Repaint Chinese Shan Shui Painting

For this Repaint Chinese Shan Shui Painting project, I go back to tradition - Actually I never thought I broke from tradition-but these paintings are really very, very traditional. The colors and brush works are impressionist and post-impressionist, the images are from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing, the media are oil and canvas.

To recycle an old style is considered a good thing today. To copy a master piece was an old fashion in China. It is fun to face the past as I move toward the future. I hope everyone will pay attention to my new paintings, but before you click on these painting icons, I want everyone to learn how to pronounce two Chinese characters: SHAN SHUI.

What is shan shui?

In Chinese characters “shan” can be written as:

Got the meaning?
Yes, you are right, “shan” is translated as “hill” or “mountain” and “shui” is translated as “water” or “river”.

In the Chinese-English dictionary, “shan shui hua” ("hua"=painting) is translated as "Chinese landscape painting" and for many English speakers, "Chinese landscape painting" means all ancient Chinese paintings with mountain and water images.

I believe that all ancient Chinese paintings with mountain and water images should only be called “shan shui painting.” When Chinese painters work on shan shui painting, they do not try to present an image of what they have seen in the nature, but what they have thought about nature. No one cares whether the painted colors and shapes look like the real object or not.

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So, “shan shui painting” can not be translated as “landscape painting”. I want everyone to call ancient Chinese paintings with the images of mountains and water “shan shui painting” instead of “Chinese landscape painting”. Besides, “shan shui” is not too difficult to pronounce, just follow me loudly read this word three times, you will never forget it.

SHAN SHUI! SHAN SHUI!! SHAN SHUI!!!