自幼酷爱绘画，后因家贫失学，备受世俗冷落，康熙四十二年（1703）华氏家族重建祠堂，曾因替正厅画壁画，乡绅看不起他，群起反对，最后偷自进祠堂，画上“高山云鹤”、“水国浮牛”、“青松悬崖”和“倚马题诗”四幅画，愤而离乡飘泊，流寓于杭州，结交了很多文人学士，眼界大开。36岁时曾北上入都，“得交当路巨公，名闻于上”，但并不得意，据戴熙《习苦斋画絮》载：“华秋岳自奇其画，游京师无问者。一日有售赝画者，其裹华笔也，华见而太息出都。”他的中晚年一直频繁往来于杭州、扬州，以卖画为生。在扬州他结识了金农、高翔、李鱓、郑板桥及盐商巨子马曰琯、马曰璐兄弟，彼此交流切磋，诗画酬答，使其绘画修养得到多方面的拓展，成为扬州画派的代表人物之一。
华岩一生贫困，金农在《画竹题记》提到：“汀洲华岩秋岳，……尝画兰草纸卷，卷有五丈者，一炊饭顷便能了事，清而不媚，恍闻幽香散空谷之中，…… 余恨不能踵其后尘也。”乾隆十七年（1752），回到杭州旧居“解弢馆”。乾隆二十一年卒，有《离垢集》5卷。

华岩的花鸟画最负盛名，他吸收明代陈淳、周之冕、清代恽寿平诸家之长，形成兼工带写的小写意手法。他善于捕捉自然生物中天趣和人们真切细腻的体验，将花鸟的动人姿态和感受中丰富而健康的情趣融为一体，创造出生动多姿的形象。在画法上，既有细节描写的精微性，又不失笔墨上的简逸生动，禽鸟毛羽细致蓬松的毫毛毕现。这种清新俊秀，率意疏容的花鸟画风格，对后世产生了积极影响。华岩在人物方面成就也很突出。他的人物画得意于陈洪绶、王树毂、马和之、自成一种减笔画法。形象有所夸张而又不变形，线条似马和之的“兰叶描”，简练柔劲，不失形似而更重精神，不仅个性鲜明，而且富有意境。华岩的山水兼法院体，吴派、董其昌诸家，不拘一格，一般比较简略率脱。
据中研院线上目录作华嵒，岩字盖简化故尔。中研院线上目著录有《新罗山人画集》、《离垢集》等著，其中有其手稿《离垢集》（清代稿本百种汇刊. 集部 ；66 附注 据国立中央图书馆藏手稿本影印）乃台北县文海出版社出版者。

Huayan(1682 ~ 1756), one for Huayan, the word German song, more word Qiuyue, the number of new Luoshan people, East Park Health, commoner students, Baisha Taoist, from the dirt lay, etc., the elderly self- Fujian Shanghang Jiao Yang Huajia (home) people (the original white sand people), after the apartment Hangzhou. Painting figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, grass insects, off when learning, power of ancient law, writing animals, especially good. Good book, can poetry, called "three absolutely" for the outstanding Qing Dynasty painting everyone, one of the representatives of Yangzhou School of painting.

Biography

(1703) Fahrenheit family to rebuild the ancestral hall, Zengyin for the main hall painting murals, squires look down on him, rallied against, and finally steal into the ancestral hall, painting, painting, painting, painting, painting, painting, The four paintings of "The Cloud Crane of the Mountain", "The Floating Cattle of the Water Country", "The Pine of the Qing Dynasty" and "The Poem of the Pine Horse" were drifting away in Hangzhou and making a lot of scholars and scholars. 36-year-old has been on the north into the capital, "have to pay when the road giant, known on the", but not proud, according to Dai Xi "learning bitter vegetarian painting Xu" contains: "Qiu Yue Qiqi its paintings, Asked by a day to sell the pseudo- painting, the wrap HuaBi also, HuA Jian and too interest out of. "His middle-aged has been frequent exchanges in Hangzhou, Yangzhou, to sell paintings for a living. In Yangzhou, he got to know Jinnong, Gao Xiang, Li Ban, Zheng Banqiao, and salt merchant Ma Yue Guanxi and Ma Yue Lu brothers. They exchanged their ideas and exchanged their poems and paintings for a variety of expansions. One of the representatives.
Huayan life poverty, Jinnong in the "painted bamboo inscription" mentioned: "Ting Chau Hua Yan Qiu Yue, ... ... try to paint blue grass paper roll, volume Wuzhang who can cook a meal will be trouble, clear but not Mei , Scandal fragrance scattered Valley, ... ... I hate not heel follow its footsteps. "Qianlong seventeen years (1752), back to Hangzhou old residence" Xie Tao Hall. " Twenty-one years Qianlong death, a "scale collection" 5 volumes.

Hua Yan's most famous flower-and-bird painting, he absorbed the Ming Dynasty Chen Chun, Zhou Mian, the Qing Yun Shouping the length of the family, the formation of small work and writing with a freehand approach. He is good at capturing the natural life in the natural and people really delicate experience, the bird's moving posture and feelings of rich and healthy taste into one, to create a lively and varied image. In the painting, both the details of the subtle nature of the description, without losing the ink on the simple and elegant vivid, delicate hair fluffy birds hair complete. This fresh and handsome, voluptuous flower and bird painting style, on later generations had a positive impact. Hua Yan achievements in the character is also very prominent. His figure painting proud of Chen Hongshou, Wang tree hub, horse and the, self-written by a pen. The image is exaggerated but not deformed, the lines like the horse and the "blue leaves", concise soft, without losing the shape and more important spirit, not only distinct personality, and rich mood. Hua Yan's landscape and court body, Wu School, Dong Qichang Zhujia, eclectic, generally relatively simple rate off.
According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences on-line catalog for Huayan, rock word cover simplified Seoul. In the Academia Sinica, online catalogs include "New Luo Shan Artists Collection" and "Collection of Scarlet Collections", among which there are manuscripts of "Collections of the Qing Dynasty" (Note: According to the National Central Library Collection of manuscripts of the photocopies) is Taipei County Wenhai Publishing House publisher.