Chinese Painting- Qi Baishi - Essay Example

Chinese painting- Qi Baishi (lotus flowers with cicada) Lotus flower with Cicada paint remain as the most flamboyantnatural images designed by Qi Baishi. The paints’ natural feeling and interaction between Cicada insect and the lotus flower reveal the natural coexistence of living things. Lotus flower with cicada paint remain invaluable in revealing Qi’s style of painting and perfection in using brush to design tiny images. Qi Baishi, the most prominent master of plants and animal paintings in China, was born in 1863 within Xiangtan County in Hunan Province (Song). Baishi initially trained as a woodcarver during his youth but changed his career and became a master in painting. He is famous for calligraphy, seal carving, poetry, and painting. Baishi started the art of painting in his late ages and completely explored new styles. He studied several art styles including motifs and features from the popular Qing Dynasty manual for painting. The Qing Dynasty manual that had the description of the mustard seed paint influenced Qi Baishi life and career. Qi Baishi desire to explore new styles of painting enabled him to understand the vitality envisaged in strong sense of individuality and subjective expression in art. Baishi’s strong sense of individuality remains clearly depicted in the lotus flowers with cicada painting. In the lotus flowers with cicada painting Baishi clearly defines individuality in art by designing a unique Cicada with no usual known characteristics. Baishi’s sense of individuality in the painting results from his ability to deviate from the usual norm of cicada behaviors. It is imperative to understand that Cicada insects remain famous amongst farmers as the most destructive insects. Cicadas destroy plants including crops, shrubs, and trees. The insects with longer proboscises destroy crops by eating branches of trees and leaving scars in the form of patches. Female Cicada’s normally lay their eggs on branches of trees. It is indispensable to understand that Baishi painted the lotus flower with Cicada in a unique manner that deviates from the normal laws of nature. He represents the insect as smaller and harmless to the leaves of Lotus flower. According to his imagination and individuality, Baishi claims that Cicada remains insignificant to the plant and hence cannot destroy it. Consequently, he draws the flower blossoming with healthier leaves as the Cicada appears extremely smaller on the leaves of the flower. In a natural setup, the insect would have left scars on the surface of leaves by eating it. Baishi’ strong sense of individuality and creativity coupled with subjective expression remains clearly depicted on Lotus flower with Cicada paint. Naturally, Cicada insects visit flowers specifically to feed on sap found. In Baishi design, the Cicada remains completely distant from lotus flower. The flower continues to blossom while the insect starves until its size comparatively diminishes. Viewing Lotus flower with Cicada paint give the feeling and mood of a natural environment and Baishi’s artistry. Baishi preferred to paint based on his feeling and mood. The paint depicts his natural mood and feeling that accompanied all his other arts on birds, trees, and fish. He loved to create the natural sense of environment through colorful painting, individuality, and expression. His ability to deviate from natural observable features of Cicada and Lotus flower enables the viewer’s mind to reflect on nature and its components. Viewing the lotus flower and cicada enables an individual to feel natural peace of environment and the way nature components interact with each other. Qi painted Lotus flower with cicada with great independence that few artists portrays. He used swift, sure and spontaneous brush strokes to depict the nature and appearance of the lotus flower. It is imperative that Qi’s greatness in using brush to draw swiftly thin lines that seems to mature with old age helped in designing lotus flower with cicada paint. Moreover, it is essential to note that Qi perfected his ability to use brush in designing strokes that depict tiny shapes of flowers and insects during his old age. It is indispensable that Qi’s spontaneous ability to use brush effectively in making perfect thin strokes made him the most celebrated artist in China. He combines simplicity, forceful brush, and strong sense of naivety to design the most powerful image of Lotus flower that gives the viewer a natural feeling. Qi’s ability to use perfectly brush strokes in designing shapes and depicting natural appearance remains clearly exhibited by Lotus flower with Cicada. Grey strokes on the stem of the lotus flower gives it a natural appearance and feeling. The strokes enable stem of the flower to show originality and natural hardness. In addition, Qi’s powerful use of brush in painting tiny diagrams depicts the beautiful image of brown hairy nature of lotus seed like parts. He perfectly designs the brown hairy parts in such a manner that they reflect a mature flower. Qi then paints a tiny cicada insect on the surface of the brown hairy part, a design that gives the painting natural coexistence. Lotus flower with cicada painting is invaluable in depicting the great style and commitment Qi Baishi showed on his works. The paintings’ natural feeling that results from close interaction between cicada and lotus flower enables the viewer to reflect on Qi’s feeling and mood while meditating on natural coexistence. Work Cited Song, Yuwu. Biographical Dictionary of the Peoples Republic of China. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2013. Print. Read More