Qing Yang

Chinese garden and cathedral paintings (or spiritual and form): conversation between Chinese and the West

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I chose the two motifs of Chinese gardens and cathedrals as the themes of my paintings. In these paintings, I am interested in the themes for the underlying spiritual meanings. Regarding Chinese gardens, they embody design wisdom and Chinese philosophies, such as Taoism and Confucianism. On the other hand, the depiction of the architecture of St John Cathedral and St Stephen Cathedral (in Brisbane) serves as a tangible manifestation of religious belief, encapsulating the collective identity and expression of Christianity. Thus, the expression of spirituality is a critical question that I seek to investigate in this body of work. I started my exploration from the aspect of form and examined it in both cultures. I explored how the distinct colours and compositions convey a sense of spirituality. In Western art theory， Wassily Kandinsky insists that abstraction which aims to deviate from reflecting the physical appearance of scenery and the rhythm reflected through colour and form may readily and directly move audiences’ emotions. However, Chinese shanshui painting which refers to mountain and water painting, though referential, still arouses spirituality. For example, in Chinese shanshui paintings, the artist emphasized the importance of breath energy and the spiritual generated by the transformation of yin and yang polarities and polarities of physical forms. Whereas the Western understanding of form is dominated by modern formalism focusing on the autonomous arrangement of colours and form that function directly on aesthetics and emotion. I reconciled both ideas by combining these elements into my paintings. The square format was used as a distinctive feature in this body of work as it is a symbol of spirituality inspired by Kazimir Malevich’s square painting.

In my small square paintings, I used paperboard and acrylic paint as materials. The paperboard is absorbent and is easy to display spontaneous texture with diluted acrylic paint. In this series, I depicted Chinese classical gardens and drew in traditional neutral colours to convey a sense of elegance and gracefulness. I adopted the composition inspired by the Chinese shanshui traditional painting, the distance method proposed by the Song Dynasty artist, Guo Xi, and the use of the betweenness of the void and the filled. Collage is another strategy that I employ to deepen its richness as the paste of the rice paper and semi-transparent baker paper are helpful in revealing textures that the brushes cannot make.

In the round format fan paintings, I continued to apply Chinese drawing methods by using a typical corner composition inspired by the Chinese Song Dynasty paintings and focusing on close-up scenery. Although the scenery was depicted in a finite frame, viewers can experience the work beyond its physical limit: the round format leads the eyes to track the circle and break the habit of viewing hierarchically from a rectangular landscape painting. The transformation of the clarity and vagueness, the void and filled are the main methods used in this body of work. In this and the thereafter series, I enlarged the paintings’ scale and transferred from paperboard to canvas. I consider the portable and scalable quality of a canvas a suitable medium to use for this painting series.

In the third series, the corridor paintings, I adopted the multi-perspective method inspired by Chinese shanshui paintings, Paul Cezanne’s multi-view ideas on landscape and still life paintings, Russian icon paintings and reverse perspective, and David Hockney’s multi-view landscape paintings. Specifically, in one of my corridor paintings, the path leads the viewer's eyes in one direction, while the background defines the multiple layers of perspectives creating depth to the narrative. Regarding the colour, I adopted a high key colour match that helps to deviate the association of realistic landscape and create a sense of freshness and strangeness.

The last series is the cathedral paintings. I depicted both the interior structure of the Saint John and Stephen Cathedral and the views outside the cathedrals. The interior of the cathedral focuses on the neo-gothic towering columns, the arched windows, the stained-glass windows, and the light inside. Similar to the Corridor Painting, I did not depict one specific view but multiple views which convey the feeling of holiness. The colours chosen are blue, black, green, and white which referred to Kandinsky’s treatise: Concerning the Spiritual in Art. I adopt these colours to convey a sense of spirituality. In terms of the outside glimpse of cathedral paintings, I painted the series in loose and gestural brushstrokes while at the same time, depicting the work in a highly decorative style.

