Bamboo painting

The contrast between the foreground and background, and between the varying textures represented by the stalks and the leaves, gave scope to the painter to demonstrate his or her mastery with an inkpot and a brush.

The first principle of bamboo composition is, the four parts of the plant should be considered in the following order: stem, knot, branches and leaves.

Bamboo also exhibits a certain visual appeal on educated people because its silhouette cast by either the sun or moon on the paper windows of a Chinese house produced a poetic effect.

The inner region of the bamboo stalk symbolizes the void that must be established in one's mind before thinking of useful ideas.

To put it in simpler terms, one should always have clarity of mind when dealing with things to avoid chaos and to achieve desired results.

On the technical area, one needed to be an expert with the brush in order to execute perfectly cylindrical, smooth and hard internodes, and thin, translucid, nervous leaves placed in various perspectives.

These characteristics are enough to validate that bamboo is a complete subject because it portrays lasting values one needed to get on with life and it commands a truly talented painter to create varying tones that never repeat.

Example of ink bamboo painting by Wen Tong , c. 1060.
Bamboo in snow from the 'Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Painting and Calligraphy', a woodblock print with additions by hand, 1633.