We recently completed our fourth Chinese Brush Painting challenge. The main subject of the challenge was a Waterfall. However, as has become a habit, an extra element, people, were added. Of course, as usual, the idea of the challenge was to interpret that title in any way that students saw fit.
Reg had found a wonderful Northern Song Dynasty painting by Qu Ding (active ca1023 – ca1056) on the Met Museum website called Summer Mountains and this was the original inspiration for the challenge:
There were some excellent paintings of Waterfalls produced, however, it is fair to say that most people had only completed one final painting for the challenge, this time.
Claire decided to use the idea of a Waterfall to start her off rather than use the above painting. This meant that the idea ended up going in a different direction to the Song Dynasty start. After plenty of research Claire found a contemporary Chinese artists work that she has been looking at for some time now, Wu Guanzhong. This meant that the final composition was much more contemporary in nature:
For some of Claire’s other challenge inspirations please see our Double Happiness Studio MH Facebook page.
I do love a Song Dynasty landscape so decided to have a go at a section of Qu Ding’s original. I should have just stuck with the original but wanted to add my own twist which has increased the time taken to get to the final result…
I started with a rough sketch to plan out the composition and then, carefully started on the outline of the Waterfall. The secret is to make sure that the brush is wetted to make a fine point and then dried out as much as possible. Most especially the heel of the brush:
The man walking and the Stubborn Ox are my additions as the next Chinese Year will be the Year of the Ox.
There are 2 parts to the Calligraphy, one is the date, the other is my signature. The seal is of my original Landscape seal, Tranquillity. The Calligraphy is a little hidden in the Northern Song literati style.
If you would like to see the above painting in more detail, please visit my Landscape Portfolio.
We would love to include some of the other challenge work so if you have produced a painting for this one and would be happy to share do please let us know and we will post it up here…
I hope this inspires you to paint some wonderful pictures. If you feel so drawn, again, please let me know and I will post up images here. You can always comment in your own words below. Just click on Leave a comment.
Happy painting,
Paul
Double Happiness Studio MH 