(Continued)
by Nancy Rupp
Wuxi is located on the Grand Canal as it reaches the northeast corner of Lake Tai. The fishing industry is very active and fish farms abound along the lake's shore. Cultivated fresh water pearls are sold in almost every shop. Lots of building and industrial growth has made Wuxi a large economic center in China, but the charm of Lake Tai and the parks and gardens makes this a favorite place of mine. Also many well-known artists of the Ching dynasty and modern times came from this region.During the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Ching Dynasty, almost all important innovations in painting arose in an area of China called the "eye area." This is the Chiang-nan region south of the Yangtze River centering on Lake Tai (the eye's pupil). This region includes Suzhou to the east, Yangzhou and Nanjing along the northern boundary of the Yangtse River, and the Huangshan Mountain region to the south.
After the Manchu conquest (the Ching Dynasty), the Chiang-nan region rebounded quickly due to the area's wealth and its distance from the capital Beijing. Beijing continued to be a bastion of conservatism in painting while this rich southern region - far from the rigid social conditions of the capital - produced major changes in Chinese art. The wealthy merchant class supported this new form of art expression.
Located where the Grand Canal crosses the Yangtse River, Yangzhou was once an economic and cultural center of southern China. From the 1650s onward (Ching Dynasty), this city became a crossroad for all the arts where new ideas were exchanged. A group of painters called "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou" were mainly responsible for this break with tradition. The result was a more natural painting style that altered the course of Chinese art.
For an artist, Yangzhou was a most pleasant surprise and lacked large groups of tourists ever-present at China's more popular attractions. Ge Garden, landscaped by the most famous Ching Dynasty painter, Shi Tao, displayed the four seasons utilizing rocks of different colors, shapes, and formations. Shouxi Lake, or slender west lake, is not as large as the more famous Westlake of Hangzhou, but is so lovely. Another famous and popular spot is the Fajingsi Monastery which marks the location of the original temple credited to the Tang Dynasty monk, Jianzhen. He attempted six trips across the ocean to Japan to conduct Buddhist missionary work before he finally succeeded in reaching Japan. Many Japanese visit this monastery modeled after a temple in Nara, Japan, and financed by Japanese contributions.
One evening we were invited to the home studio of artist, Xiao Pui (Li Zhuchun). She is an accomplished artist of gong bi (traditional fine line) brushwork. She not only shared her paintings with us, but demonstrated her delicate style.
Leaving Yangzhou by bus we arrived in Nanjing two hours later to find major changes since my last visit in 1984. Seemingly everywhere in China are new buildings, but here the difference was trees - noticeably bigger and more numerous. One day each March the Chinese make a concerted effort to plant trees. For Nanjing, a city with the reputation "furnace on the Yangtse River," the additional shade and transpiration has resulted in overall cooler summers.
The Jiangsu Provincial Art Academy in Nanjing has a lovely campus and courtyards, and in April it was full of blossoms. Demonstrations by several art teachers were followed by everyone painting or writing their name in Chinese. I painted several pelicans in ink and, in exchange, a senior artist, He Cheng, completed a piece of calligraphy for me. We left feeling a common love of art and how easily art can be a universal language.
From Nanjing we traveled by train to the Huangshan Mountains in Anwei Province. As we approached the area below these spectacular mountains, the steep hillsides were colored with the blooms of azaleas and wisteria. Our train stop was in the nearby old trading town of Tunxi which is two hours by bus to the entrance of Huangshan.
Climbing up the river valley by bus, we stopped at a reconstructed village of ancient homes. Today most of the homes in this area of Anwei are built in the Huizhou architectural style. They have white-washed walls of varied heights topped with elaborately-shaped eaves. The gates, halls, and windows display local brick, wood, and stone carvings. Inside courtyards are built within a courtyard. The Huangshan, or Yellow Mountains, are famous for four kinds of beauty: pines, rocks, sea of clouds, and a hot spring. This 72-peak range has its highest peak at 1800 meters. For centuries it has inspired untold (and untolled) poets and painters, who made great efforts to travel to these mountains. Once you walk the trails around these famous peaks you discover that all those exaggerated Chinese landscape paintings which you have studied for years actually exist!
