Village in the Snow

In modern times, landscape painter further develop the techniques of snow painting on the basis of summing up the previous experience, and making it become an independent type of Chinese landscape painting. Chinese snow painting mainly shows the grand snow scene of the northern part of China especially Northeast China region. In snow winter, all is covered in silvery white snow, as if we enter a fairyland. That's why people appreciate the snow scene, for its pureness.

Artist like painting snow landscape, because snow that is bound up with their soul. Snow landscape  is a symbol. Artist painting snow scene not especially for emphasizing the cold of the snowy world, but for giving expression to their mood through painting. In a sheer whiteness, all the dirt seems disappeared. It reflects painter's feeling of high moral principle and detachment.

Nymph of the Luo River

"Nymph of the Luo River" by Gu Kaizhi of Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420) illustrates a romantic poem by Cao Zhi from the state of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. The copy collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing is a facsimile of the original made during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

The narrative silk scroll depicts the meeting and the eventual separation of Cao Zhi and the Nymph of the Luo River; the art captures the tension through the composition of the figures, stones, trees and mountains. The painting is one of the most important Chinese artworks, representing the beginning of the development of Chinese landscape paintings.

As you probably know, traditional Chinese painting has three major branches: landscape, flower-bird and figure. Flower-bird painting includes flowers, fruits, vegetables, birds and fish. As for the painting technique styles, it can be Meticulous (gongbi) using contour methods, outline the object first, then color it. Meticulous style requires great care and grace; the strict composition has fine elaboration. The effect is highly decorative; or Freehand (xieyi) — Freehand style generalizes shapes and displays rich brushwork and ink technique. Paintings in this group are freehand style.

Chinese Lotus Painting

And then, late in the Tang dynasty, Chinese artists began using “ink and wash” techniques to paint birds and flowers, giving rise to a popular motif that has survived well into modern times. Popular flora subject matter includes lotus flowers, peonies, plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemums, pines and cypresses. Animals featured in flower and bird paintings include not only birds but also fish, cats and even insects. Simple by design; most flower and bird paintings feature just one or two subjects, and overlapping of subjects rarely occurs.

The flower-and-bird painting is peculiar to China. From of old, all kinds of flowers, plants, and birds were given various symbolic meanings. Flowers and birds can be compared to almost all thoughts and feelings of human being. They can symbolize feminine beauty, virtues, political authority, omens, and lucky niceness. And once established, this tradition became popular in every dynasty.

Almost all Chinese love traditional flower and bird paintings. That is why this old form of art is continued till today. We know it has a long history. But not everyone knows what it stands for in China. Let’s say like this: their symbolic meaning grow increasingly rich and specific.

Trees, houses - Chinese painting

From the ancient Minoans, Greeks and Romans come the first inklings that landscapes formed part of their culture, and even though the more sophisticated means of portraying scale and proportion regarding distance would not come until the Renaissance, these extremely early landscapes do show an attempt to recreate the feel of standing still and really noticing the land around us.