Who Sows Calligraphy Will Reap Paintings
After several articles devoted to Chinese calligraphy, I would like to turn to a question that has become increasingly important in my own work: how does the practice of calligraphy influence painting? The relationship is not simply a matter of transferring expressive brushstrokes from one medium to another. It concerns rhythm, structure, movement and the ability to give a few marks sufficient presence within a composition.
In recent paintings, I have become increasingly aware of how much I owe to years of practicing calligraphy. At the same time, I have sometimes felt dissatisfied with works in which technical effects or individual details began to dominate the composition. A painting may contain interesting passages and still fail to convince me as a whole.
The following examples show different stages of this search. They also illustrate a recurring challenge in my work: finding a balance between the spontaneous energy of the brush and the overall structure of the image.
In the following work, I approached the composition more directly through calligraphic gestures. Broad strokes establish the principal movements, while the areas of untouched paper become an active part of the image. Instead of developing the surface through numerous details, I wanted the structure to emerge from the relationship between a few decisive marks.
A similar question arises in a work for The Magic Sea. Here, the brush movements pass through a fuller field of colour. The image below shows the smaller work enlarged in a virtual gallery setting.
Every now and then I feel like making fun of my own seriousness. In this case, I worked on paper towels. Their embossed pattern remains visible behind a few upright black strokes. Even an unassuming material can make me look again at what a mark is doing.
Reduction in Abundance
The influence of calligraphy becomes more apparent in this recent landscape study. Broad black strokes interrupt the warm orange and turquoise fields, suggesting movement and spatial depth without describing a landscape in detail. I am interested in how little information a painting needs before it begins to evoke a place or atmosphere. The work is still a study, but its reduced pictorial language points toward a direction I would like to explore further.
A Large Black Calligraphy Work
The video below follows another development in my painted calligraphy. Here, I work with repeated writing in several greys, allowing the layers to build towards an almost black surface.
Earlier works concentrated on individual characters or the structures created by writing over them. In this piece, the different ink densities create another kind of depth. From a distance, the surface appears compact; up close, lighter and darker layers remain visible. That movement between the whole and its details gives the work its meditative character for me.
Zen in Calligraphy: The Making
Extra: The Spaces Between the Marks
The relationship between calligraphy and painting is ultimately a question of artistic judgment. Technical skill is essential, but it does not guarantee a convincing work. A brushstroke can be elegant without contributing much to the whole, just as an apparently simple mark can give a composition its character.
For me, the challenge is to retain the vitality of calligraphic movement without allowing technique to become an end in itself. Whether I work with a few broad gestures or with many overlapping layers of writing, I return to the same question: does the composition hold together, and does it communicate something beyond the individual strokes?
The comparison above makes the spaces easier to see. The red areas mark openings within and between the strokes; the arrows suggest directions of movement. I look at those unpainted shapes as part of the composition, rather than as gaps left over after writing.
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Painted Calligraphy Series: Text as Texture · Experimental Calligraphy: Deconstructing the Character · Red Dao and Black Zen: Painted Calligraphy
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