Respecting Our Elders

Did you know that in traditional Chinese painting, copying was encouraged? Yeah, most of China’s Leonardo De Vinci and Rembrandt copied other artist’s work. The reason for that was that they believed that copying their forefathers not only honored their ancestors, but also taught them the proper way to paint. I look at this process not so much as painting for creative expression but an attempt to reach perfection at an art. Artists tried to master their ancestors’ techniques to be better painters. Its cool.

Well, today I followed in their footsteps by sort of copying a Ming Dynasty master painter. I made a skate board that was loosely translated around Tang Yin’s Whispering Pines on a Mountain Pass. It is a beautiful painting of some mountains and trees that are abstracted into beautiful shapes and values.

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