Compared with Western art, traditional Chinese painting is more stylized and abstract. That difference is easy to spot in landscape paintings, thanks to one deceptively simple trick steeped in Chinese culture.

There are two types of traditional Chinese painting: The “gong bi,” or meticulous style, emphasizes neat, precise and meticulous renditions of objects. In contrast, the “xie yi,” or free-hand style, stresses flexibility in brushwork and ignores unimportant details.

Both types embrace the use of blank, un-inked space. In Taoism, opposites are needed for harmony to exist. The harmony of Yin and Yang becomes the balance between the dreamy void and concrete sights in a traditional Chinese landscape painting, where there is always more than meets the eye.