Rocks Holiday Postcard

Rocks is a traditional Chinese "shui mo" painting with ink on rice paper. Ink wash painting or as called in Chinese “shui mo hua” is a type of brush painting that uses black ink, as used in calligraphy, in different concentrations. The Chinese character "mo" means ink and "shui" means water. A landscape is often painted in three tones or shades of ink. Various shades can be made by diluting the black ink with water. The painting style does not put high importance on a precise depiction of a real scene or object. As in Calligraphy, the brushstroke in Chinese ink brush painting is less a means of applying ink than a philosophical or emotional statement. Rocks show the geology of a scene. If you were to travel on a cruise down the Yangtze River, the shapes of the rocks would be instantly recognisable, as they have the same shapes as in many traditional Chinese paintings.