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Chinese
Calligraphy As “Heart Painting”
A Chinese calligrapher’s goal is to vividly and honestly convey his or her mind and intention. It does not only depend on the strokes, styles or appearances of the calligraphy. The intrinsic essence and substance must be over the form in a Chinese calligraphy artwork. Chinese calligraphy is called Heart Painting or Mind Image by ancient calligraphers or other artists. We may paint a tree or landscape, but how can we “paint” our mind in a highly encrypted or abstract form consisting only Chinese characters and their strokes that can also look both beautiful and profound?
Two characters that are both beautiful and profound
In ancient Chinese paintings, one can find animals, birds, flowers and humans that were not only accurately depicted in shape and manner. Their internal substance, emotions, ideas and aspiration were also captured by the artists. Compared with Chinese painting that has a physically observable subject, Chinese calligraphy has a more abstract subject to paint – the mind. Even though
Chinese calligraphy relies on its character form, structures and brushwork, then in what approach can a calligrapher paint his or her heart? This is why
all Chinese calligraphy masters emphasize that the mind always leads the brush. Since Chinese calligraphy is heart painting and a heart has no appearance or a physical object, the study of philosophy
and metaphysics are required for serious calligraphers at all stages.
Images I visioned mentally before writing
Unlike Western calligraphy, dry brush strokes are viewed as a natural impromptu expression rather than a fault in Chinese calligraphy. While Western calligraphy often pursues font-like uniformity, homogeneity of
Chinese characters in one size or written neatly inside grids is considered only a craft in Chinese calligraphy. To the artist, Chinese calligraphy is a highly condensed mental activity that coordinates the mind, body and spirit to express the artist’s inner world with a beautiful style honestly and directly. It is a highly disciplined yet soothing art indeed for one's physical and spiritual well being. In judging Chinese arts, we look for the energy flow since the intrinsic beauty can only be found within the art that embodies a high energy and awareness level from the artists. This principle can be applied to all Chinese arts. Unlike oil painting, most Chinese arts emphasize and value the skills without
amendments or retouches. One may add more strokes over an unsatisfied area in oil painting, but Chinese calligraphy focuses on capturing the mindset at that very moment when an artist is creating his or her work – without any
makeup or editing. It’s because this “finality” that makes Chinese calligraphy unique from other abstract arts.