This painting was created in 2019. This year is the third year of college. I started to prepare for my graduation work, so I tried paintings with more concepts, depth and formal unity. In these paintings, you Being able to begin to see a more specific me. Such attempts did add weight to the work, but it was only a small step compared to the depth that would later come with the weight of life. Then came the COVID-19 epidemic at the end of the year, and the future that people expected changed its face, either urgently or slowly.
Inches: 15.7 x 19.7 in
Size without the frame: 40 x 50 cm
Country: China
Date: 2019
Materials: Oil paint on linen
Condition: well preserved
Creative themes and style | My works revolve around the creative concept of "The land of humanity, People on the land". The people in the painting are people in nature, and the lines, shapes, and colors are close to nature. The nature in the painting is nature in the eyes of humans, existing in interaction with humans.I don’t pursue a series of works with a fixed and continuous style. I hope that the style of the pictures will synchronize with the changes in my life and always remain oscillating. The performance of the work must be in sync with the development of one's own life in order to be Sincere and powerful. Ideas are later.
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Composition:
The figure and background naturally dissolve into each other, dissolving clear boundaries—reminiscent of the intertwining of reality and illusion in Chagall's paintings. Placing the figure amidst hazy scenery creates a surreal, dreamlike atmosphere, inviting viewers to experience boundless reverie within a confined space. A concise layout conveys profound artistic conception.
Color Application:
Restrained and exquisite, the palette is dominated by blue tones interwoven with greys and browns, constructing a cool, tranquil ambiance. Comparable to Monet’s late Water Lilies series in how color shapes atmosphere, subtle chromatic gradations convey emotion. The serenity of blue and its nuanced variations seem to articulate the figure’s inner contemplations, making color a subtle emotional undercurrent.
Brushwork Technique:
Loose yet rhythmic, layered and blended brushstrokes soften contours, adding a hazy texture. Like Fu Baoshi’s "scattered-ink" texture technique (sanfeng cun), the seemingly spontaneous strokes precisely sculpt form and mood, allowing figure and setting to coalesce within fluid brushwork. This imbues the canvas with a vibrant, breathing vitality.
Content & Theme:
Focusing on Blue Mountain Shadows, it merges human elements with landscape motifs—a contemporary reimagining of traditional portraiture and landscape genres. Echoing Pan Yuliang’s exploration of the self-environment relationship, it employs natural imagery more subtly to highlight the figure’s spirit. Situating the individual within nature’s context, it contemplates the connection between humanity and the natural world, self and universe—a poetic inscription of the spiritual portrait.
Emotional Expression:
Subtle yet profound, the figure’s gaze and the misty mountain backdrop convey solitary introspection and awe for nature. The blue tones veil emotions like a gauze, allowing pensiveness and stillness to permeate the frame. Within contemporary painting discourse, Blue Mountain Shadows uses ethereal lyricism to explore individual psychological depth, extending art’s eternal inquiry into humanity’s relationship with nature. Like a deep, still pool, it reflects the shared inner light of creator and viewer alike.
A1: The girl’s long hair nearly fills the entire canvas, shifting subtly between gray-violet and pale pink tones. Rather than being rendered in thin strands, it is built up with block-like brushstrokes, resembling clouds or mountain ridges. This technique blurs the boundary between figure and landscape, weaving the subject into a dreamlike natural extension.
A2: The tiny golden crescent moon quietly disrupts the painting’s otherwise cool palette. It provides a symbolic light source, suggesting time, solitude, and lyricism. Its presence recalls the allegorical nightscapes of Symbolist painting, where small celestial signs open the door to poetic interpretation.
A3: A hazy yellow-brown silhouette appears in the left distance, vaguely resembling either a bird in flight or a flag atop a peak. Its ambiguity heightens the work’s openness to interpretation, keeping the viewer suspended between natural form and symbolic emblem.
A4: The painting fuses qualities of Symbolist portraiture with the lyricism of landscape oil painting. It carries both the intimate gaze of portraiture and the dreamlike expansiveness of natural scenery. This hybrid quality makes it rare in contemporary collections, positioning it as a strong representative of “symbolic narrative works” well-suited for private galleries or curated thematic exhibitions.
A5: Dominated by cool blue-gray and violet-pink tones, the composition strategically introduces warm accents—the crescent moon and ochre silhouette—to create a psychological tension of contrasts. This color dialogue is characteristic of the emotive colorist tradition highly regarded in the contemporary art market. With its immersive atmosphere and strong exhibition potential, the work is ideal for display in spaces that emphasize mood and ambiance.
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