Chinese Xieyi also names Freehand Drawing, Free Sketch, Freehand Chinese Painting or Freehand Brushworks.   

Xie, means Write; Xi means Meaning. Xieyi means to write out of something in artists?hearts or minds, instead of something in their eyes. So, to express the thoughts of feelings of the artists via painting out of the spirit of the objects is the core of a Chinese Xieyi Painting, as far as the appearance of the object can be ignored.   

Therefore, with a simple and summary style, focus on the spirit of the objects, to express artists feeling inside directly and freely, is the basic character of Chinese Xieyi painting.   

Since Tang (618- 907) and Song Dynasty (960-1127), Xieyi painting has been the mainstream of Chinese painting.   

In Chinese art history, the greatest Xieyi artists usually were great literatures, poets or thinkers. They had good education, high thinking level and art skills, with wide chests and rich thoughts, to paint something simple, but interesting with simple, free and quickly strokes, to stress the spirit of the objects, while they did not pay more attention to the shapes of the objects. Wang Wei (701-761), Su Shi (1037-1101), Mi Fu (1051-1107), Ni Zhan(1301-1374), Dong Qichang (1555 -1636) , Shi Tao 1641-1707) , Ba Da Shan Ren(1626?705), Wu Changshuo (1844-1927) and Qi Baishi (1864-1957) are all the most famous Chinese Xieyi Artists.   

Chinese Xieyi usually is painted on some special paper that is permeability, it names Sheng Xuan. The permeability of the paper can help artists to express their thoughts and feelings freely.   

Chinese Xieyi can be sorted small Xieyi and Big Xieyi. They are different on the degree of freedom. The latter is free much more.   

I have learned to paint or created 926 Chinese Xieyi paintings since 2003. Now, I would like to share some of them with you and hope you enjoy them.

 I do wish to get your support, directions and help. 

 If you have any questions, comments and suggestions, you are welcome to write to info@ebridge.cn.
 

--Shirley