Size: 27″ x 23″
69 x 58 cm
Japanese ink,
sumi on rice paper
Stretched
painting ready
for Western
style framing
Abstract landscape paintings in traditional Chinese and Japanese painting are no accidental abstract forms, they are keen simplifications that capture the essentials of the subject-matter.
Unlike the West, where paintings are divided into figurative and abstract paintings, we cannot find these same categories in traditional Japanese and Chinese sumi painting.
As Chinese and Japanese painting are rooted in the art of calligraphy, they are based on calligraphic aesthetics and use the same language as calligraphy does. By means of dots and brush strokes, the artist creates a soul image of the object and tries to convey the life spirit which dwells in it. This is particularly the case for landscape painting which recreates the universal life spirit, present in Mountains and Rivers.
That is why there is actually no such thing as abstract painting in traditional Japanese and Chinese painting, as a good painting is in fact always an abstraction, rooted in a simplification respecting the life spirit of the subject-matter.
In my mountain and landscape paintings I have made full use of the unique expressiveness of the one brush stroke, in its unlimited variations of dots and lines. I let the mountains speak in a very direct way, and with my brushwork I make them emerge in their full strength and beauty.
Abstract Mountain Painting In Zen Style
The spirit I would like to evoke in this abstract mountain landscape is beautifully expressed in this mountain poem by the Chinese hermit Stonehouse:
“Gazing at mountains I love mountains more.”
Translation by Red Pine, from his book The Zen Works of Stonehouse.
Size: 34″ x 60″
86 x 152 cm
Japanese ink on raw Xuan paper.
If you would like to buy the original of this abstract mountain painting in Zen style, please contact the artist.
Click here for a high quality print of this ‘Abstract Mountain Painting In Zen Style .
Artist Nadja Van Ghelue shows more landscape paintings at her high quality art prints gallery. Click here to buy a print of her Japanese brush paintings.
Here you can see more “abstract landscape paintings”
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| Buddhist Scrolls Gallery |
| Kanji Art Gallery | About the artist |
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