Chinese Brush Painting

To really learn Chinese brush painting involves the study of a five thousand year old civilization. This style of painting is an exercise of both the body and the mind. Chinese ink painting is the process of using Chinese ink, color chips, brushes and rice paper of various textures. Once a painting is dry, it must then be mounted for framing. Calligraphy and signature chop are used to complete the painting.

I use a variety of rice papers. Some have visible fibers or silver threads woven into the rice paper. Some paintings are on colored or aged rice paper. A few paintings incorporate the use of Chinese silk fabric. Chinese calligraphy and seal chop complete each painting. Each piece of art is an original.

Styles of Chinese Calligraphy
Seals-Chops
Papers, Brushes, Supplies
Mounting

Styles of Chinese brush painting

Hsieh-I is a spontaneous approach. It is a style that depicts the idea of your subject matter. A good example of this style is how I painted Sparky. I freely painted what I was feeling. I enjoy this form of painting.

Gong-bi is a fine line approach. You first draw the subject matter with a brush and ink meticulously. This type of painting demands total concentration and the greatest of artistic ability. Ink and color is applied last. This type of painting requires more patience. An example is my painting of Tea and Crabs.

Mo-gu is a boneless approach. No fine line work. This style is inspired by the Hsieh-I style. Strokes are done with reckless abandon, resulting in an abstract like painting.

Styles of Chinese Calligraphy Back to Top

There are many different styles of calligraphy which have emerged over the centuries. There are Six Families (Liu shu) of characters: pictographs, indicators, ideographs, phonograms, deflectives and loan characters. Every Chinese character is formed with one or more strokes in a variety of combinations.

I have been learning to write Chinese characters for years from a wonderful teacher. There are many books available in English translation to help you learn. It’s a very disciplined and time consuming art skill.

Seals-Chops Back to Top

An Artist seal chop is carved into soapstone or hard materials that can support fine carving. Soapstone is found along the coastal regions of Fujian and Zhejiang. Seals are imprinted with a red cinnabar paste. There are two styles of seals; yin where the characters are incised into the stone and yang where the characters stand out in relief. Artist use different seals to convey a meaning into their artwork. Seals are collector’s treasures.

Papers, Brushes, Supplies, etc. Back to Top

I order art supplies from OSA Oriental Art Supply. I am also very fortunate to have a friend who travels often to China to bring me art materials.

The suminagashi technique I incorporate into my work is based on the Japanese technique of paper marbling. The use of Chinese ink and colors on a water surface along with the use of feathers, combs, or a stick can produce intricate background patterns on the paper. This technique has been practiced since the 12th century.

Mounting Back to Top

Paper mounting was taught to me by my Chinese calligraphy teacher. After much trial and error I have now mastered the technique. Mounting art work requires careful preparation. It requires you to cut mounting paper for each art painting, cook a paste, mount materials on a large wooden board. Patience and concentration is very important in the process. This image is an example of work that has been mounted