Effect of Letter Wrting on a painting - 2

Chinese traditional paintings have usually some Chinese letters written on them (as I said in the previous post) which brings  some effect and usually done intentionally. Chinese letters are more figurative than alphabet.

simple ones

川    -    River (looks like a river though very simplified)

山    -    Mountain

medium-ly complicated

魚    -    Fish (looks like fish if you are imaginative)

鳥    -    Bird

One of the most complicated ones

龜   -     Turtle (looks like a turtle, isn't it ?)

     2009

But even alphabetical letters have some effect too. See below.

 2009

2016

The letters are hand-written copies from the tree flower books I have.

AGG

Effect of Letter Wrting on a painting

Chinese traditional paintings have usually some Chinese letters written on them, not necessary a poem as you might think. The purpose of letter writing may be sending a message but not so important not to mention serious or having a deep meaning. A painting itself has priority unless you are a poet. Letter writing is usually done after finishing a painting. The major purpose of this is a decorative one by filling some empty space. But Letter writing is often crucial to complete a painting. See below. My favorite Chinese painter's letter writing technique.

Pan Tianshou (潘天寿)

The painting is almost perfectly balanced with the letters and chops and colors as well - very well thought and done.

Also see:

Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection - Pan Tianshou (潘天寿)- blog on November 23, 2014

You can also see a big difference between the following two my paintings.

Without letters and a chop print

With letters and a chop print

This simple and lonely rose looks much better and more stable now with the letters (regardless of the meaning) and the chop scarlet color print.

AAG