Chinese Painting Techniques.

Chinese Painting Techniques. CHINESE PAINTING Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Earliest paintings were ornamental, not representational. That is, it consisted of pattern or designs, not pictures. Stone Age pottery was painted with spiral, zigzags, dots, or animals. TECHNIQUES (1999; $22.95), by Alison Alisonbetrays old husband amusingly with her lodger, Nicholas. [Br. Lit.: Canterbury Tales, “Miller’s Tale”]See : Adultery StilwellCameron Cam��er��on? , MountA peak, 4,342.6 m (14,238 ft) high, in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. . Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, NY11501. The daughter of General Joseph W. Stilwell, the author of this booklived in China for lengthy portions of her life. As she put it,"Looking back now over a distance of many thousands of miles and20-some years, I think my memories of the years we spent in the lovelyold city of Peking have been sharpened rather than dulled by the passageof time." For more uninformed viewers, Chinese painting techniques seemrather mechanical. Certainly, there is an orientation quite at odds withsimple expression and more open-ended exploration of possibilities ofform. Chinese painting gives emphasis to the cumulative experience ofcountless generations as they worked to give form to basic images inexperience: landscapes, plant and animal forms, and the human figure.Cameron's book serves as a practical guide by giving specificdetails, as well as simple exercises, leading to an underlying group ofdeeper meanings for engaging with the paintings from an orientationdifferent than Western thought. Art teachers at the secondary level would do well to have theirstudents consider the principles that came from studies with PrinceP'uJu. These include Ch'i yun: The meaning of spirit; Bonestructure: The brushstrokes used in Chinese painting are known as thebone structure or bony framework (on their excellence, or lack of it, apainting stands or falls); Likeness: The artist's striving toreproduce re��pro��ducev.1. To produce a counterpart, an image, or a copy of something.2. To bring something to mind again.3. To generate offspring by sexual or asexual means. the forms of nature--not necessarily in a realistic manner;Coloring: Varying with earlier styles, color was used sometimesdelicately, sometimes brightly, but always conforming to thesubject--black is considered a color; Composition: A matter of balance,the artist weighs his subject against the spaces in his painting; andCopying classical models or copying from the ancients: This method isfollowed only through the student years. Overall, this is an excellent book. Tools, basic strokes andChinese characters are clearly described. The book also includes achapter on the writing process, a valuable bibliography bibliography.The listing of books is of ancient origin. Lists of clay tablets have been found at Nineveh and elsewhere; the library at Alexandria had subject lists of its books. and anindex.--J.J.H. For information about this publication, circle No. 397 onthe Reader Service Card.