The Song Dynasty was the peak of the development of landscape painting, and the styles of landscape painting in the Northern Song and Southern Song Dynasties were not the same. Northern Song Dynasty landscape painting pursues holistic expression, and Southern Song Dynasty landscape painting pays attention to the truth of details. The two are also very different in composition, the Northern Song Painters like to paint the Giant Ridge Mountain, and the Southern Song Dynasty painters like to paint a corner of the landscape. These differences and changes have allowed future generations of painters to learn a lot of creative experience.
The modern painter Chen Shaomei especially admired the Techniques of the Song Dynasty, and his landscapes had both Song painting styles. He advocated the study of ancient law and the concept of absorbing new knowledge, and created a large number of popular masterpieces. Chen Shaomei's works are elegant and beautiful, as if you can hear the sound of landscapes through the picture. This painting "Alone in the Mountains" is his middle and late work, created in the 1940s.
Chen Shaomei walked alone in the mountains
You can carefully count the Song techniques used by Chen Shaomei in his paintings, painting mountain stones to learn From Li Tang, painting characters to learn Liang Kai, painting ancient trees to learn Li Cheng and Guo Xi, painting floating clouds around the mountains to learn Dong Yuan, and overall composition to learn Ma Yuan and Xia Gui. The painting style of the Zhejiang School of the Ming Dynasty inherits the style of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the works of Tang Bohu and Qiu Ying of the Wumen School of the Ming Dynasty also have the appearance of the Song people, and Chen Shaomei also studied them carefully. It can be said that Chen Shaomei inherited the Chinese painting technique that has been passed down for thousands of years, and finally formed a clean and super-elegant style.
"Alone in the Mountains" does not have much freshness in composition and pen and ink, but because of Chen Shaomei's superb technique, he combines the familiar traditional techniques to form a dashing and lawful appearance of pen and ink. Beautiful, fresh, clear, masculine, this is the unique beauty of "Alone in the Mountains".
Chen Shaomei walked alone in the mountains
"Alone in the Mountains" has a simple composition and looks like it has a feeling of "unfinished business". So some people will ask, why doesn't Chen Shaomei paint a little fuller, why doesn't she make the picture richer? In the late 1930s, Chen Shaomei tried to cast hundreds of schools and turn the expression techniques of the ancients into his own artistic characteristics. So he tried to depict the long landscape, adding the meaning of the Yuan Dynasty to the meticulousness of the workmanship, and expressing the interest of happiness in the mountains and forests.
From simplicity to complexity, from complexity to simplicity, after experiencing this change, Chen Shaomei has perfected the relationship between pen and ink and interest, and his paintings have more fresh beauty and poetic beauty. The neat and rigorous brushwork with the long-distance and simple composition makes people have the freedom to appreciate the works of xingshu, and also makes people feel the freedom and exuberance of Chen Shaomei's creation.
Chen Shaomei can be put in and received in the creation, but it can be rigid and soft, and "Alone in the Mountains" shows that his creative ability has reached the point of pure fire. It seems simple, but in fact, it is full of ingenuity.
A large area of white space is left at the top of the picture, and from the perspective of location management, it has got rid of the traditional ancient method. This detail shows that Chen Shaomei began to try to sketch and create. Since the mid-1940s, Chen Shaomei has often gone to the countryside to write scenes. He brings sketching experience into his creations, even if it is slightly immature, it is difficult to hide the freshness and nature.
All in all, it is almost impossible for another person to paint such a work, and it is almost impossible to paint such a light and elegant style. As for the cuteness and beauty that occasionally reveals in the painting, it makes "Alone in the Mountains" full of aura.