The Chinese and Western Paintings - Coursework Example

istоry of Сhinеsе Аrt: Western & Chinese Paintings Name Institution Western & Chinese paintings Table of Contents Introduction 3 Differences 3 Chinese Paintings and Western Paintings 3 Philosophy 3 Subject matter/ composition 5 Colour 7 Techniques 9 Artist Background 11 Creative Attitude/ perspective 13 Conclusion: 14 References 16 Introduction The Chinese paintings and the Western paintings are different based on their different features. It is apparent that the style applied by the Chinese artists and the one applied by Western artists are not similar. Their differences are identifiable based on their color, philosophy, perspective, subject matter, media, and the creativity attitude among others. This paper aims are identifying the differences that are generally identified in the Chinese and Western paintings. Besides, the essay intends to explore the major characteristics that mark their differences such as subject matter, colour, philosophy, media, artist background, techniques, and creativity attitude among many features. There is also the usage of some photos to illustrate these differences. The study will aid in the improvement of knowledge concerning how Chinese paintings differ from Western paintings. Although Chinese and Western paintings might look similar at some point, the two different kinds of paintings have many differences. Differences Chinese Paintings and Western Paintings Philosophy The Chinese artists applied personal thoughts to paint sensitive explanations of nature. This makes the Chinese paintings to remain factual to the Taoist philosophy, which is associated with the attainment of coordination with the nature. The particular painting as well applies the power of proposition to detain the principle of images (Sun, Zhang, Wang, Ren, and Jin, 2016, 792). The usage of the writing brush and papers made up of silk makes it a necessity that every painting work should have the particular materials. The Chinese paintings also indicate how the Chinese people like peace, love, happiness, and harmony based on the fact that majority of the images are drown with symbols of peace, like a fish and the usage of white colour which as well stands for peace.Mainly, the Chinese paintings focus on the natural creations since the artists only paint pictures based on their emotions and personal feelings. Figure: Chinese background painting The Western paintings is conducted by the artists who put much dependent on the shadows, lights, colours, and shapes when focusing towards conveying a scene. Traditionally, this kind of painting also depends on the particular representation of the body’s systems (Friedman, Liu, Chi, Hong, and Sung, 2012, 134). The major Western paintings are felt physically based on the fact that the artists think that having expression of the true nature offers much contribution to the God. The majority of the Western painters have personal unique ways of making their ideal works admired and attractive to the viewers, as well as involving them in the entire painting through leaving some gap for the observers to fill (Ma, Wang, Xu, Li, Ma, and Gao, 2012, 6). Figure: Kermode Spirit Bear by Marion Rose Subject matter/ composition There is increased usage of line and stroke in the Chinese landscape painting to come up with a clear form of a portrait. This makes the particular painting to have a powerful expressive ability. The natural elements are well classified to enhance composition (Friedman, et al., 2012, 137). For instance, a mountain being identified as a host and a hut as the guest. This makes it possible for the artist to design the photograph plan efficiently and through an action line and balancing the other forms. There is also the usage of symbols to enhance relations and natural scene. The objects are similarly balanced based in the Chinese beliefs. Figure: Chinese dragon painting. The principle of expression in the Western landscape artist is the generation of an accurate scene. This is where the painter demonstrably represents the connections, appearances, and colour towards shadow and light to allow viewers to identify the aspect of being surrounded by the atmosphere and the painter’s generate environment (Sun, Zhang, Ren, Wang, and Jin, 2015, 628). Nature is majorly used in the composition of an image. This makes the work to have matching horizons, skies, and foregrounds. There is also the recognition of the connection between textures patterns, light, and colour. Thus, there is the application of different sizes and colors to present a landscape. Figure: Walt Curlee, Wildflowers Mountains River western original western landscape oil painting, 1999 Colour In the landscape painting that was conducted by the Chinese artists, the major colour used is white and black. This involved only demonstrating some obvious overview to the observer using brush and ink (Zhang, 2013, 6). The colours represented tones with the blending of shading using different water levels to enable brush movements. For instance, black can be used to show the mountains and white the water flow in the river. Therefore, it aids in observer’s thinking concerning the art work. Besides, the Chinese painting depends on the power of recommendation to describe rain and night scenes. This is where a rain scene during the daytime is identified similarly with a night. This is because the painter would just include an umbrella or moon while aiming at distinguishing the particular scenes. The Chinese paintings are characterized with the aspect of leaving many parts that are not painted or just painting them using white