sophistication. However it would take a long time by self-discovering.

In traditional Chinese Painting, there are some kinds of books dealing with the above mentioned problems. There are diverse topics for the beginners to learn the best ways of representing a certain kind of thing. These books are the elementary introduction of how to have the successful two-dimensional expression. There are both verbal definition and visual illustration to help us to render the basic visual forms and to organize these forms.

For example, in the chapter of flower, there are rules telling us the basic methods to have the all-around concept of the offshoots of the trunk as to avoid the unpleasant effect. The picture which I depicted above , only two branches crossed each other, and the third branch would not coincide the formed point of the branches. It is the basic norm to prevent the visual statement from being equivocal and ambiguous.

At the same time, however, traditional Chinese painting is not the fidelity to the outward appearance

 of things. The single plane is viewed as the locus of directed perceptual forces of attraction and repulsion. The peony in the painting exhibits a particular predominant direction; thus results a pull in that direction. The dark short branches on the right stabilize the pressing movement and the visual dynamics is established in balance.

The traditional works of aesthetic value are our mentors. In the past, all the valuable originals were in the hands of a few scholars and officials. During early Ch’ing dynasty (1644-1911) Mr. Wong Gai compiled the teaching notes of an art teacher of the former dynasty and enriched it. With the follow-up edition of later period, the complete volumed work really helped people a lot as how to represent the best aspect of nature, and how to render the interaction between the energetic life force and the tendency toward balance to reach a fuller conception of dynamics activating the human mind and reflected in the mind’s products.  

The canopy of the heavens

The painting above was created by a man of letters who withdrew from society and lived in obscurity. His name is Gong Xian (from 1619 to 1689). In 1644 the foreign clan overthrew the Ming dynasty and the Ching dynasty emerged as the ruling power. Quite many scholar-gentlemen abandoned the conventional lives to go into retreat for the invasion of their motherland . Many officials declined to serve at the Court ,and some persons even killed themselves so as to avoid the inauguration in the Court, while some became Buddhist monks. From Mr.Gong’s living period, we could imagine how much he had suffered in his lifetime.

In his painting we could feel his own salvation in the enormity of nature. The man on the right is so tiny that the implication of the insignificance of human existence is obvious. The occident culture eulogize the utmost charm of the human bodies and hence the lamentation over the deterioration of the outward man is the unavoidable aftermath. However if we ignore the flesh and draw our attention to nature, we will find that the everlasting life force stored in nature seems to be the sources of energy which could animate the existent. Therefore the hermetic art of finding the secret of longevity encapsulated the early period of history; at that time ,quite many people making full-time effort to cultivate their spiritual and religious lives, abiding by the teachings of Taoism. Maybe such attitude towards nature had been diffused in the mind of the scholar-gentlemen in China, then whose landscape paintings were imbued with the taoistic spirits.

Communing with nature is the attribute of our landscape painting, which was named National painting ,for the embodiment of certain theopathy in such special form of arts make it unique. Furthermore the ancient Chinese people were not just concerned with the sphere on which human had been dwelling; they also exerted themselves to communicate with the cosmos through meditations with the belief that it would be the real liberty of human as the soul no longer being trapped in the body. Our spirits travelling in the canopy of heavens is the joyous freedom which is beyond all the pleasure on earth.

Let us hark back to look at the painting; the blank space is not empty. Just the opposite, it seems can generate power to blur the background or make it clear with its movement, for there is dynamic inherent in the void. Leaving blank in a painting is as important as brushing strokes in Chinese painting. The harmonious and serene ambience of the traditional Chinese painting is not just the static image.  The leaving blank is invested with energetic properties which is as the creative power of the wild blue canopy above. 

While holding the brush, the artist’s personal concerns disappeared, and his heart  insulated from the real world. His spirit was high up in the sky, and with the skill of his heart, his brush was generating vivid images with the spontaneous strokes. Therefore every stroke is full of power with animation through spirit consonance. It is the expressive power of the brush comes from. The Supreme Will is in the sky, which manifests itself as visibly in the laws of destiny as in the laws of nature. The traditional Chinese literati connected with the Supreme Will, and didn’t think that the mortal bodies are the most important. Maybe this ideology helped them survived the hardship in life.

The three-dimensional conception of the Chinese culture

The illustration above showing a scene of the concubines’ daily lives gives us an impression that they are having fun by making up a party and playing music .The event maybe took place in the palace chamber of the imperial court of the Tong Dynasty and the neutral ground of the picture keeps us focusing at the green oblong table which all the resplendently dress-up ladies were sitting around. The presentation of the table refutes our visual experience. The farther end of the table is longer then the frontal side.

If we apply three-dimensional space to visual representation, the conception of a converging world would impart its own characteristic expression. The painting will establish rather direct connection between the events in the picture space and the viewer with its central perspective. We continue to look into the illusive pictorial space, and our eye sights will focalize to a point of emptiness. When arriving at such focal point, the feeling of plunging into nothingness really makes one feel uneasy. Especially Chinese culture adores vitality and the life force, so the abyss of treacherous unknownness is not what we want.

The divergent shape of the table worked out as an elementary device of spatial representation to enhance the feeling of substantial existence. Chinese culture express the perceptual world in the centerless continuum by isometric perspective. Moreover, the average Chinese people love happy ending; we don’t like the tragedy of love story; therefore in many famous Chinese operas, when the actress died, her soul could go into another newly dead body to continue the love story. Another example is that a lover died for their misconstruction of mutual communication. The other lover committed suicide for it. The ending is that they both incarnated into butterflies fluttering their wings gracefully away. Death ended the love story of Romeo and Juliet, and maybe this is the different concept of life between Chinese and the Western.