OC LIVE! : ART : A Show of Force, Fragility : Chinese Painting Exhibit Accents the Magic of <i> Chi</i>

They’re called the Three Perfections, or Three Incomparables.

Painting, poetry and calligraphy--which Westerners consider disparate disciplines--in Chinese culture are an artistic trinity sharing a single canvas, figuratively and very often literally. (Ever wonder why there’s writing on Chinese paintings?)

When the masters consider them separately, they say that a painting must be as a poem, a poem as a painting, calligraphy as evocative as either. They are as inextricably intertwined as the chi in Chinese.

Which brings us to bullfighting.

“I was a great devotee of the bullfights for years and years,” said Bill Jones, president of the Ching-Chi Artist Guild, whose Autumn Harvest Chinese Painting Exhibition opened this week at the Huntington Beach Central Library Art Gallery.

Jones followed the great matadors and watched them execute their finest moves “in a certain fashion that was etched in stone but could never be chiseled, because it’s only something that you could see. . . . It’s the pass made with that bull that elicits oles.

“I have watched Chinese brush painters,” Jones said, “the way they execute these strokes, with both force and delicacy. Force and delicacy of course don’t seem to match. This is the chi that flows from them. This is the magic.”

In Eastern philosophy, and in the martial arts, chi refers to one’s intrinsic vital force.

Before the current exhibition was mounted, Jones proposed a 10-minute demonstration of Chinese brush painting, and at the appointed hour, showed up at The Times with members of the Ching-Chi guild in tow. Among them were director Shao Wen (Henry) Lee, a calligrapher and practitioner of fine-line painting (kung - pi), and adviser Lun Ziar Sih, who works in a more spontaneous style (hsieh-i).

The magic was at hand. Or rather, in hand.

Even the way Sih held his brush--often near the top, not near the bottom, as a Western painter would--was a revelation. (According to Jones, the higher position magnifies movements and is typical when using larger brushes in hsieh-i .)

Using strokes of both power and grace, Sih began with what seemed to be haphazard smudges, but within minutes a scene of bamboo, a rock and two birds had emerged. In China, five years of painting only bamboo is requisite training for anyone learning hsieh-i.

Lee didn’t demonstrate because, Jones said, watching the meticulous work involved in fine-line style “is like watching paint dry.” Lee can take several days to produce a 2-by-2-inch artwork. At least one set, however, of his highly detailed landscapes, “Four Seasons,” will be displayed at the library.

Some projects take longer.

“Five years, not finished yet,” he said of one undertaking, a compendium of Chinese calligraphy of more than 400 pages. “I copy all the words of Buddha, in all the different styles of Chinese script,” including the oldest known styles, he said. “It is an artwork, but no frames.” He’s done 300 pages so far.

Lee is nothing if not modest. Asked to compare fine line and hsieh-i , he called Sih a genius.

“I go slowly. Not like him, just three minutes. Mine takes only time, lots of time.”

And chi , he said: “Imagination, your mind, your spirit, your muscles, everything combined together is chi. “

So calligraphy is like kung fu?

“Oh yes, sure!” he said.

Linda Jones, Bill’s wife, takes that literally. She said that one day as she sat across from her teacher--Po Nong Liu, founder of the Ching-Chi Artist Guild--and as he painted, she felt that at one point “it was like getting hit from the chi .”

Liu, a resident of Irvine and one of very few masters willing to teach the fine-line style, has been in Taiwan for two years helping mount several exhibitions of his works. According to Bill Jones, one of Liu’s paintings just sold for $40,000 (U.S.) in Taiwan; he noted that the work would likely fetch about half that here.

Until Liu returns, members of the guild are studying under other teachers. Bill Jones believes that Lee, his teacher, would also be more celebrated in Taiwan and that his paintings might sell for a lot of money. And here? “Not selling,” Lee said.

*

The tradition of fine-line painting flowered, so to speak, in the 11th Century during the Sung Dynasty. According to June Li, assistant curator of Far Eastern art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the emperor was a painter and collector very interested in the realistic portrayal of nature--in “showing the number of petals on a plum blossom, the number of stamens on a water lily, all very accurately,” Li said.

Li shares Lee’s admiration for hsieh-i.

That style is more commonly taught than fine line, she said, but it’s not easier.

“It’s harder to do it very well. Most artists, when they are really good, are good at both [hsieh-i and fine line]. They might be more practiced at one, of course.”

Li offered her assessment of the Ching-Chi guild.

“It is really quite amazing, the quality,” she said. “They’re not masters yet. But it’s pretty amazing. Liu has several groups. I know that the Orange County group is very strong.”

Most guild meetings and teacher demonstrations take place at Cypress Library. The next featured guest (Sept. 23, from 1 to 4 p.m.) will be Guang-Li (David) Zhang of the Asian Pacific Museum in Pasadena.

There are 60 members in the guild, about half of them Asian. The students work by example.

“You sit and you watch countless hours as the master does what he’s supposed to do--and that’s paint ,” Linda Jones explained . “Then you paint, and he criticizes. Or they say, ‘Here, try this,’ and we try it.”

According to Li, Chinese artists have always copied their teachers.

“Only after many years of emulating your teachers do you finally break out and do something a little more creative, transforming the past,” Li said.

Linda Jones first tried brush painting about three years ago.

“Not thinking much about it, and not having any art background at all--no Western art background, no art background period --I went to a couple of classes and became hooked,” she said. “I couldn’t get enough of it.”

According to Bill Jones, one of the group’s teachers said wife Linda was the best Western student of calligraphy he’d seen.

“Of course,” noted Bill, “that’s like saying, ‘You’re awfully nice, for a Yankee.’ ”

Linda Jones agreed.

“In Chinese terms,” she explained, “you can have potential, but until you’ve studied five to 10 years and worked hard, you don’t have a grasp of anything yet.”

For that reason, none of Linda’s work is in the exhibition. But works by at least 25 other students with as much as 10 years’ experience, and four masters with considerably more experience--Lee, Sih, floral and bird specialist Jun-Kang Ye and Shih Shang Hsu, who paints using his little finger and is acclaimed in Taiwan--will be on display.

Lee, who figures he has about 40 years’ experience, had words of encouragement for anyone who might try his or her hand at Chinese brush painting.

“To some level, you practice, like piano--at first you do the scales, the basic training,” Lee said. “That’s dull. After that, you make music, and then you enjoy yourself. Painting is the same. When you are a beginner, it’s not interesting.

“After that, you enjoy.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

* What: Autumn Harvest Chinese Painting Exhibition.

* When: Through Sept. 30, with demonstrations Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. followed by a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Hours: Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday 1 to 9 p.m. and Tuesday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

* Where: Huntington Beach Central Library Art Gallery, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach.

* Whereabouts: From the north, take the San Diego (405) Freeway to the Goldenwest Street exit and head south; turn left onto Talbert Avenue. From the south, take the 405 to the Euclid Street exit and head north; turn left onto Talbert Avenue.

* Wherewithal: FREE.

* Where to call: (714) 962-9707.