colours. Nonetheless, all the parts are equally important (Ma, et al., 2012, 6). This is because there is much value connected to the white spaces, which enable the specific painting to catch some breath and be in a position to allow the observers the application of personal imaginations towards the effort to describe the specific scene. The Chinese artists focus much on understanding how their paintings manage to leave some space and balance the effects. Figure: Yang Zhi , Horizontal Chinese Landscape Painting of Waterfall Scenery, 1979 The usage of colour in this type of painting is high since painters use different colours as a representation of how things are currently. Colours in the Western paintings are recognized to depict religion and the associated themes, thus making it difficult to express one’s awareness and perception regarding the nature but one begins looking at the natural scenery based on real life. Painting is a practice of chromatic richness and brilliance. That is why the Western painters select to use bright colours and the ones that are more balanced when painting landscapes (Sun, et al., 2016, 795). The artists are supposed to show a clear understanding of nature and some sense from different types of colours, smell, sound, and light as per the human experience. This means that the minor areas are the natural environment while the major parts are the religious subjects. In the Western paintings, the artists try to apprehend the night scene using some darkness and applying some shiny lights to show night lights, moon, and stars. There might as well be the usage of water when demonstrating some rainfall. In most cases, the artists fail to leave some spaces painted white (Kogou, Lucian, Bellesia, Burgio, Bailey, Brooks, and Liang, 2015, 1002). This means that the Western artists are more attentive concerning the impact of the picture’s composition, shadow or light, and color. Figure: Raphael, An Allegory, 1504 Techniques The objects used by the Chinese painters tend to be minimal and simplified lines that are in the form of brushstrokes. This focuses on the delineation of subjects as the artists feel and observe them. The art technique shows an individual’s observation of the nature and the manner through which individuals tend to perceive the world (Juzefovič, 2013, 39). The Chinese artists do not demonstrate much concerning the impact of light in the pictures. In the Chinese painting, there is rising usage of natural forms such as geometric lines, circles, and ovals. The paintings are simple based on the fact that there is the connection between natures of the worldly matters. This makes the Chinese painting to be simple and have the ability to demonstrate harmony, peace, and the major balance towards the entire creation because of much interest towards the spirit and mood. Figure: Chinese brush painting The Western painters render things as per the light factor enhancing the depiction of something’s surface and nature through the application of more procedural brushstrokes. The artists emphasize in the usage of light in their painting. Because of the emphasis on the human nature, the paintings demonstrate some movements, harmony, and rhythm, which is applicable when drawing some aspects of calligraphy. These paintings sometimes are direct because an artist can paint a picture of a vehicle without having to include any road. Figure: Steve Devenyns: Fine Western Arts Artist Background The Chinese painting has some religious and spiritual background because the artists make their work to resemble that of a poem. The paintings are as if the artists are communicating to their traditional spirits. That is why majority of the Chinese artists make use of some water color and not oil color. The Chinese artists have some background that is based on the ancient Greek because of the inclusion of multiple scenes in the painting’s landscape. The Chinese artists have some cultural background because of the inclusion of social matters with the aim of making their pictures more traditionally and culturally understood. The Chinese artists do not have some appreciable background but they apply perspective to make their work communicate the intended message (Li, 2012, 16). In the Chinese painting, there is the depiction of the ancestral impact because the paintings are conducted in a manner that convinces some past portraits. The Chinese artists are inspired by the natural figures, such as birds in their paintings something which indicates that there is the choice of simple creatures in the art work. Figure: Large Chinese Koi Fish symbolizing culture The Western painting is linked to the contemporary nature of the world. The artists paint the landscape as per the present lifestyle (Winther-Tamaki, 2012, 7). This shows that the Western artists are based on the present background. The aspect of showing the particular images and faces of individuals demonstrates the uniqueness of the Western artists. The Western artists have some political background in that their paintings are characterized with some common political attractions. The Western painting highly concentrates on the human form because of the demonstration of some foreshortening opinions as per the human figure. The Western art do not connect to the reality because of the fact that its major goal is the perfection of the identifiable beauty. The Western artists do not demonstrate any love for the nature, but the contemporary changes in the society. This is because the paintings are complex and full of confused features. Figure: Unmilan Ghosh- A typical south canara house, with sloping roof and the western ghats in the