Historical Ancient Japanese Art

The paper reminds me of brown paper bags for lunch, but lighter. It also appeared to have the same smooth yet fuzzy texture to it. The brush strokes consist of mostly horizontal motions. The strokes are rather equal with each other. All the lines are haphazard looking but also contained and precise. I has almost a coloring book style to it, but the lines aren"t quite cookie cutter all the way around. There"s no real shading, mostly bolder lines on one side to suggest shadows and a light source. There are a few lighter bamboo thickets in the background on the opposite side of the river. Above that there are some light gray washed mountains giving a nice skyline. The line weights also suggest the roughness of the rocks and the mountains, as well as the texture of the bark on the trees.

             and there are four red stamps on the right side of the scroll. The stamps fall in place vertically, each right above or under another. Each of the red stamps contains characters, but ninety percent of these characters look like people and animals.

             The shape and the form of the landscape consists of rolling rocks, gangly trees, a path, and of course the Wu River. The whole flow of the painting moves from left to right with a few spins and swirls along the way. This panoramic has a strange sense of space that immerses and holds you. A feeling of tranquillity and serenity warmly radiate from the scroll. Starting to the left there is a part of a hill that slopes down just a bit until it reaches the path. This is all far to the left, still touching the scroll. After the path, another hill slopes up and up to form a peak of a small mountain/ rocky hill at about one foot into the painting. There is moss-like plants growing in a random pattern all the way to the top. This mountain slants slightly to the right as if something is pulling it. After the mountain slopes back down, you can see the river.

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