To some, my love of black and white might seem like a contradiction
to the colorful nature of my pastel paintings (see discussion on
previous page), but in fact these
are in complete harmony. Asian art is considered an extension of
calligraphy, rather than as a separate art form, and hence is more
of a drawing or "writing" technique than a painting technique.
In Eastern art, colors are expressed primarily shades of gray.
They are interpreted by the brain as colors, just as the blues
of an Impressionist painting are interpreted as grays.
There may be philosophical or scientific arguments at this point as
to which is "real." Sometimes, the shade under a tree really does
appear to be a blue or greenish color, other times it may be more of
a gray or even muave. These things are very much a matter of personal
interpretation. (Photographs use emulsions that attempt to mimic
the color receptors of the human eyes, but many times they
seem to be biased towards gray shadows rather than colored ones.)
From whence do these colors come? The real world? the eye? the
mind? Who knows.... but read on!
The human eye has four types of receptors, one for dark and light,
and three for color perception. In bright light, the dark/light
receptors are saturated, and we rely on our color receptors for
contrasts and shadows; whereas in dimmer light, the reverse is true.
Indeed, we see the three primary colors by a mental subtraction
process determined by the relative absorptions of the different
receptors. Our light/dark receptors turn out to be slightly
more sensitive to blue and green than to red, so perhaps the
Impressionist understanding of colors is more accurate in bright
light, but less so in dim light?
What this really means in terms of the real world is
hard to know, but the colorful nature of a simple
black and white image clearly proves the influence of the mind.
In "Western" art, black and white art is considered of lesser
value than color, but the opposite is true in "Eastern" art,
where the use of anything except subtle colors is often
thought to hide errors in the painting.
Eastern art attempts to directly express the "soul" or
"impression" of the subject. To the untrained Western eye,
this sometimes looks like a characterture of the real thing
rather than thing it represents. This alternative way of
seeing, became known to the Western world at about the same
time as the birth of photography. Together they influenced the
birth of Western Impressionism, as seen in the works by Mary
Cassett and Monet. In fact, the style of Chinese ink paintings
which I use, is often translated as "Impressionist". It has
existed for many centuries longer than Western Impressionism.
However, the influence of Western art on Eastern, is equally
forceful, and has resulted in many blended styles.
As I explore these styles, my own art changes and improves.
Many people are excited to see these influences in both my
Western and Eastern style paintings. I hope this extended,
but brief introduction, will help you to see my art as I do.
If you are interested in learning how to do Chinese Painting,
some recommended books may be found
here, or you can visit Cheong Thye-Ming wonderful site which
is listed in my Artist's Link Gallery.
