Painting And Duration

This article approaches the standard of Painterliness from the pointof a painter’s view. To the painter, painting is not simply a form ofvision, but his own existence. So the paper stresses the independentcharacter of the process of painting, it points out that what is calledindividual character or soul would not come true if not permeate throughthe whole process of painting and the exact form of vision is only thetrack the process leaves. So painting is a process above all. To takethe process as the dominant factor is also an essential distinctionbetween painting as a sort of behavior of art and general actions ofmanufacture. Only by substituting the consciousness of time for thepursuit of visual effect, can the painter get the consciousness ofhim-self and the distillation of individual spirit, and then what iscalled touch and quality will be here.Based on the consciousness of painting process, this articleemphasizes the metaphysical connotation of painting, and then links thebasic principles of painting automatically with the painter’s spiritualquality. With the establishment of a high standard of pure painting, weget the reason and confidence to it.The article has four main chapters. The first part is introduction.The second part is about the decisive action of painting process to theexact effects and the limitation of visual forms. The third part startsfrom the process itself to consider painting and the existence of painter,and from this basis, we get the identity of them two. The forth chapterdiscusses the relationship between the principal and the subordinateamong the soul, the stroke and the form. In this part, I stress that thestroke is moving and it is the moving stroke that links up the soul andthe form, thus fulfill the process of painting. There is a conclusion: No stroke, no painting. Finally, I point out the correspondence betweenthis kind of concept of pure painting and the traditional Chinese conceptof painting. So Chinese painting, especially freehand painting withwater and ink should be the purest painting. Totally, this articlefurther defines the direction to understand and practice painting.