Are there differences between Asian and Western style of painting?

Early last fall a friend, who lives in Spain, remarked after attending a watercolour show, how different some of the European styles were to the North American tendencies.
 
Last November, I subscribed to "L'art de l'aquarelle" (also available in English under the name of Art of Watercolour) from France.  This wonderful magazine features artists from around the globe and it's so interesting to see their approach and results.  At a recent local watercolour workshop, someone had brought a copy of this magazine and the facilitator asked participators what they thought about the painting on the cover which was from Adisorn Pornsirikarn. I was so surprised to see how quickly people jumped at the opportunity critique this painting which I thought was wonderful (I can only dream of painting something as beautiful). It's only afterwards when replaying the comments in my head did it occur to me what criteria they were using to judge this painting. Many commented on the lack of a unique focus and the lack of many colours.  Here is that painting on the cover of the magazine. What do you think about it?

 

In North America and mostly likely also in Britain, there are "established" composition guidelines to create what we have deemed to be esthetic paintings.  I've listed some of these criteria in previous blogs.

Not only can these differences in style be seen in compositions and materials but also in the creative process and in particular in the use of perspective. Most Western painters commonly use single-point perspective (a scene seen from a specific point in space). However, many Asian artists will use multiple perspectives as well as multiple focus points especially in large landscapes, where the viewer is encouraged to "travel" through the painting moving from one focus point to another.

In addition, Asian watercolour is based on simple brush strokes.  If you go to YouTube and check out Adisorn Pornsirikarn, you'll quickly see what I mean.  When I look at an Asian watercolour landscapes, they do not appear to emphasize the three dimensionality or perspective as much as Western art does.

I wish I new enough to distinguish beyond that. At the end of the day, are there esthetics criteria that are better than others?  What differences in style have you noticed from watercolour artist from various countries?

Today's artist find is Mia Feigelson.

Have a great week,

Danielle