Traditional Chinese Painting
Paintings made before the Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.) were mainly line drawings of people; this was the golden age of human figure drawing. By the mid-Tang dynasty, many landscape and flower-and-bird paintings began to appear.
Paintings of mountains, forests, fields, and gardens have the ability to transport one away from the vexations of the material world into a peaceful, carefree realm. Because of the ability of mountain, forest, field, and garden paintings to transport one to a peaceful realm, landscape paintings have always been highly regarded by literati and officials. The flowers, grass, trees, stones, birds, and other animals illustrated in traditional Chinese painting is also admired. Thus the human figure, landscape, flower-and-bird types of painting are the three main types of traditional Chinese painting.
Literati prefer to paint without restriction, and they are fond of subject matter such as mountains and rocks, clouds and water, flowers and trees, and the "four gentlemen" (plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums). Because natural objects are easier subjects to paint than the human figure, the painter can better use the brush and ink's potential for free expression.
We offer expert tuition to all ability levels in traditional Chinese painting.
