The Giant panda seems as elusive in art as it has been in nature. In early Chinese Art, bears not Panda bears were carved into jade. However, the mountains where the pandas live have been well represented in Chinese paintings.

The traditional Chinese landscapes known as "shan-shui", or mountains/water is one of the most enduring subjects of Chinese Art. Bamboo, the main diet of the Panda bear, has also been a main subject of artists throughout time. The artists now include the Panda bear in their paintings. Paintings of Giant pandas appeared only recently in Chinese art due to the excitement pandas generated among Westerners in this century. Like the inspirational quality of some earlier Chinese paintings the images of Giant Pandas in paintings may serve to educate and inspire others to value one of China's National Treasurers.

Panda - Chinese Painting

In contrast, western painting originated from ancient Greece and Rome and its development was contemporaneous with other art forms such as music, dance and sculpture. The contents that western paintings portrayed were closely associated with people’s daily life.

Mountains, water - Chinese Painting

Chinese landscape painting is created using ink brush, ink stick, ink stone and Xuan paper. Oil painting is the main type of western painting. Painters usually draw contents on cloth, board, canvas or thick paper with oily pigments. The characteristic of oil painting is the rich of colour that has a strong artistic expression and can express the realistic sense of the objects.

A River 1899

]]> https://www.artisoo.com/blog/the-differences-between-chinese-landscapes-and-western-landscapes/feed/ 0 https://www.artisoo.com/blog/mountains-and-water-in-chinese-landscape-paintings/ https://www.artisoo.com/blog/mountains-and-water-in-chinese-landscape-paintings/#comments Sat, 12 Oct 2013 03:28:50 +0000 CNArtGallery http://www.artisoo.com/blog/?p=1101 Continue reading →]]> Landscape painting is traditionally at the top of the hierarchy of Chinese painting styles. The Chinese term for "landscape" is made up of two characters meaning "mountains and water".

Chinese artists do not usually paint real places but imaginary, idealized landscapes. Chinese painting in general is seen as an extension of calligraphy and uses the same brushstrokes. The colours are restrained and subtle and the paintings are usually created in ink on paper, with a small amount of watercolor.

Mountains and water - Chinese Painting

The most Chinese Orchid Paintings are specially associated with women, love, and beauty; and secondly, with virtue, moral excellence, and the "refinement of the superior man (a learned and cultured gentleman), whose reputation precedes him like perfume."

Zheng Sixiao, who was famous for his refusal to collaborate with the Yuan court, which overthrew the Song Dynasty. He specialized in ink paintings of the orchid and the bamboo. This painting Ink Orchid depicts an orchid in light ink, with its leaves evenly distributed on two sides. Although lacking in the varied poses characterizing works by later painters of orchids, it is a neat composition with every brushstroke making an impact. It also successfully adapted calligraphic brush techniques to painting. This is a representative orchid painting of the artist in his late years.

Cymbidium-ray of fragrancee - Chinese Painting