Sunday, April 27, 2008

Bamboo Painting: The Way of the Lingnan School

At today's arts class, Mrs. Fan, our Arts teacher, imparted a new chinese brush painting technique, one that she has learned recently on her trip to Kentucky, to the class (Mrs. Kim was again unable to attend as she had ferrying duty for her son's participation on an inter-school rowing contest). Just to show that nothing is beyond learning, not even age. After all, humility is a character trait that is seen to be incompatible with advancing age these days. However, a true artist is one who has humility as a core value, in the same breath as the passion to learn.

According to Mrs. Fan, the Lingnan school emphasizes the use of bright colors to better bring out the contrast.

The philosophy of free flow inherent in the School is perhaps better expressed in the following excerpt from here:


The Lingnan School is characterized by being freer than traditional Chinese painting. It allows the artist to infuse his own feelings, interpretation of subject-matter and emotions into the painting. It does not demand a dogmatic approach in terms of technique or style.

Hopefully you would be able to appreciate that subtleness through my maiden efforts at learning the new style.





3 comments:

Lee Wei Joo said...

Nice bold strokes on the bamboo, definitely vibrant and feels more alive. A combination of many techniques I think, the use of shading and bright colors provides good contrast. Keep it up!

c.y. lee said...

Ooo! Very different--I love it! I like them all, especially the first one. How fun to learn a new technique!

Anonymous said...

Great technique....you probably know that I love all of your bamboo works!!