Masters Focus More On The Spirit Than The-on How XuWei & Wu Changshuo Convey The Spirit In Their Works Of Birds And Flowers

With the further development of flower and bird paintings to the Ming Dynasty,painters were no longer bound by forms.Instead they showed more freedom to express their emotion and personality in their works,which shows the mature of spirit-oriented flower and bird paintings.In the later Ming Dynasty,a talented painter named Xu Wei,who had a life full of frustrations with little recogniton,was very unhappy with his life.He turned to his brush to vent his laughter,anger and excitement in his paintings,creating a spirit-oriented flower and bird painting style that showed his personal spirit and freedom.His rise brought about a tremendous change in Chinese flower-and-bird paintings,Therefore,Xu Wei is regarded as a landmark figure in the school of spirit-oriented flower and bird painting.It was Xu Wei ’s pioneering in expression of wildness,magnificence,and uniqueness in his flower and bird painting that influenced great artists in the coming generations,among whom are included the Eight Great Mountain Painters and Shi Tao in the early Qing Dynasty,Zhao Zhiqian,Wu Changshuo and Ren Bainian in the later Qing Dynasty,and Qi Baishi,Pan Tianshou in the modern times.It is particularly worthwhile to mention Pan Tianshou,who successfully applied the spirit-oriented artistic style to his calligraphy,seal cutting,poetry and painting.He is best known in his unique expression with his spirit-oriented flower and bird paintings in gold and stones,which has a great impact on the contemporary Chinese painters and generations yet to come.I have done a deep study of Xu Wei’s and Wu Changshuo’s spirit-oriented flower and bird paintings through the anlysis of their stroke,ink,and emotion expression,from which I got great inspiration.Then I have a full understanding of their commonality and individuality in their works by copying their works.