chinese landscape paintings?

[Taoway]

Any fellow bums have a love for eastern art? The music and art in china to begin with literally put me in the clouds! Would love to talk and conect with some people who have a love for it.

 

I have been practicing landscapes on rice paper for a few years so id love to share them.

[dust]

Please, share.

 

I enjoy painting, and I enjoy Chinese landscapes... though I've never attempted to paint one myself.

[Marblehead]

I will eventually involve myself in this if the interest remains.

[leth]

I like many forms of east asian arts, including chinese landscape paintings.

Though my father is a painter i have very little skill in the field and don't really practice an form of art myself, hopefully this will change in the future, now I am so focused on other things though. There is so much in life.

 

Please share your paintings, culture is best when shared.

Edited October 10, 2015 by leth

[Kongming]

I also love Chinese landscape paintings. Here's some interesting quotes on them I figured would be worth sharing since it relates them to Daoism.

 

From John Blofeld's book on Daoism:

 

 

 

Into these dragon veins pours down yang ch'i

(cosmic vitality) to mingle with the yin ch'i (vitality of earth).

Invisible to the ordinary eye, these veins can be detected by men

learned in the science of yin and yang. This concept is clearly

reflected in Chinese landscape painting, in which the veins are

delineated as great sweeping curves marked at their source by the

contours of the clouds, then by the undulations of mountains and

hills, and finally by the meanderings of rivers or some other landscape

features. Gazing at these paintings or at actual views in the

more scenic parts of the globe, one can almost feel the power

streaming downwards and impregnating the surroundings with

vibrant energy.

 

There are other ways in which paintings convey Taoist concepts

more directly than verbal description, especially the idea that the

entire cosmos is formed of spirit. The voidness of the· non-void is

hinted at by vague expanses of ocean, snow, cloud and mist, and by

solid objects which seem just on the point of emerging from or

melting into the void. Man's triviality in relation to heaven's vastness

is suggested by rolling landscapes in which mortals and their

dwellings appear insignificant against the grandeur of their surroundings.

Mountains appear cloud-like; clouds resemble mountains;

rocks and tree trunks seem strangely animated, as though

peering at the viewer or smiling; or the contours of men and animals

are so united with those of natural objects that they appear to be of a

single substance. Apparently trivial objects- say, a dragon-fly

perching on a twig - arouse a sudden intuition that each tiny

creature is a particularisation of a vast and holy universality, an embodiment of the inconceivable immensity of the Tao.

 

Everything seems imbued with a portentious mystery on the very point of being

unveiled; an eerie feeling is aroused that everything in nature is

vibrantly alive. From all of this one is led to understand that the

cosmic vitality sweeping down through the dragon veins spreads out

and interfuses the entire creation.

 

The Taoist artist deliberately leaves his work unfinished, that the

viewer may complete it from his own intuition. Just as, in Ch'an

(Zen), an apparently nonsensical set of words or sudden action may

bring about an extraordinary communication from mind to mind, so

do paintings of this kind sometimes cause an illuminating blaze of

intuition to leap into the beholder's mind and he is conscious of

being touched by the flow of cosmic energy communicated by the

painting.

 

From Julius Evola's introduction to the Daodejing, which was published in English as a sort of pamphlet or stand alone 'mini book':

 

 

 

This is the first   characteristic of the 'Far Eastern Weltanschauung; it has a superhuman purity and traits which are essentially metaphysical.
Therefore a Westerner must realize that  what he may be inclinced to see as "naturalism," is rather a Weltanschauung proper to a humanity which was somehow still connected to the origins, or to "supernature" in a direct and existential fashion, and not through theories, revelations, or religions strictly speaking (religio from religare, namely to reconnect what was already, separated), as it was the case in later stages or cycles of civilization.' . This is the key to understand the true nature of Far Eastern spirituality as well  as its specific expressions such as the artistic ones (e.g., painting, in which "nature"  is portrayed in an evanescent way, hinting to an ethereal, metaphysical "emptiness").

 

And on a similar note, from another Traditionalist, Frithjof Schuon:

 

 

As for the Taoist landscapes, they exteriorize a metaphysic and a contemplative state: they spring, not from space, but from the "void"; their theme is essentially "mountain and water" and with this they combine cosmological and metaphysical aims.  It is one of the most powerfully original forms of sacred art.

 

Finally, to share a few examples:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2015 by Kongming

[Taoway]

Damn thank you! Im still reading the lines your shared snd theyre beautiful. From what I have read chinese landscape painting is regarded as the most talented and enlightening also difficult to master of the chinese arts. It is beyond just a artful expression to the ancient chinese... it went hand in hand with their practice of yhe tao as you share in your post!

The close up style of chinese art with animals insects and flowers and rocks is regarded as very important to the philosophy of the art. But the landscape is beyond it so I have read.

