“In traditional water-ink [Chinese] painting, the artist often uses a shifting perspective so that the eye travels from one place to another and the viewer feels like a traveller moving through the painting.
— Sungsook Hong Setton, “The Spirit of the Brush”, page 68
If you struggle with perspective and are fedup with bumping your head against it, have you considered using a perspective tradition from a different style of painting? Earlier styles of European painting, pre-Renaissance, didn’t do vanishing points and horizon lines and vantage points aka linear perspective. 20th century modern art abandoned it. Chinese and Japanese art traditionally never used it. Between all the options lies your truth.
It was a little spooky reading this quote since it comes from the book I am currently reading.
Great minds think alike! It was a recent present from the in-house art critic, and I am thoroughly enjoying it!
I like oriental painting, you just wander through it and if I think about it, that’s what a person does when walking through a landscape. I never notice perspective when I’m admiring a stream or an patch of flowers. Thanks, gives me something to experiment with since I’m trying new things in my art.
You’re so right! That’s a great analogy.