In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, a Dantu school of painting appeared in Zhenjiang, Jiangnan, and the representative of the school was called Zhang Kun. He pioneered the elegant and beautiful realistic painting style, depicting the beautiful scenery around Zhenjiang. In this school, in addition to Zhang Kun, there is also a painter named Zhou Hao, who has achieved high achievements by exploring the realistic painting style. Next, enjoy a group of Zhou Hao's works and see his experience in realism.
The realistic landscapes of Qing Dynasty painters often express hidden themes. Literati and scholars live in seclusion between mountains and rivers, free and relaxed, with a strong literary interest. In order to highlight the high character of the literati, in addition to the realism, exaggerated techniques are used to express the smooth and fresh landscape.
This feature can be seen from the painting, and Zhou Pickaxe pays equal attention to color and ink. He attaches great importance to the use of color and gives his works a popular look. Many people will wonder, what is the relationship between color and popularity? Of course, there is a relationship, the natural landscape is full of colors, in order to emphasize the realism, the landscape in the painting should also have color. However, the colors in the painting have been carefully matched by the painter.
Zhou Ho likes to use a calm cool color system, even if it is a warm color, he also wants to use ink color to press it. In this way, there is no worldly atmosphere in the painting. Even if the natural landscape is colorful, there will always be a tonality. The tone that matches the literati's seclusion is cold and deep, peaceful and quiet.
The basis of realism is sketching, and sketching can help painters consolidate their basic skills. It should be noted that traditional painters have a different understanding of sketching than modern painters. Modern painters regard sketching as a means of modeling training, and traditional painters use sketching as a means of expressing feelings.
How to understand this sentence? The sketches of modern painters require the objective restoration of observed scenes or scenes. The sketches of traditional painters do not emphasize 100% authenticity, but emphasize the vivid expression of emotions.
Due to the different understandings of sketching, the understanding of realism is also different. Many people will say that there were no realistic painters in ancient times. This statement makes sense, but it is not necessarily true. Taking the Northern Song Dynasty's "Map of a Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" as an example, you say that this painting is realistic, but there is no natural landscape to correspond to it. You said that this painting is not realistic, and the momentum in the painting can be felt by everyone.
This shows that traditional painters believe that realism is only an auxiliary means of "writing About God". Zhou Ho pays attention to realism in his creation in order to present a landscape with a complete spirit and a thousand meteorological conditions.
Understanding this, looking at Zhou Hao's works again, you will have a new understanding. He did not consider perspective, light and shadow, and volume, and he constructed realistic landscapes according to the traditional concept of yin and yang. The scenery in the painting is full of rich literati atmosphere, looking at the introverted and fresh colors, feeling the freedom and uninhibitedness of the reclusive literati. Listen, the wind of pine winds in your ears; look, the smoke clouds in the mountains float; smell, the smell of the mountains and forests and fields. Through his paintings, he mobilizes the sense of hearing, vision, and smell, which makes people feel the pleasure of being there.
Admire Zhou Ho's work, with a focus on understanding his painting ideas. Techniques can change back and forth, and thoughts are hard to change. Through solid techniques, Zhou Ho makes people believe in the joy of living in seclusion. From this point of view, it is not too much of a problem to say that his work is realistic.
Of course, Zhou Hao's works are not perfect. He did not use simplified pen and ink, he was in the initial stage of freehand conveyance. If he can go from complexity to simplicity, then his achievements will be higher.