 

But I often look on google for landscape paintings and those ones youve shared are by far the most breath taking they made my heart double beat. Thank you I saved them to my collection.

 

I will reply more after finishing what you shared as far as Text.

 

I also love Chinese landscape paintings. Here's some interesting quotes on them I figured would be worth sharing since it relates them to Daoism.

 

From John Blofeld's book on Daoism:

 

 

 

From Julius Evola's introduction to the Daodejing, which was published in English as a sort of pamphlet or stand alone 'mini book':

 

 

 

And on a similar note, from another Traditionalist, Frithjof Schuon:

 

 

Finally, to share a few examples:

 

 

 

 

 

[Taoway]

I like many forms of east asian arts, including chinese landscape paintings.

Though my father is a painter i have very little skill in the field and don't really practice an form of art myself, hopefully this will change in the future, now I am so focused on other things though. There is so much in life.

 

Please share your paintings, culture is best when shared.

Painting takes some amount of skill .. I am far from that point of perfected skill but I do believe we all have the ability! Its just a matter of how inspired you are by other pieces of art in history to recreate something just as beautiful.

 

I spent many years with ups and downs feeling like my art is mediocr, always striving to create something as beautiful as what I saw.

 

Im sure you will find your medium in life of which you express your self with perfection! And im sure your already working on that talent

[Taoway]

I cant seem to post a picture because it is too large. Anyone know how to post a picture correctly?

Edited October 10, 2015 by bodhidharma

[Geof Nanto]

I cant seem to post a picture because it is too large. Anyone know how to post a picture correctly?

 

I had the same problem when I first tried. The best way is to post them first onto a website that hosts user content and stores the pictures in a format Dao Bums software recognises. (There are probably many; I know Tumblr works, and that Flickr doesn't.) Then copy the URL of the picture here using the 'Image' tab.

 

Alternatively, you can reduce the size of the file yourself and add it directly. However this is not the preferred method because of storage limitations here

 

(I hope you can get it to work as I too would like to see your paintings.)

[leth]

Painting takes some amount of skill .. I am far from that point of perfected skill but I do believe we all have the ability! Its just a matter of how inspired you are by other pieces of art in history to recreate something just as beautiful.

 

I spent many years with ups and downs feeling like my art is mediocr, always striving to create something as beautiful as what I saw.

 

Im sure you will find your medium in life of which you express your self with perfection! And im sure your already working on that talent

 

Yes hopefully I will one day express myself with art more than I do now.

 

I know that feeling that ones art is not good enough or just mediocre, having a father as an artis both gave me lots of theoretical knowledge on art and a very high standard to live up to, so naturaly i was never satisfied with my own artistic expression when i was younger. In combination with impatience I guess it led to me prusuing other paths in life. Now i am older and have more patience but also understand that one has to train to become better an that I can't have to high expectations on myself. But I know have other focuses in life that I prioritise instead. Everything has it's time I guess.

 

And art is still art even if it's painted by an amature, i can certainly appreciate artistic expression regardles of the skill of the artist nowdays. It's not about skill, it's about expressing oneself.

[Taoway]

"https://embed.tumblr.com/embed/post/Ni7yh4vYF_3WgKO9ckcLMA/130968166387 does this work ? here is a landscape i finished a few months ago. 

 

As for amature expression i agree with you! any form of effort in expressing creatively is far from amature to begin with!  best example is the chinese sumi e paintings often perfected by zen monks. The simple black ink paintings almost look like they are done by a child but as you look further you see that they created a detailed picture with just 2 strokes! 

Yes hopefully I will one day express myself with art more than I do now.

 

I know that feeling that ones art is not good enough or just mediocre, having a father as an artis both gave me lots of theoretical knowledge on art and a very high standard to live up to, so naturaly i was never satisfied with my own artistic expression when i was younger. In combination with impatience I guess it led to me prusuing other paths in life. Now i am older and have more patience but also understand that one has to train to become better an that I can't have to high expectations on myself. But I know have other focuses in life that I prioritise instead. Everything has it's time I guess.

 

And art is still art even if it's painted by an amature, i can certainly appreciate artistic expression regardles of the skill of the artist nowdays. It's not about skill, it's about expressing oneself.

Edited October 11, 2015 by bodhidharma

[Geof Nanto]

"https://embed.tumblr.com/embed/post/Ni7yh4vYF_3WgKO9ckcLMA/130968166387 does this work ? here is a landscape i finished a few months ago. 

 

To get the image to show here right click on the picture in Tumblr and select 'Copy Image URL'. Then paste the URL using the 'Image' tab here in the Dao Bums compose window.

 

 

 

[dust]

That is excellent

[leth]

"https://embed.tumblr.com/embed/post/Ni7yh4vYF_3WgKO9ckcLMA/130968166387 does this work ? here is a landscape i finished a few months ago.

 

Yes, it's beautiful.

[Stumpich]

Yes I like these - these photos are very nice indeed