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FINGER-PAINTING is not merely a childhood pastime; it is in fact a 300-year-old artistic technique that is an interesting alternative to brush painting for Chinese artists. Traditional Chinese painting isn’t always done with a brush; some artists prefer the precision of their fingertips. The method has its appeal: different parts of fingers produce different effects of lines – firm or rugged, bold or slender, all reminiscent of the crude beauty of ancient stone carvings.
Gao Qipei (1672-1734) is believed to be the founder of the genre. Son of a senior Qing official, he began to learn painting at the age of eight, and had risen to fame by his early 20s. A voracious reader, Gao was intrigued by records of early artists who applied paint “with the limbs and other body parts” in their creations for their unusual effects. One of his models was Zhang Zao (735-785), who loved to smear blobs of pigment with his fingers. The other is Wang Qia (?-825), who often splashed ink on paper and then made bold strokes with his hands, and even his feet, to outline landscapes in a seemingly careless way.
Gao Qipei experimented with a finger painting method, and soon became proficient in it. After long practice, his fingers were more nimble than the hair-tipped brush. During the years from his 20s to 60s Gao made 50,000 to 60,000 finger paintings. Among those saved for posterity include Zhongkui Casts an Angry Look (the god who hunts ghosts in Chinese myths) and Magpies in a Phoenix Tree. Critics at the time gushed that objects in his works looked ready to come to life at any moment. Gao had a profound influence on painters of later generations, particularly those of the Yangzhou School in the late Qing Dynasty.
One had to be a master of the brush before one could make decent paintings with flesh. It was no easy matter to be the former, and even more daunting to do the latter. That’s why there were no outstanding finger painters in the 200 years after Gao Qipei. Then in the 1950s, Pan Tianshou (1897-1971) resumed the craft.
Pan deployed every part of the hand in finger painting – pinkie for fine lines, thumb for thick ones, middle and index fingers together for strips, and nails for details like eyelashes or flower pistils. For bigger objects, say, a lotus leaf, he would dump the pigment on the paper, and mop it around with his palm. He often drizzled soybean extract over the paper before making finger painting, adding a fuzzy effect and dreamlike ambience.
A major obstacle in finger painting is that flesh is not as absorbent as fibers, making it impossible to make the long unbroken lines achieved by one stroke of a brush. Pan Tianshou overcame this shortcoming by nestling a piece of cotton soaked with ink in his palm. With a slight application of pressure, ink was released from the clot, and trickled down his finger, sustaining the stroke by using the same principle deployed in the fountain pen. This gimmick enabled Pan to run a stroke as long as he desired, and explains why his finger paintings are of the largest of any kind in history – many measure 145 X 360 cm or more.
Accomplished as a brush painter, Pan faced no limits in finger painting either, deftly communicating poetic mood and natural beauty through line, color, perspective and composition, just as he might do with a hair-tipped device. A good share of his best known works are finger paintings, such as Sunglow, Red Water Lily and New Blossom. His success brought what was thought as a niche genre to the attention of China’s art circles once again.
It didn’t take long for another gifted finger painter to come along after Pan. In the 1980s Gao Huimin (1948-), an artist from Heilongjiang Province, arrived in Beijing to take advanced courses on bird and flower painting at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. One of his professors there was Zhang Lichen (1939-), a student of Pan Tianshou. Noticing the young man’s long, slim fingers, Zhang introduced Gao to finger painting, which he found a good alternative to traditional ink painting.
By the time he returned to his hometown two years later, Gao was able to finger paint with the greatest of ease. Heilongjiang is one of the chilliest regions in the nation, free of frost for merely three to four months annually. For a good part of the year its terrain is defined by ice-clad twigs, withered leaves and shivering birds huddled for protection. These northeastern scenes, bleak but pregnant with life, were seldom captured in Chinese paintings, but intrigued Gao Huimin. After experimenting with varied techniques, he came to the conclusion that the characteristic wilderness of Northeast China could not find better expression than in the rugged ink stains and rigid lines made by fingers. His masterpieces on the chilled land theme include Autumn Snow in the Home of Cranes and Early Spring Outside the Great Wall. As acknowledgment of his innovative interpretation of the hidden beauty in nature’s less popular seasons, organizers of the First National Exhibition of Bird and Flower Paintings crowned Gao with its highest prize in 1994.
Though still in his artistic prime, Gao Huimin is haunted by the worry that finger painting, which has remained largely a fringe technique since its invention, might be lost to future generations. As a preemptive countermeasure, he considered the establishment of a school dedicated to frozen landscapes, in which finger painting would have unchallenged strength. He believes the technique, though in its infancy compared with brush ink painting, deserves its own place in the fine art world and a chance to continue gathering its fans and admirers.