background. Creative Attitude/ perspective The Chinese painting makes use of the flattened perspective. The creativity is not guided by a specific point, therefore making the viewer to develop some confusion during the initial look at a picture. This makes the observer have a good chance of imagining and thinking since there is no specific perspective from the fact that majority of painters think that individuals have diverse opinions and creative perspectives regarding art (Li, Cheng, and Wang, 2014, 160). The view of Chinese painting is characterized with super-realistic and idealistic procedures to enhance one’s creativity beyond what are viewable using naked eyes. The usage of single lines in the Chinese paintings demonstrates the usage of diverse perspectives because it is possible to demonstrate diverse phases of a picture in a specific painting. The Chinese artists as well believe to be flying above the mountains just like birds to view the landscape, thus the generation of a motivational perspective. The major objective is based on the invitation of observers to stroll over and from end to end of the landscape. Figure: Chinese creativity The western painters work towards the creation of actual view of the things that one can observe. This is because there is the usage of different methods of expression and perspectives. Different types of perspectives in these paintings make the application of the diverse viewpoints enable the painters in the generation of a photographic surrounding (Sheng, and Jiang, 2014, 619). Based on the fact that painting results from one’s understanding and attitude, this makes the painting to include the painter and viewer in the photograph. There is also the requirement of some extended description in the generation of a major point. Besides, there is the enhanced physical feeling from the landscape because of the application of some visual inversions. The Western painting is linked to numerous perspectives that try to truly represent a scene as it shall be held in a picture. Figure: Art by Robin Rogers Cloud Conclusion: In conclusion, the Chinese and Western paintings are different. This is because of the differences that are identified in the style of painting, the philosophy, the composition, colours used, the expression, and artistic background among other features. It is clear that the usage of water colours make the Chinese paintings simple and more colourful as compared to the usage of oil colours, as it is the case in Western paintings. Apparently, the Chinese mostly focused on cultural things in their paintings unlike the Western painters who also recognized God and human nature in their art work. However, there is the need for discovering the ideas behind the relationship between the Chinese paintings and religion, as well as the connection between the Western paintings and current changes in the world. To improve the differences in the Chinese and Western paintings, it would be better if the artists make drawings that are plain and not coloured. Chinese Paintings and Western Paintings Characteristics Chinese Paintings Western Paintings Use of imagination in painting Use power of suggestion in acquiring the meaning of objects Characters include, rocks, trees, clouds, water, mountains, and people Use simple subjects Unpainted areas are left white Depend on shapes, colors, shadows, and lights for a scene Relies on meticulous portrayal of object’s nature Reduce objects as per the light course Night scenes are left dark and water show rain References Friedman, R., Liu, W., Chi, S.C.S., Hong, Y.Y. and Sung, L.K., 2012. Cross-cultural management and bicultural identity integration: When does experience abroad lead to appropriate cultural switching?. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36(1), pp.130-139. Juzefovič, A., 2013. Landscape as Communication: Reflection on Surrounding Environment in Chinese Aesthetics. Limes: Borderland Studies, 6(1), pp.32-45. Kogou, S., Lucian, A., Bellesia, S., Burgio, L., Bailey, K., Brooks, C. and Liang, H., 2015. A holistic multimodal approach to the non-invasive analysis of watercolour paintings. Applied Physics A, 121(3), pp.999-1014. Li, D., 2012, September. An automatic rendering method of line strokes for Chinese landscape painting. In Virtual Reality and Visualization (ICVRV), 2012 International Conference on (pp. 13-18). IEEE. Li, S.M., Cheng, H.H. and Wang, J., 2014. Making a cultural cluster in China: a study of dafen oil painting village, Shenzhen. Habitat International, 41, pp.156-164. Ma, W., Wang, Y., Xu, Y.Q., Li, Q., Ma, X. and Gao, W., 2012. Annotating traditional Chinese paintings for immersive virtual exhibition. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH), 5(2), p.6. Sheng, J. and Jiang, J., 2014. Recognition of Chinese artists via windowed and entropy balanced fusion in classification of their authored ink and wash paintings (IWPs). Pattern Recognition, 47(2), pp.612-622. Sun, M., Zhang, D., Ren, J., Wang, Z. and Jin, J.S., 2015, September. Brushstroke based sparse hybrid convolutional neural networks for author classification of Chinese ink-wash paintings. In Image Processing (ICIP), 2015 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 626-630). IEEE. Sun, M., Zhang, D., Wang, Z., Ren, J. and Jin, J.S., 2016. Monte Carlo convex hull model for classification of traditional Chinese paintings. Neurocomputing, 171, pp.788-797. Winther-Tamaki, B., 2012. Maximum Embodiment. University of Hawai'i Press. Zhang, L., 2013. Nature and landscape in the Chinese tradition. In New perspectives on the research of Chinese culture (pp. 1-15). Springer Singapore. Read More

