Lian Quan Zhen - Chinese Landscape Painting Techniques for Watercolor

NEW ENGLAND FALL

Watercolor on 140-lb. (300gsm) cold-pressed watercolor paper 15 22 (38cm 53cm)

My goal for this book is to show you how to paint landscapes in both Chinese painting and watercolor. Whether you are new to painting or a professional, I aim to introduce you to proper painting materials, fundamental techniques, general composition methods and theories, and many step-by-step demonstrations of the Eastern and Western art.

For beginners, it is a good idea to practice the short exercises and basic techniques in before attempting the larger paintings in the later sections. I have found that practicing Chinese painting, especially in the spontaneous style, has helped me tremendously in regular watercolor. Chinese painting has trained me to use minimum strokes and fewer colors to achieve maximum effects. It has also helped me learn how to control water and color on raw Shuan paper (nonsized rice paper), which is similar to paper towels in its absorbance and blending. Chinese painting has helped me not set out to paint each artwork as a masterpiece, but to respect the piece as a work in progress. After years of practicing Chinese painting, I have found painting watercolor on watercolor paper to be a piece of cake!

Remember, you dont have to be a master to enjoy the painting progress. Keep an open mind and try to explore new techniques. Happy painting!

Lian Quan Zhen

There are occasions in life when we are in the presence of someone for the first time and we just know we are meeting someone very special, someone who is destined for greatness and fame in their field. This was the case when I first met Lian Quan Zhen. I knew instantly that he was special, talented beyond ordinary talent. Then I sat in on a demo and I was hooked! Hes not only a world-class artist but also an artist who can relay his talent and techniques like a Pulitzer Prize winner. The ability to communicate and weave together Eastern and Western art and philosophy like a fine tapestry is just one of the many talents of Lian. I feel it a real honor that he is my friend. We, the wannabe artist community, will benefit greatly from this book.

Joe Miller Struggling artist and founder of Cheap Joes Art Stuff

The three traditional categories of Chinese painting are figure paintings, landscapes and flower-bird paintings. Leading up to the fifth century, Chinese artists painted landscapes mainly as backdrops for their figure paintings. Landscape elements such as mountains, rocks, trees and lakes were underdeveloped, out of proportion and lacking delineated techniques.

Toward the early part of the Sui Dynasty through the Tang Dynasty (approximately a.d. 589906), Chinese artists started painting landscapes independently from figures. Their techniques were simple. Dominant landscape elements such as mountains, rocks, clouds, rivers and boats were outlined with thin and uniform ink strokes and filled in with vivid colors such as greens, blues and sienna. A variety of strokes were used to suggest texture, and over time proportions were rendered more accurately and objects were overlapped in a contrasting fashion. This era represented the emergence of the blue-green landscape.

Landscapes continued to evolve dramatically between the Five Dynasties Period and the Sung Dynasty (a.d. 9071279) into two main styles: blue-green landscapes and water-ink landscapes. Early blue-green landscapes were embellished with gold outlines, and over time developed into a loose style of painting that emphasized ink embellishments and renderings. Today this spontaneous style of painting, sometimes referred to as scholar style, continues to dominate Chinese landscape painting. Water-ink landscapes also became important aspects of Chinese landscapes. These simple, spontaneous-style paintings relied heavily on inks and vivid brushwork. They are called shui-mo hua in China and sumi-e in Japan.

YELLOW MOUNTAIN

Ink and color on raw Shuan paper

22 16 (56cm 41cm)

Spontaneous-Style Painting

Also known as scholar style, this form of Chinese painting developed during the Sung Dynasty and continues to dominate today. It is characterized by the subtle use of ink as well as expressive brushwork to indicate the textures of mountains, rocks, water, clouds and other natural elements. In spontaneous-style paintings, color is secondary to the ink renderings.

Early Sui to Tang Dynasty Chinese Landscape

An early example of a blue-green style Chinese landscape painted by Zhan Ziqian featuring mountains and trees thinly outlined with ink and filled in with vivid greens, blues and browns.

Pre-Fifth Century Chinese Painting

This sample of a long scroll painted by Gui Kaizhi circa a.d. 380 is an example of an early Chinese painting of beautifully rendered figures and small, unstylized trees and hills.

Throughout feudal China, the goal of the scholarly painter remained with capturing the spirit and truth of nature. Art from the Yuan Dynasty (a.d. 1279 1368) into the early Ming Dynasty (a.d. 13681644) was known as literati painting. Inks and elaborate brushwork were used to embellish subjects with the goal of capturing the spirit and beauty of nature. Skilled landscapes were not merely impressions of nature, but revealed a harmony between humans and nature: art as poetry. Chinese landscapes continued to progress in this way with the goal of mastering the spiritual and personal side of art rather than literal interpretation and formal technique. During the Ming Dynasty, artists began inscribing poems into their landscapes to express personal feelings and philosophies.

During the Ching Dynasty (a.d. 16441912), landscape painting trended to the copying of ancient masters. Critiques of painting shifted away from nature and personal spiritual attainment to technique. Toward the turn of the twentieth century, however, Western art styles began to influence Chinese artists, and new blended styles began to emerge. Zhang Daqian is a well-known Chinese artist noted for his splashed-ink pouring technique, thought to be derived from the abstract expressionist movement popular in the United States.