Now it is possible to ride a cable car up to one of the summits. But walking is a must if you plan to stay overnight at one of the mountain hotels and plan to see the many places made famous in so many paintings. Paths have been improved and most are wide stone slab walkways and never-ending steps straight up and down (no switchbacks).
In the hotel gift shops, painters demonstrated brush painting while displaying their works for sale. Brushes and ink stones were for sale everywhere, and very large ones are available if you were willing to carry them down the mountain.
Our three days in the mountains were rainy, which produced lots of moving mist, or "sea of clouds" as it is called in Huangshan. This sea continually ebbs and flows to reveal and conceal rock and pine formations. The pines cling to steep mountain sides in naturally distorted and interesting shapes - some appear to have almost human-like characteristics.
Before leaving the airport at Tunxi for Guangzhou, we spent our last evening in the Cloud Valley Hotel, a converted monastery, at the foot of the Huangshan cable car. Our rooms' buildings were settled into the hillside at various levels and connected by long hallways and staircases. It was easy to lose your direction, but every window had a view that was unique.
At Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts we had lectures and demonstrations by art professors proficient in the Lingnan School techniques: Chen Jin-zhang and Ye Lu-yie. In addition, we had a private viewing of Ming and Ching Dynasty paintings selected from their major collection of over 8,000 paintings. Painters of the Lingnan School use ancient traditional techniques combined with western techniques, a modern approach to Chinese art that was not originally accepted in the traditional art world.
Chen Jin-zhang presented a complete show of small penciled landscapes that had amazing strength and a sense of vastness reminiscent of large Oriental landscape paintings. Ye Lu-yie expressed his desire to make flower and bird painting as important an art subject as landscape and figure painting.
Xiamen in Fujian Province was our last stop in China to study the arts. Our group leader and organizer, Professor Ju I-Hsiung, is a graduate of Xiamen University so our group was given a very warm and generous welcome. We stayed in hotel accommodations on the campus. In a spectacular new arts building with a view of the Pacific Ocean, we had a formal showing of our paintings for the faculty and students of the university. Later faculty members demonstrated and discussed brush painting and as each artist in the previous weeks had done - they too stressed the importance of calligraphic line and brush work.As a side trip in Xiamen, Gulangyu Island is a must. There are no cars, buses, or even bicycles allowed on the island. It was a startling change after the constant hustle-bustle of traffic complete with all its smells and sounds. The ferry ride is short and inexpensive. You walk among many charming colonial buildings left from the 1840s when westerners began to settle the island. Views from the highest point on the island are worth the short climb. I was told you can see Taiwan on a clear day.
April was a wonderful time for a brush painting tour of China. Graceful willows continually unfolded leaves of fresh spring green, trees blossomed in shades of pink, peach, and white. As our group looked and listened in this whirlwind tour of major art academies, we learned that the "ancient tradition" of Chinese brush painting is also a cycle of seasons. Winter's frozen tradition blossoms in Spring with tender new techniques; vigorous growth in the hot Summer sun yields a bountiful Autumn harvest of new tradition. Building on its past, brush painting continually finds new expression; as we heard in Shanghai: "You may paint a 1,000 miles of river, or a single flower."
Nancy Rupp made her first trip to China in 1984 to study at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou. A brush painter for over 20 years, she created the art for San Diego's Year of the Rooster and Dragon Run events. Nancy also is a five-time national award winner and has been invited to publish by a Beijing journal.
A long-time resident of Encinitas, CA, Nancy moved to Ojai, CA. Nancy teaches Chinese brush painting classes in the Ojai area and occasional all-day workshops. The Nancy Rupp Studio Gallery is located at 305-G E. Matillija, in the heart of downtown Ojai; behind the arcade, next to the fountain. Call (800) 729-4751 to have a catalog of Nancy's wearable art sent to you.
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Xiamen Univeristy: Campus scene Click here for a photo tour.
Photo of Ge Garden courtesy of Garden Scenes - Ge Garden.
Brush Painting Links:
American Artists of Chinese Brush Painting
