Characteristics of Chinese painting and landscape painting

There are great differences between China landscape painting and western landscape painting in aesthetic pursuit, attitude towards nature and technical characteristics. This constitutes the unique characteristics of China's landscape painting, which can be summarized in three aspects: the pursuit of artistic conception, the unique observation method and the pen and ink technique system.

Pursuing artistic conception

China's landscape paintings emphasize artistic conception. As early as the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Zong Bing put forward the theory of "the spirit of nature" in his Preface to Landscape Painting. Being free from mental pressure means that the painter's spiritual feelings are expressed by mountains and rivers. The artistic conception of landscape painting is an artistic realm reflected by the description of time and space scenery and the high integration of emotion and scenery, so as to achieve fluency. Zhang Yanyuan, an art historian in the Tang Dynasty, put forward the concept of "conception", while landscape painters in the Five Dynasties put forward the theory of "true scenery". Guo, a painter in the Song Dynasty, put forward the problem of "emphasizing meaning" in landscape painting creation, and advocated that creation should be intentional and appreciation should be "poor meaning". The rise and development of literati painting in Song and Yuan Dynasties advocated the artistic concept of the unity of poetry and painting. Ni Zan put forward the theory of "Yi", which changed the traditional painting from focusing on the description of objective objects to focusing on the expression of subjective spirit. The creative tendency of constructing the realm with emotion and expressing one's will by supporting things has promoted the development of the theory and practice of artistic conception.

Unique observation method, four-dimensional view of time and space

The observation method advocated by Chinese painting is quite different from that advocated by western painting. Western painting, whether it is people, still life or landscape creation, emphasizes the expression of instantaneous time and space scenes. Its observation method also lies in grasping the characteristics of the scenery in a specific time and space. Both overall observation and local in-depth observation and research require fixation. In the picture, we strive to reproduce the scene of this specific space, so we have produced perspective theory, light color theory and so on. The most important feature of the observation method of Chinese painting is "watching while walking". In the process of watching, you can form a composition by constantly pondering, conceiving and thinking wonderfully. Shi Tao, a painter in the Qing Dynasty, put forward the idea of "searching all over the strange peaks and making manuscripts", which not only reflected his emphasis on the importance of observing and experiencing nature in depth, but also infiltrated the concept of "walking the view". "Searching for all the strange peaks" is a process, and only through repeated observation can we enter the creative stage, which is a macro proposition. Specific to a mountain, a water, a tree and a stone, we should also observe dynamically, watch while walking and record the most touching scenery. Then, when composing a composition, we can build the scenery at different times and places together to create a picture that can best express our feelings. Here, the painter faces not only a three-dimensional space, but a four-dimensional space including time. In other words, Chinese painting composition breaks the time limit, and can organically combine different spatial scenes and scenes existing at different times into one picture without a sense of patchwork.

Pen and ink technique system

Pen and ink refers to the skill of using pen and ink and the artistic effect it creates. In a broad sense, it is also the floorboard of Chinese painting techniques.

The pen and ink of Chinese painting is an artistic expression with national characteristics formed by painters of past dynasties in their long-term artistic practice. Landscape painting itself has a complete set of pen and ink techniques. Stone, tree, cloud and water have formed their own style of program symbol language, such as tree method, stone method, cloud method and water method. , especially the method of expressing rocks, has unique creativity. These pen and ink techniques not only have rich expressive force, but also contain different aesthetic pursuits of painters in different times. It is the basis of Chinese painting tradition and the formal feature of Chinese painting.

China's traditional pen and ink techniques are enriched through long-term accumulation, so pen and ink are constantly developing. In the new era, the living environment of human beings is undergoing tremendous changes, and people's thoughts and feelings are also undergoing tremendous changes. The artistic language used to express the feelings of the times must be constantly innovated to meet the needs of social development, so we advocate "pen and ink should keep pace with the times."