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Traditional
Chinese Paintings
By
Yuet-Mei Chan
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The most
noticeable characteristics of traditional Chinese paintings
are:
- The
color black is the predominant color
- Their
simplicity and tranquility §
- People
are small in all landscape paintings
These
characteristics are consistent with the Chinese way of being
and their view of the universe. Chinese acknowledge the vastness
of nature and the universe. By comparison, human beings are
but a small and insignificant part of the whole. Hence, most
Chinese landscape paintings show a bird's eye view of tall
mountains amidst layers of clouds and sometimes a tiny person
strolling along or fishing in a boat. These characters often
seem too small in proportion to their surroundings. The same
technique is used when depicting a servant or a messenger
speaking to their master. The master would be proportionately
bigger to show his superiority. .
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A
lot of traditional Chinese paintings are very simple in their
subject matters, color, technique and utensils used. Most
paintings are done on rice paper or silk with ink and Chinese
brushes. Paintings on silk tend to be more detailed because
silk is the perfect medium for details. Rice paper is extremely
absorbent and therefore requires great skills in brush control.
Chinese brushes are mostly soft and pointed. Some brushes
are made with horses' hair and are coarser. They are used
mostly to show strength. The size of the brush determines
the amount of ink it can hold. Much like any water color paintings,
the moment the brush touches the paper, the ink will run.
Some paintings are done in split seconds, which is a demonstration
of tremendous strength, energy and skill. Paintings of horses
with their wavy hair and tails are great illustrations of
this type of paintings. While these paintings takes "no time"
to produce, they take artists years of practice on the part
of the artist..
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Black
is the predominant color in Chinese paintings. Even when colors
are used, they tend to be subdue colors leaving most Chinese
paintings to appear calm and soothing. If paintings can be
classified as yin or yang, most Chinese paintings will be
yin. Colors are used only for highlighting. More often colors
are used when the subject matters are flowers, birds or women.
Almost most silk paintings are done with colors. When mixed
with water, the black ink can produce many shades of black.
These different shades of black allow the artists to create
depth and "colors". It is much more difficult to paint with
one color than it is to paint with several colors. The next
time you look at a Chinese painting, check out the number
of shades of black there are and look for the little characters
that may be hidden in a landscape painting.
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