Writhe Landscape Painting Techniques Trees: Senior Studies in Painting and Calligraphy

Author: Sun Changkang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-01-01
Features: "Landscape Painting" is a major category in traditional Chinese painting, standing alongside other genres such as "Figures" and "Flowers and Birds." Landscape painting depicts natural mountains and rivers as its subject matter. The techniques of landscape painting are both realistic and expressive, embodying a sense of representation. Fundamentally, it employs realistic methods to achieve the state of "extending the appearance to depict the object." Expressing the texture, spatial depth, and the beauty of seasonal and meteorological changes like wind, rain, and snow in mountains and rivers are important subjects of landscape painters' dedicated exploration. However, Chinese landscape painting is not a mere photographic imitation of nature like Western landscape painting. The mountains, rivers, clouds, and trees in Chinese landscape painting are products of the painter's subjective imagination. As the master landscape painter Huang Binhong once said, "Mountains and rivers are natural objects, while paintings are artificial creations." In Chinese landscape painting, mountains and rivers are the painter's imaginative creation based on nature, forming the "hills and ridges in the heart." Therefore, accomplished landscape painters have always adhered to the spirit of "learning from nature and finding the source within," continuously exploring the mysteries of nature, capturing the essence of mountains and rivers, refining expressive techniques, and articulating their artistic language to convey their inner spirit. Like other traditional Chinese painting genres and calligraphy, landscape painting relies on simple yet versatile tools—brushes and ink—making line and ink techniques the core of its expressive style. To convey subjective emotions, it emphasizes the emotional depth of brushwork, the charm of ink, and the moving power of brush and ink forms. By deliberately abandoning the pursuit of natural shadows and colors, it has created perspective techniques such as "scattered-point perspective" and "three-distance composition," as well as the principle of "less is more" to achieve the ultimate expression of subjective emotions and the creation of "artistic conception beauty." Creating a painting that resonates with viewers is the soul of landscape painting. It reflects the relationship between human beauty and natural beauty, and embodies the dialectical relationship between natural laws and artistic laws. Chinese landscape painting originated in the Jin Dynasty, reached its height of maturity during the Tang and Song dynasties, and has evolved through the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, forming numerous schools and traditions with a history of over 1,500 years. These traditions and styles are diverse and richly interconnected. Painters from different cultural environments, with varying talents, personalities, and life experiences, and from different geographical regions, have produced landscapes with countless variations. The diverse techniques of rock formations, trees, clouds, and water, as well as the artistic theories and doctrines inherited from each era, are accumulations of painters' observations of nature, their inheritance, and development of predecessors' achievements, forming the solid foundation of Chinese landscape painting tradition. Due to the formulaic language of traditional Chinese landscape painting techniques, learning this art requires respecting tradition while exploring new paths based on ancient masters. Only by immersing oneself in nature can one create works that blend tradition with innovation.