What are the characteristics of Chinese floral art and how is floral design classified?
Traditional Chinese floral art is represented by literati flower arranging and has four major characteristics.
(1) Line characteristics: Chinese floral art is mainly based on naturalistic lines. "Line" is the bone of Chinese floral composition. Lines have extremely rich expressive power; different lines express different forms and spirits: some are soft, some are vigorous; some are delicate, some are bold and rugged; some are elegant; some are aged. Floral art makes use of the myriad forms of plant flowers, branches and leaves, and through the length and thickness, curves and straightness, pauses and turns, strength and softness, and the balance of solid and empty of lines, it sketches out different forms that are simple, graceful, lean and strong, or bold and rugged, creating floral artworks of countless varied forms.
(2) Artistic conception characteristics: Chinese flower arranging is often an artwork that fuses the author's subjective intention with objective scenery, that is, it completes figurative thinking through the author's imagination, association and fantasy. Therefore artistic flower arranging is not a simple repetition of natural images, but must blend intention with setting, form with spirit, and scenery with emotion; every floral artwork consists of two aspects: "establishing the idea" and "establishing the form." Because floral art is limited by spatial scope and natural materials, its expression of artistic conception is subject to certain restrictions. Therefore, in conceiving the idea, the technique of borrowing objects to convey meaning is often used, such as using plum to express themes of steadfastness, aloofness and welcoming spring; using lotus to express themes of being spotless and keeping oneself pure; using orchid to express themes of being refined and elegant, and aloof from worldly strife.
(3) Reverence for nature: Chinese flower arranging is mainly naturalistic. In artistic technique, it uses decorative beauty to reflect natural beauty, that is, according to the natural posture of plant growth, through various combinations of curved and straight lines, it expresses the artistic conception of poetry and painting; it originates from nature and rises above nature. In composition, it mostly adopts asymmetrical balanced techniques, avoiding mechanical symmetry. Plant materials should emphasize the expression of the individual posture, that is, the posture of every flower, every branch and every leaf must be displayed in the work. Therefore in the same work, plant varieties, the quantity of materials used and color variations should all be simple rather than elaborate. In the selection of materials, flowers, branches, leaves, fruits and vines must all be used. As for flowers, unopened buds, half-open buds and fully bloomed flowers are used together to express the natural stages of a plant's life process.