Henry W. – Reflection on Ink Art

Note: While Alex puts the post on the blog, student reflections are their own, accompanied by pictures of their choosing.

At the Palace Museum, I chose to focus on the traditional Taiwanese ink paintings. The majority of the exhibit on traditional paintings were primarily landscapes. Some had figures (people or animals) in them.

The theme that stood out the most were that many focused on nature, specifically, capturing the imperfections of the environment. I thought it was cool how they used different brushstrokes and textures to accomplish this effect and capture the scenes.

I particularly appreciated how the pictures were all detailed and showed all the depth of the shadows as well. Another technique was the use of foreground, mid-ground and background to show depth and scale. Many paintings had fog or clouds that would connect the different layers together to make a coherent scene. Finally, many landscapes had text on them that would relay a story, poem, or give clues about the painting. The characters helped the person viewing the painting understand the backstory and ideas behind each creation.