Chinese landscape painting was established as an independent form of visual art by the fourth century; today many experts consider landscape the highest form of Chinese painting. The great age of Chinese landscape painting spanned over two centuries from 907 to 1127. In the northern part of China, artists such as Fan Kuan and Guo Xi executed detailed studies of towering mountains. They used strong black lines, ink wash, and sharp, dotted brushstrokes. In the south, artists including Dong Yuan rendered paintings of rolling hills and rivers using softer, rubbed brushwork. These techniques and subjects are the basis for the classical Chinese landscape.
Freehand Style
The northern tradition of landscape art used strong images of mountains reaching the clouds with vivid brushwork and the intensity of ink from a pale wash to a true black. This technique is called "shui-mo." Shui means "water" and mo means "ink." This style is also called "xie yi" or freehand. The Japanese call this style of painting "sum-i."
Freehand Style Materials
The shui-mo style of painting requires what the Chinese call the four treasures of the study. These are the brush, ink stick, paper and ink stone. The artist rubs the black ink stick onto the ink stone. She adds drops of water until the ink reaches the consistency desired. The range of intensity will range from the deepest black to a wash of pale gray.
There are two main types of brushes: soft and stiff. The brush types come in white hair and brown hair. White hair brushes are soft and absorbent and are used for flower and bird paintings and for color washing. Brown hair brushes are stiffer brushes, suitable for contouring and used in painting tree branches, bamboo and landscapes. The brush hairs can be as long as four inches.
Court-Style Painting
The southern style created a more subtle image of peaceful, blue and green landscapes using pigments of blue, green and red. This meticulous and studied technique is called "gong bi"; it is also called court-style painting. Gong means "meticulous" or "delicate" and bi means "writing" or "writing tool." This painting style is precise and requires patience and good technique. All landscapes are painted on surfaces such as rice paper or silk using specific brushes for contours and backgrounds.
Court-Style Materials
For painting contours, there are four types of brushes: Hong mao, meaning "red hair," is for painting the thickest lines; Yi wen, meaning "folds of clothing," is intended for rendering the long lines in fabric; Ye jing means "veins of the sheets" and is used for the drawing the lines of flowers and sheets; Xie zhua, meaning "crabs grip," is intended to paint the finest of lines such as the wings of a dragonfly.
For covering surface areas there are three brushes: da ba yun or the large white cloud; zhon bai yun or the average white cloud; and xiao bai yun or the small white cloud. Inks in red, blue, and black are mixed with water in varying degrees depending upon the depth of color desired.