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中国园林与教堂系列绘画（精神与形式）：中西对话

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我选择了中国园林和大教堂这两个主题作为我的绘画主题。在这些画作中，我对具有内在精神意义的绘画主题比较感兴趣。中国园林体现了设计智慧和中国哲学，如道家、儒家思想。相对应的西方主题、根据我对布里斯班圣约翰大教堂和圣史蒂芬大教堂的参观，就大教堂而言，基督教是建筑背后的精神支持。灵性的表达是当代艺术的一个关键问题。我从形式方面开始探索，并在两种文化中审视它。我探索了独特的颜色和构图如何传达灵性。在西方传统语境中，根据康定斯基的观点，脱离表现外观景物的抽象绘画，其中色彩和形式体现的节奏，能更容易、更直接地打动观众的情感。而中国的山水画，虽然具有具象因素（不是完全抽象），但仍能唤起灵性。在中国山水画中，艺术家强调呼吸能量，即阴阳极性和物质形态极性转化所产生的气，这是精神层面上的。而西方对形式的理解则以现代形式主义为主导，其构图的自主性直接作用于审美和情感（不受制于模仿客观实物，而更加利用画面的平面性，专注画面点线面因素的合理布局）。我在我的画作中结合了这两种想法。我在接下来的几个系列中大多用方形的画框作画，这个形式的采用受到卡济米尔·马列维奇的方形绘画的启发，方形具有精神象征意义。

在我的小形正方形园林画中，我采用了纸板和丙烯颜料作为材料。纸板的选用是因为纸具有吸水性，易于用稀释的丙烯颜料表现出偶然的纹理效果。在这个系列中，我描绘了中国古典园林，并用传统的中性色彩（灰色调）来传达一种优雅的（江南的）感觉。我的构图更多地受到中国山水画的启发，即宋代画家郭熙提出的三远法以及虚实之间的运用。拼贴是其中另一种方法，因为宣纸和半透明硫酸纸的使用有助于制作出画笔无法做到的纹理。

在圆形扇面画中，我结合运用了更多的中国画法，特别是受中国宋代启发的典型边角构图的使用，宋代扇面画通常展现特写近景风景。透过观看有限的景物，观众可能会联想到无限的风景。圆形的形式引导眼睛追随圆形，打破了长方形风景画层次化的观看习惯。清楚与模糊、虚与实的变换是主要方法。在这个系列和此后的系列中，我放大了画的尺幅，并从纸板转移到画布上。扩大的尺寸和便携的特点使得画布成为优先选择的材料。

在第三个系列园林回廊中，我采用了多视角的方法，灵感来自中国山水画、保罗·塞尚的风景和静物画的多视角构图、俄罗斯圣像画和反向透视、以及大卫·霍克尼的多视角风景画。 例如，在我的一幅描绘走廊的绘画中，走廊引导观众看到一个方向，而外面的景色则指向另一个方向。在色彩上，我采用了明亮的配色，有助于观众在色彩上脱离对现实的风景联想，营造出一种新鲜感和陌生感。

最后一个系列是大教堂绘画。我描绘了圣约翰和斯蒂芬大教堂的内部结构以及大教堂外的景色。表现室内结构的系列作品主要展示了我对新哥特式高耸的柱子、拱形窗户、彩色玻璃窗和内部光线的关注。同样，我也没有描绘教堂某一特定的视角，而是意图表现通过观看教堂各个视角整体带给人的敬畏感。所选择的颜色是蓝色、黑色、绿色和白色，在康定斯基的论文《关于艺术中的精神》中，这些颜色能带给人精神上地共鸣。我采用这些颜色来表现教堂的肃穆。在描绘大教堂外观的绘画中，我运用了更放松、更具自由地大笔触。这些画也反映出一种介于装饰和再现之间的风格特点。

Biography

Qing Yang has recently completed the Doctor of Visual Art program at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Australia. She is currently teaching at the College of Design, Shandong University of Arts in China. Her research interest focuses on landscape painting composition combined with Chinese and Western drawing methods. She explores her ideas through the theme of Chinese classical gardens and cathedrals. Yang has been exhibiting her works in provincial and national exhibitions in China since 2009. In 2021, one of her paintings Garden-the Ideal Way of Life was selected for the exhibition, the Schema and Spirit- the 2nd Chinese Oil Painting Biennale held by the Chinese Artist Association. Recently Yang published an article titled Contemporary Chinese landscape paintings: genealogies of form in the Journal of Visual Art Practice.

杨晴，于格里菲斯大学昆士兰艺术学院完成视觉艺术博士课程，并获得博士学位。她现在任教于山东艺术学院设计学院。研究中西绘画方法结合的风景画构图。她以中国古典园林和大教堂作为研究对象，创作了一系列以花园为主题的画作。她的多幅作品自2009年以后，曾在中国省级和国家级展览中展出。 2021年，作品《园林—壶中天地》入选中国美术家协会举办的“图式与精神——第二届中国油画双年展”。 2023年，她在《视觉艺术实践期刊》上发表了题为《当代中国山水画：形式的谱系》的文章。