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