Oriental Ink Painting

Ink washes and Landscapes

Ink wash painting, also known as literati painting is an East Asian type o of brush painting that uses black ink—the same as used in East Asian calligraphy, in various concentrations. For centuries, this most prestigious form of Chinese

art was practiced by highly educated scholar gentlemen or literati.

Ink wash painting developed in China during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Wang Wei is generally credited as the painter who applied color to existing ink wash paintings. The art was further

developed into a more polished style during the Song Dynasty (960–1279). It was introduced to Korea shortly after

China's discovery of the ink.

Asian aesthetic  writing is generally consistent in stating the goal of ink and wash painting is not simply to reproduce the appearance of

the subject, but to capture its spirit.

To paint a horse, the ink wash painting artist must understand its temperament better than its muscles and bones. To paint a flower,

there is no need to perfectly match its petals and colors, but it is essential to convey its liveliness and fragrance. East Asian ink wash

painting may be regarded as a form of expressionistic art that captures the unseen.

In landscape the scenes depicted are typically imaginary, or very loose adaptations of actual views. Mountain landscapes are by far the most common, often evoking particular areas traditionally famous for their beauty, from which the artist may have been very distant. Water

is very often included.

Ink wash has graded values just like charcoal and pencil drawings

East Asian ink wash painting has long inspired modern artists in the West. In his classic book Composition, American artist and educator

 Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922) wrote this about ink wash painting:

"The painter ...put upon the paper the fewest possible lines and tones; just enough to cause form, texture and effect to be felt. Every brush-touch must be full-charged with meaning, and useless detail eliminated. Put

together all the good points in such a method, and you have the qualities of the highest art". Dow's fascination with ink wash painting not only

shaped his own approach to art but also helped free many American

modernists of the era, including his student Georgia O'Keeffe, from what he called a 'story-telling' approach. Dow strived for harmonic compositions through three elements: line, shading, and color. He advocated practicing with East Asian brushes and ink to develop aesthetic acuity with line and

shading.

Arthur Dow

Crater Lake, oil on canvas, 1919

Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe

What you need to Know and Do

You need to Know• How to do simple brush stokes

and use graded ink wash.• Vocabulary• What picture you are going to

use as a source for your painting.

• What “essentials” you are going to use in your painting.

• How to make a signature seal using an eraser.

You need to Do• Do the practice exercises to

learn brush strokes.• Create a value scale for ink

wash tones.• Write Vocabulary in workbook.• Select a landscape to use as a

source for your painting.• Use a viewfinder to narrow the

composition.• Paint your painting.• Carve a signature seal.• Do a Grading Rubric