When Chinese artists Guan Guangzhi and Li Jianchen first introduced watercolour painting to China some 150 years ago, they could not have expected just how perfect the blend of this Western art form with traditional Chinese ink and brush would be. Neither did they foresee that Westerners would one day greatly admire watercolours created by the Chinese and with a touch of Chinese tradition.
Jiang Yue, a contemporary watercolour artist and also an assistant professor at the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts in East China's Zhejiang Province, demonstrates the success of the combination. He believes watercolour offers amazing new and uncharted opportunities for development.
Watercolour, said Jiang, which originated in Europe during the Renaissance, was not introduced to China until the mid 19th century, and then in the form of illustrations for the Bible and albums of Western poetry. Quite unexpectedly, the new art soon became popular among the Chinese, using the same medium - water - as traditional Chinese painting does.
Water, combined with pigments, allows for a freshness and luminosity and deft brushwork, hence it became known as transparent painting, quite the opposite of the effect created by oils. Chinese painting, which also uses water and brushwork to build up its special mood, therefore married perfectly with Western watercolour.
Not surprisingly the Chinese became rather fond of watercolours and the style quickly spread throughout China. In the past, Chinese artists used only one colour in an area, but from Western watercolour artists, they learnt to paint one colour over another to achieve different effects.
"This use of water was, indeed, the very seed of our national characteristic of watercolour. And once you go on with this little seed, you find it much more interesting and with unexpected dimensions," explained Jiang.
His watercolours are wonderful examples of this, with everything in his paintings appearing fresh and graceful. One or two exquisite lotus flowers blooming shyly out of the morning mist in a Persian vase complemented by some blackish green leaves; houses and fishing boats dotted in the distance like a scene through a rain watery window in southern China.
In the eyes of Westerners, Jiang's paintings have a totally different flavour to theirs, his tending to be heavier and richer in colour and more realistic in style.
"Jiang's works are highly traditional Chinese with the help of his perfect mix of water and colour, which create a uniquely free, natural and graceful world of his own. Russia is lucky to have him here," newspaper critics in Vladivostok wrote when an exhibition of his work was held in the Russian city last summer.
At the invitation of many countries, Jiang has put on more than 40 exhibitions around the world, each of which turned out to be a success.
Jiang first picked up a paint brush when he was 6 years old.
"I just loved playing with water and colour," he said. "I was so confident of myself that I could always come up with the best colour effect in class."
Since then rarely a day has passed when he has not had one brush in his hand. A passion for both Chinese and Western literature, coupled with the study of Chinese painting, oil painting and prints at the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts later on, combined to turn him into a versatile artist.
Jiang said that he just borrowed the watercolour as a medium for his art. "I am Chinese, so many concepts of the Chinese culture would naturally occur in my works," he said.
For example, he likes to leave much space in his paintings to create a free and moving image in painting water scenes, somewhat similar to liubai (leaving blank), which is fundamental in Chinese painting.
Also from Chinese painting, another speciality of Jiang's watercolours are that he usually abstracts the objects that he paints.
"This is very much different from the Western naturalism, because I do not paint in the way that those objects are presented to me. Instead of being too real, my paintings, no matter whether they are flowers, figures, or scenery, are painted rather as some general concept in my mind. They are without real backgrounds," said Jiang.
"But on the other hand, I still try to keep to the Western style of watercolours in pictorial compositions, the use of light and colour."
If Western art focuses more seriously on the objects' form and colour, while Chinese art pays more attention to the expression of the artist's spirit and ideology, then Jiang's paintings are betwixt the two, encompassing certain aspects of Western and Chinese art, thus creating his own distinctive style.
"Nevertheless, watercolour is actually a very broad form of art, which not only creates 'light music,' but 'symphonies' as well," said Jiang.
But as a genre, it will not develop unless some magnificent grand works of the time are made, he said.
"I mean small works of landscapes and objects are good, but we should also come up with works that talk about the spirit of our times," said Jiang.
In an effort to reflect the life, society and people of the modern age, Jiang journeyed throughout China and produced images of contemporary times, from university graduates to the people on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the farmers of prosperous countryside and so on.
In a fortnight Jiang's works will form part of an exhibition in the Republic of Korea's capital of Seoul, where a large-scale presentation of both Chinese and Korean watercolour artists is to be held.
"In fact, more and more foreign countries are willing to find out more about Chinese watercolours. I think it is exactly the Chinese features, something they have never seen in their own watercolours, that they are interested in," said Jiang.
"I do believe that Chinese are particularly sensitive to water," he added.
Next year, Jiang plans to begin watercolour graduate courses at the academy, to give more opportunities to those students who love the art of watercolour.
"I strongly believe that watercolour has great potential in China, once you try to discover it more," he said.
(China Daily June 3, 2003)
