Guo Xi’s landscape paintings often use cursive and cursive calligraphy to create dead trees, with branches hanging down and extending diagonally like eagle claws; the mountain shape is strange and resembles a grimace; the chamfering method mostly uses light ink and flexible round pens and side strokes, which change like Because of the clouds, it is known as "ghost-faced stone, chaotic clouds, and eagle-claw branches". These techniques are all creations developed based on natural scenes. Guo Xi's landscape paintings developed and enriched the history of landscape painting, created a new situation in landscape painting, and also played a pioneering role in the formation of the Southern Song Dynasty painting style. His painting art originated from the ancient masters and created his own new look. His painting theory not only summarized the experience of previous generations and his own, not only made great achievements in the history of landscape painting in the Song Dynasty, but also had a great influence on later generations. Lin Quan's Gaozhiji Collection includes six chapters: "Landscape Training", "Painting Intentions", "Painting Techniques", "Painting Titles", "Painting Frame Supplements", and "Painting Notes". "Landscape Lessons" is a summary of Guo Xi's creative thoughts and experiences. "Painting Intentions" talks about artistic conception issues in paintings. "Painting Tips" mainly talks about painting theory issues such as business location and brush and ink techniques. "Painting Titles" is about Illustrating the role of painting, "Painting Notes" narrates Guo Xi's painting activities and status in the court. Among them, the theory in "Shanshui Xun" is very important. He said: "The mountain looks like this from a close distance, looks like this from a few miles away, and looks like this from ten miles away. Every distance changes, so the so-called mountain shape changes step by step. The front of the mountain is like this, and the side is like this. If you look at it like this, it will look different every time you look at it. The so-called mountain shape looks like this. Isn’t it obvious that one mountain has the shape of hundreds of mountains? Mountains look like this in spring and summer, and they look like this in autumn and winter. This is the so-called four seasons. The scenery is different. The mountain looks like this at dusk, and it looks like this at dusk. The so-called morning and dusk are different. Is this the state of one mountain and hundreds of mountains? "He said. He also said: "In the true mountains and rivers, you can look at it from a distance to get its momentum, and look at it up close to get its quality." The "moment" and "quality" here not only talk about the momentum structure, but also include the image. It can be said that Guo Xi is an outstanding painter who connects the past with the future.
Three distance methods for landscape composition: Horizontal distance means looking from the nearby mountains to the distant mountains. The eye level is in the middle or above the middle of the picture. It reflects a state of overlooking and creates the artistic effect of "mountains follow the level and look far away". Zhao Mengfu's "Water Village Picture Scroll" of the Yuan Dynasty used the flat distance method. The scene unfolds, depicting the clear and distant scenery of the south of the Yangtze River with Shazhu cottages, fishing boats, hills and long embankments, and willows, ponds and reeds. Gaoyuan means "looking up from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain". There is also a saying called "insect vision", which means deliberately placing oneself in a low place. Everything you see is tall, majestic and majestic, and the horizon is basically the same. At the lower end of the picture, it reflects the majestic and majestic mountains that can be seen when looking up. Fan Kuan's "Travel to Streams and Mountains" is a successful work created using the Gaoyuan method of composition. His artistic characteristics are not only strong and solid in his brushwork, but also good at expressing the high and far-reaching mountains by looking up.
It means "looking from the front of the mountain to the back of the mountain". To put it bluntly, it lends the audience a pair of clairvoyance, allowing them to see thousands of mountains and rivers, all condensed into the size of the picture. As for the eye level, it is mostly at the upper end of the painting, similar to the "bird's eye view" Wang Meng's "Hermitage in Qingbian" is a masterpiece with far-reaching views. In order to highlight the word "hidden", the author uses an "S" shape to continuously take the momentum, and uses the alternating combination of mountains and ridges, dense trees and deep streams to increase the depth of the mountains. The search along the streams can only be achieved after many twists and turns. Deep in the col, I saw a thatched cottage, in which a person could be vaguely discerned. The person sitting on the bed hugging his knees was the subject of the painting; the hermit. The success of "Residence in Qingbian" lies in creating a profound and unpredictable space.
The establishment of the three-distance method is a manifestation of the maturity of traditional Chinese landscape painting. It breaks the limitations of time and space, draws people's sight away, and leads to infinite space, fully embodying the creativity of Chinese landscape painting.