Lotus is a kind of beautiful plant that its flower and seeds are growing at the same time. In Chinese Lotus Painting, fish flirting with lotuses. This combination has the meaning of "living in affluence" and "every year may you always get more than you wish for". In ancient China, the lotus represented the female and the fish the male, so this combination also implied the connection of male and female.

Lotus - Chinese Painting

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.

The Four Gentlemen have been used in Chinese painting since the time of the Chinese Song Dynasty (960–1279) because of their refined beauty, and were later adopted by artists in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. As they represent the four different seasons (the orchid for spring, the bamboo for summer, the chrysanthemum for autumn, and the plum blossom for winter), the four are used to depict the unfolding of the seasons through the year.

Four Gentlemen

The Four Gentlemen are an important subject matter in learning to paint in the aforementioned Asian traditions, as they embody all the basic brush styles. They are also depicted in Mahjong tiles.

Related to the Four Gentlemen are the Flowers of the Four Seasons, which consist of the orchid (spring), the lotus (summer), the chrysanthemum (autumn) and the plum blossom (winter). They contain three of the elements of the Four Gentlemen.

The Lotus Flower meaning the Harbinger-of-spring has long been considered a symbol of happiness, love and hope. It is a symbol of change or transformation, joy and love. The Lotus Flower will promote spiritual awareness, and love.

Lotus - Chinese Painting

The lotus paintings show not only the pursuit of the Chinese people towards beauty, and are also a memorial of God beliefs. On the basis of a different kind of human emotion, the lotus-themed contemporary painting works are also very colorful in Chinese art. They occupy an irreplaceable position and cultural implication.

In Taoism and Buddhism, the Lotus flower holds a supreme position. The Lotus Flower meaning pure and noble in Buddhism is considered sacred. In Buddhism the lotus flower symbolizes faithfulness. The golden Lotus Flower meaning that is mentioned in Buddhist sutras, is the symbol for the achievement of enlightenment.

Thousands of years of culture have precipitated out the unique insights of aesthetics. Thousands of years of history of civilization were bearded in the painting works, the accumulations of Chinese traditional culture.

Chinese painters have perfectly annotated the ever-changing colorful lotus art by different strokes to express lotus beauty to the extreme. In the pursuit of techniques, the artist has also focused on the enhancement of the inner cultivation. Different artists show up their inner praise and affection to the lotus by the ink in hands through different forms of artistic expressions.