Lesson 11 - Chinese Painting Style

Welcome back to a new school year!  In keeping with our art adventure through time, our first lesson this year is learning about painting in the Chinese style. The children viewed an instructional video of bamboo painting as well as other various type of Chinese painting.

We also looked at books about China, its location, and the typical way in which landscapes are painted. The children were able to use Chinese brushes, which are larger, with a rounded and pointed top, as opposed to regular angular brushes. This is because when painting with ink, as most painting in China is done, the artist uses a larger amount of water, which gives the paintings a washed watercolor look. The larger tipped brush holds more water making this method of painting more effective and easier to do.

The children practiced using purposeful up and down strokes with watercolor paint. We only used a few complementing colors to attempt the same look as original Chinese art. However, the children used a great deal of imagination coming up with their own original art. Many drew abstract forms of “bamboo” and landscapes, while others made rainbows and still some used the very tip of the brush only to make a very beautiful abstract forms very similar to pointillism, in the style of Georges Seurat and Camille Pissarro. We will be having a separate class in this type of painting style in the future.

We also talked briefly about calligraphy, which is very important in China.  Artists often wrote poetry verse or brief stories to help explain their art, directly on the art itself (usually on the upper right or left sides of the picture).

In using watercolors, the children learned about the importance of using paint and water together to create the desired effect on paper; that is, dipping the brush in one or more colors of paint first, then dipping it in water and then creating their art on paper.

After their painting was completed, each child had the option of having their name written on the paper in Chinese characters, and stamping their art with a Chinese dragon in red ink to finalize their art.

During this lesson the children were exposed to a great amount of information about Chinese art and culture. I brought in a tea set which I got from China as well as an inlaid mother of pearl lacquer box and chopsticks.  They had the chance to use Chinese brushes to practice their strokes and create their art.

The exposure to a cultural art process and the final personalized product was the goal of the lesson. Not everyone was expected to make the “perfect” bamboo painting, as the artistic process is very subjective and personal. I believe the children had fun learning about a different culture through the artistic process.