Gao Qipei (1672-1734) is believed to be the founder of the genre. Son of a senior Qing official, he began to learn painting at the age of eight, and had risen to fame by his early 20s. A voracious reader, Gao was intrigued by records of early artists who applied paint “with the limbs and other body parts” in their creations for their unusual effects. One of his models was Zhang Zao (735-785), who loved to smear blobs of pigment with his fingers. The other is Wang Qia (?-825), who often splashed ink on paper and then made bold strokes with his hands, and even his feet, to outline landscapes in a seemingly careless way.
Gao Qipei experimented with a finger painting method, and soon became proficient in it. After long practice, his fingers were more nimble than the hair-tipped brush. During the years from his 20s to 60s Gao made 50,000 to 60,000 finger paintings. Among those saved for posterity include Zhongkui Casts an Angry Look (the god who hunts ghosts in Chinese myths) and Magpies in a Phoenix Tree. Critics at the time gushed that objects in his works looked ready to come to life at any moment. Gao had a profound influence on painters of later generations, particularly those of the Yangzhou School in the late Qing Dynasty.
One had to be a master of the brush before one could make decent paintings with flesh. It was no easy matter to be the former, and even more daunting to do the latter. That’s why there were no outstanding finger painters in the 200 years after Gao Qipei. Then in the 1950s, Pan Tianshou (1897-1971) resumed the craft.
Pan deployed every part of the hand in finger painting – pinkie for fine lines, thumb for thick ones, middle and index fingers together for strips, and nails for details like eyelashes or flower pistils. For bigger objects, say, a lotus leaf, he would dump the pigment on the paper, and mop it around with his palm. He often drizzled soybean extract over the paper before making finger painting, adding a fuzzy effect and dreamlike ambience.
A major obstacle in finger painting is that flesh is not as absorbent as fibers, making it impossible to make the long unbroken lines achieved by one stroke of a brush. Pan Tianshou overcame this shortcoming by nestling a piece of cotton soaked with ink in his palm. With a slight application of pressure, ink was released from the clot, and trickled down his finger, sustaining the stroke by using the same principle deployed in the fountain pen. This gimmick enabled Pan to run a stroke as long as he desired, and explains why his finger paintings are of the largest of any kind in history – many measure 145 X 360 cm or more.
Accomplished as a brush painter, Pan faced no limits in finger painting either, deftly communicating poetic mood and natural beauty through line, color, perspective and composition, just as he might do with a hair-tipped device. A good share of his best known works are finger paintings, such as Sunglow, Red Water Lily and New Blossom. His success brought what was thought as a niche genre to the attention of China’s art circles once again.
It didn’t take long for another gifted finger painter to come along after Pan. In the 1980s Gao Huimin (1948-), an artist from Heilongjiang Province, arrived in Beijing to take advanced courses on bird and flower painting at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. One of his professors there was Zhang Lichen (1939-), a student of Pan Tianshou. Noticing the young man’s long, slim fingers, Zhang introduced Gao to finger painting, which he found a good alternative to traditional ink painting.
By the time he returned to his hometown two years later, Gao was able to finger paint with the greatest of ease. Heilongjiang is one of the chilliest regions in the nation, free of frost for merely three to four months annually. For a good part of the year its terrain is defined by ice-clad twigs, withered leaves and shivering birds huddled for protection. These northeastern scenes, bleak but pregnant with life, were seldom captured in Chinese paintings, but intrigued Gao Huimin. After experimenting with varied techniques, he came to the conclusion that the characteristic wilderness of Northeast China could not find better expression than in the rugged ink stains and rigid lines made by fingers. His masterpieces on the chilled land theme include Autumn Snow in the Home of Cranes and Early Spring Outside the Great Wall. As acknowledgment of his innovative interpretation of the hidden beauty in nature’s less popular seasons, organizers of the First National Exhibition of Bird and Flower Paintings crowned Gao with its highest prize in 1994.
Though still in his artistic prime, Gao Huimin is haunted by the worry that finger painting, which has remained largely a fringe technique since its invention, might be lost to future generations. As a preemptive countermeasure, he considered the establishment of a school dedicated to frozen landscapes, in which finger painting would have unchallenged strength. He believes the technique, though in its infancy compared with brush ink painting, deserves its own place in the fine art world and a chance to continue gathering its fans and admirers.