My Chinese landscape paintings in 2021

碧水蓝天

I copied this from Zhao Mengfu, a titan in painting and calligraphy, among others. With his promotion, paintings by intellectuals have boomed ever since. Zhao’s painting, which depicts a peaceful scene of the two mountains of Que and Hua in the suburb of Jinan, was done as a gift for one of his friends, who was living in Zhejiang and missed his hometown Shandong too much.
I imitated it according to a misty picture. Drawing too many trees drained my patience🥺Neglect the details😅

Note: To copy great paintings from ancient painters is a must for beginners, as almost all the skills of painting and ways of decorating the rocks were created by our ancestors from generation to generation. Based on what we have learned from them, we try to create our own works. As a novice, I have to start from copying or imitating works of great artists from all times🌝

I created this Utopia according to a picture in my heart: There are no disturbances from the outside world or worries about anything but peace, leisure and happiness. 🌝

Ink-splashing, a method frequently used by Zhang Daqian in his late years，brings about a lot of uncertainties and amazing results!

An imitated snow scenery originally painted by Wang Wei, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. Few people have known he was also a good painter. His paintings were greatly appreciated by Su Dongpo, who worshipped Wang as the first person that initiated intellectual paintings in ancient China, which maybe is the only country in the world that has the category of intellectual paintings(or paintings by man of letters).

I copied this from modern painter Bai Xueshi, who made a many paintings about Lijiang, a heaven-like beautiful place in Guilin.

I painted this imitating Wei Zixi, who created a lot of beautiful paintings about Huangshan, a sightseeing scene that attracts millions of tourists every year.

This is my copy from Xiao Zhao who lived in the Song Dynasty. His original painting has been kept at a museum in Liaoning Province.

The original painting was a masterpiece of great painter Shi Tao from the Qing Dynasty. It is a terrific painting. But mine is not.

My copy from Shen Zhou, a well-known artist in the Ming Dynasty. He created the painting about a graceful gathering among his friends. My copy is a clumsy one！One point to mention, I like the way Shen brushed his rocks. It’s called Luan Chai Cun.

This water and ink picture is a clumy copy from great master of art, Qi Baishi. Poor me!

My copy from Wu Zhen, who was a titanic painter in the Yuan Dynasty. He has been listed as one of the four greatest masters of painting at that time. The others are Huang Gongwang, Wang Meng and Ni Zan (or Zhao Mengfu). Wu created a lot of paintings about fishing by men of letters (not by fishermen)! The original painting was black and white, but I colored it to cover faults and flaws. In vain!

This copy looks a little bit better🌝

My copy from Ni Zan, who was very tightfisted with ink. He used very little ink to paint. To copy a painting with as little ink as possible seems easy and simple. As a matter of fact, it’s too nerve-racking and painstaking, because you have to be very careful not to touch too much ink or brush too hard on the rocks.

Like the fishing man of letters, I copied Ni’s painting twice and colored the worse one to distract attention from the weak lines and poor brushes. Poor job! The color is too bright and amorous!

My copy from Fan Kuan. The towering landscape, originally done by Fan from the Northern Song Dynasty, has been a masterpiece of masterpieces of all times. He was too moderate and humble to sign his name in prominent places on the painting but hid it under the bushes near the rear of the cavalcade. It takes a lot of energy and time to copy it. I did it for two times and I know the problems but too lazy to fix them. Maybe some day I will do it again.

The original painting is black and white. I tried coloring it to have different result.

My copy from Ma Yuan, who has been listed with Li Tang, Liu Songnian and Xia Gui as the greatest four masters of painting in the Southern Song Dynasty. Ma is well-known by dragging the brush to draw long lines!

A creation of mine! It’s interesting as
I put different forms of mountains within one picture, practicing various ways to brush or decorate the rocks to make them more look like rocks!

To practice raindrop-like brushing of the rocks. Similar to the eggplant-like dots, they were dotted one by one.

A blue and green landscape painting copied from Zhang Daqian. I did a poor job and the original painting is fantastic.

The quality of the paper is poor, so is my skill of painting.

Blue and Green landscape painting! It’s hard for a beginner to master the balance between beauty and kitsch.

I have a habit of painting two or more of the same scene, aiming to make some improvements, but often in vain.

I created this picture without the knowledge that the waterfall had better not be put in the middle of the whole picture. Also, it should be narrow and small. The mountains in the back should be more dimly painted. Failure is the mother of success.

This painting and the one to follow are to practice the method of eggplant brushing: to decorate the rocks with the belly of the brush rather than the point to make foggy and misty mountains. The method was invented by Mi Fu and his son Mi Youren from the Northern Song Dynasty.

This method needs a lot of patience and time, as you have to dot the eggplant-like dots one by one.

Another copy of mine from Bai Xueshi.

It’s hard to make a good painting of waves and water droplets if you are a novice. The lines can expose everything.

The clouds are another evidence whether you’re a skilled painter or not.

My copy from Shen Zhou.

My copy from Dai Jin, a well-known painter in the Ming Dynasty. Dai was a poor silversmith. But poverty did not prevent him from becoming a famous artist. I copied this according to a misty picture without knowing any skills about copying paintings. I just did it following my perception. The copied painting is hanging in the hall of my house. At the first glance, it’s awesome. But when you watch the details, it’s disappointing.

Another copy of mine. I don’t know who is the original painter of this painting. I copied it out of interest without knowing how.

This is my early copy from Zhang Daqian, the first artist who was considered to use ink splashing. As a genius, Zhang created a spade of amazing works of art. His blue and green landscape paintings are gorgeous and breathtaking. He was also a telant in imitating works by ancient artists. His copied pieces looked so authentic that they even escaped the eye of Mr Huang Binhong, a great artist and art connoisseur.

A lot of thanks to my teachers in Dapeng. Without your skilled and patient instructions, I would not know a thing about painting, let alone painting works.
My gratitude will also go to Mr Yuan, a driving force for me to paint. He is very busy with his work but would like to squeeze time to contribute calligraphy to my works. To speak the truth, his calligraphy makes my poor paintings look much better❤️❤️‍🩹