Figure: Kermode Spirit Bear by Marion Rose Subject matter/ composition There is increased usage of line and stroke in the Chinese landscape painting to come up with a clear form of a portrait. This makes the particular painting to have a powerful expressive ability. The natural elements are well classified to enhance composition (Friedman, et al., 2012, 137). For instance, a mountain being identified as a host and a hut as the guest. This makes it possible for the artist to design the photograph plan efficiently and through an action line and balancing the other forms.

There is also the usage of symbols to enhance relations and natural scene. The objects are similarly balanced based in the Chinese beliefs. Figure: Chinese dragon painting. The principle of expression in the Western landscape artist is the generation of an accurate scene. This is where the painter demonstrably represents the connections, appearances, and colour towards shadow and light to allow viewers to identify the aspect of being surrounded by the atmosphere and the painter’s generate environment (Sun, Zhang, Ren, Wang, and Jin, 2015, 628).

Nature is majorly used in the composition of an image. This makes the work to have matching horizons, skies, and foregrounds. There is also the recognition of the connection between textures patterns, light, and colour. Thus, there is the application of different sizes and colors to present a landscape. Figure: Walt Curlee, Wildflowers Mountains River western original western landscape oil painting, 1999 Colour In the landscape painting that was conducted by the Chinese artists, the major colour used is white and black.

This involved only demonstrating some obvious overview to the observer using brush and ink (Zhang, 2013, 6). The colours represented tones with the blending of shading using different water levels to enable brush movements. For instance, black can be used to show the mountains and white the water flow in the river. Therefore, it aids in observer’s thinking concerning the art work. Besides, the Chinese painting depends on the power of recommendation to describe rain and night scenes. This is where a rain scene during the daytime is identified similarly with a night.

This is because the painter would just include an umbrella or moon while aiming at distinguishing the particular scenes. The Chinese paintings are characterized with the aspect of leaving many parts that are not painted or just painting them using white colours. Nonetheless, all the parts are equally important (Ma, et al., 2012, 6). This is because there is much value connected to the white spaces, which enable the specific painting to catch some breath and be in a position to allow the observers the application of personal imaginations towards the effort to describe the specific scene.

The Chinese artists focus much on understanding how their paintings manage to leave some space and balance the effects. Figure: Yang Zhi , Horizontal Chinese Landscape Painting of Waterfall Scenery, 1979 The usage of colour in this type of painting is high since painters use different colours as a representation of how things are currently. Colours in the Western paintings are recognized to depict religion and the associated themes, thus making it difficult to express one’s awareness and perception regarding the nature but one begins looking at the natural scenery based on real life.

Painting is a practice of chromatic richness and brilliance. That is why the Western painters select to use bright colours and the ones that are more balanced when painting landscapes (Sun, et al., 2016, 795). The artists are supposed to show a clear understanding of nature and some sense from different types of colours, smell, sound, and light as per the human experience. This means that the minor areas are the natural environment while the major parts are the religious subjects. In the Western paintings, the artists try to apprehend the night scene using some darkness and applying some shiny lights to show night lights, moon, and stars.

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