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Ba Da Shan Ren was a descendant of the Ming royal family. He expressed his individualism in his art creation during his time as a monk. His brushwork derived from the styles of the Ming artists, Chen Chun (1483 – 1544) and Xu Wei (1521 – 1593). After he joined the monk hood, his mind became tranquil and peaceful until his teacher, wife and then his son died. His mind was in turmoil during this period and Ba Da often expressed his unhappiness in his works, for example he made a symbolic reference to the fall of the dynasty in the painting of an Old Plum Tree. Wang Gongwang (1269 – 1354) always mentioned the Song territory that was invaded by Mongolians in his paintings. It is believed that Ba Da had the same feelings when he was painting.
The early brushstrokes of Ba Da were influenced by Ouyang Xun (557 – 641), Huang Tingjian (1045 – 1105) and Dong Qichang (1555 – 1636). In time he came to develop his own individualistic style of primitive simplicity and he advocated the art of blending painting techniques with calligraphic strokes. His paintings always featured his fluid and vigorous brushstrokes.
Ba Da was always good at painting flowers and birds. However Shi Tao also appreciated his landscape paintings. He imitated the brushstrokes of many great landscape painters, Tong Yuan (? – 962), Mi Fu (1051 – 1107), Wang Gongwang (1269 – 1354), Ni Zan (1301 – 1374) and Tong Qichang (1555 – 1636). He eventually released himself from his sorrow in his old age and this in turn benefited his work. Ba Da’s technique of only using a few strokes to represent an idea enabled him to reach new high levels of art creation that few artists could imitate. He is also regarded as a great contributor to free-stroke Chinese painting. |
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