Chinese painting has a long history and a range of styles. I try to follow the traditional painters of landscapes, flowers, birds, insects and animals as introduced by our tutors. Chinese and western art have have many cross influences.
I paint with the Chinese Brush Painters Society in Pool-in-Wharfedale at monthly tutored art workshops. We paint mainly in traditional chinese styles and occasional abstract studies, using chinese brushed black ink and watercolours on chinese paper. I prefer the freestyle painting (Xie Yi) with free flowing brushed ink and water colours on unsized paper. The variable flow is suited to natural subjects such as flowers, animals and landscapes. The meticulous style (ghonbi) is detailed painting and washes on sized chinese paper. It is more controllable but slower. Images are more detailed but less spontaneous. There are many historic regional chinese styles using a variety of interesting papers to create different effects.