The Art of Calligraphy and
Techniques of Chinese Painting

Chinese Art
Teacher's Resource
Lesson Plan: Traditional Chinese Painting
Lessons submitted by: Patti Burkhardt

Xieyi (free brush)
Grades PreK-5
Sunshine State Standards: VAA111, VAA112, VAA113, VAA114, VAA121, VAA122, VAA123, VAA124, VAB113, VAB121, VAB122, VAB123, VAB124, VAC111, VAC112, VAC121, VAC122

Goal:
This free brush activity will ready Grades PreK-5 students for their visit to the Naples Art Museum where the Gow Collection will be explored. The following two links are related to this lesson:

Additionally, two on-site lessons in techniques for viewing Chinese art, in fact, any art collection, are included for use by students while touring the collection at the museum. They are titled Thoughts, teaching students how to question the meaning of art, and Perspective, a discussion of the different manner of handling relative distance in Chinese versus Western art.

Objective:
Student will explore the Chinese painting method of xieyi (free brush) and produce a piece of work utilizing this style.

Materials: (a source: http://www.ningyeh.com/oas/video.htm)

  • medium watercolor brushes,
  • large, black tempera cakes,
  • containers filled with ice water,
  • cups for tempera cakes,
  • manila paper and/or
  • 'Brush Up' practice paper, a renewable paper surface that can be reused 2,000 times with plain water, which can be ordered through Sax Arts & Crafts.Teacher Preparation:
    Study Chinese freestyle painting techniques using various books, kits, and/or videos on the subject.

Vocabulary

Activity Description
The students will:

  1. listen to a presentation and observe demonstrations on Chinese painting using free brush techniques.
  2. demonstrate the correct way to hold the brush and explore the various positions and brush strokes.
  3. create their own artwork reproducing the free brush style and technique using a given subject matter.

Suggested Resources:
The book Oriental Painting Course by Wang Jia Nan and Cai Xiaoli which was published by Watson Guptill in 1997 is an excellent resource with many visuals.

http://www.newton.mec.edu/Angier/DimSum/Chinese Caligraphy Lesson.html [yes, calligraphy is misspelled in this URL]

 

Assessment of Effort / Perseverance
Rubric

  • 4- The project was continued until it was as complete as the student could make it; the student gave effort far beyond that required; the student took pride in going well beyond the requirement.
  • 3- The student worked hard and completed the project, but with a little more effort it might have been outstanding.
  • 2- The student finished the project, but it could have been improved with more effort; there was adequate interpretation of the assignment, but the student neglected the finishing touches; or the student chose an easy project and did it indifferently.
  • 1- The project was mostly completed with a few loose ends left off; the student displayed minimum involvement and lackadaisical effort.
  • 0- The student did not adequately finish major portions of the work.

The following links are related to this lesson: