How did Xia Gui use dark and pale ink tones to model rocks?

Xia Gui, a master of the Southern Song Imperial Academy, utilized strong tonal contrasts to model rocks and define their physical presence. By applying rich, wet ink washes, he distinguished between the sunlit and shadowed faces of rock formations, creating a sense of powerful bulk and volume.12

To render the rough-textured surfaces of these rocks, Xia Gui employed broad, broken strokes of ink known as "large ax-cut" texture strokes. This technique was an evolution of the "small ax-cut" strokes developed by his predecessor, Li Tang, and served as a hallmark of the Ma-Xia school. In his masterwork, Pure and Remote View of Streams and Mountains, he combined these deep, dark ink tones with subtle, evanescent washes of pale gray to achieve dramatic effects of light, shadow, and atmospheric perspective.23