19/01/2023
Art Media of the Week! 🧧
Chinese Brush Painting! 中國畫 (zhōng guó huà)
Chinese brush painting is a unique art work that derives from ancient history China as one of the medium to express painting and poetry during the dynasty periods. It is also one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world.
The paper for Chinese Brush Painting is special and called 'Traditional rice paper'. It comes in a yellowish hue and also comes in pure white; depending on the ingredients and material used. Although it's called rice paper, these papers are made from a great variety of plant fibers, such as bamboo, mulberry bark, cotton, h**p, linen and rice straw (dried stalks of the rice plant where the name of the paper came from).
Besides, the next component of Chinese Brush painting is the ink, the ink is a special blank ink which is called 墨 (mò). They are primarily made from soot and it's used for Chinese calligraphy and also paintings.
And finally, to top it with the most important component of all, we got the brush for the Chinese Brush Painting or 宣笔 (xuān bǐ) in Mandarin. The main body of the brush is made from thin bamboos and the tip of the brushes are made from animal's fur. There are different types of brushes made from different types of fur and the most common brush widely used is 羊毫 (yáng háo) or goats wool brush. Another popular brush is called 狼毫 (láng háo) or wolf brush. Although the name is called wolf brush, it's not made from wolf fur but made from 黄鼠狼 (huáng shǔ láng)[yellow mouse wolf] – a local name for the Siberian weasel. All these brushes has a long tip and retains a lot of water in it's fur.
For those who are celebrating Chinese New Year. Happy Chinese New Year! 恭喜發財!🐰