“The Ancient Master Painted Like Me”

Abstract

By following their wonderful ideas or critical exploration, three eighth graders learned how to do traditional Chinese painting, which is taught by copying old masters' work from the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The standard manual, which most learners have been using for these three hundred years, is the Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Chinese Painting, published in 1679. However, according to my literature review, I found out that ancient masters before the Ming Dynasty talked about a self-directed method of painting manifested in six different ways: (1) production from observation and experience, (2) production from the heart-mind, (3) production from mental-vision, (4) production with authenticity, (5) production with spontaneity, and (6) production with a multidisciplinary approach. As a student of Eleanor Duckworth, I wondered what might happen if beginning students are able to learn this age-old tradition of Chinese painting by just following their wonderful ideas like pre-Ming artists. In the class session described in this article, students explored Chinese brush strokes to paint the Chrysanthemum Painting, one of the traditional “Four Gentlemen Paintings,” after being introduced to water and ink in a previous session. They invented their original brush strokes and uncovered brush methods used by the eminent painter, Zhao Shaoang: strokes for the pollen grains, curls of flower petals, and leaves of the chrysanthemum. When they viewed a chrysanthemum model from the Mustard Seed Garden of Chinese Painting after the session, they thought that their paintings surpassed it. After looking at an ancient chrysanthemum painting on her own, a student commented, “The ancient master painted like me!”