Leona Craig Art Gallery
13632410877
clm@leonacraig.com
Guangzhou (Canton), China
13632407809
ayu@redhillchina.com
In a recent article about Zhao Qian Xu, in the Guangzhou newspaper, Xu said that for the last several years he has been concentrating on paintings of flowers; his current topic is portraits of older people. In fact we have two of his watercolor paintings of flowers, in our permanent collection; this is the only one that we currently offer for sale. It is a beautiful bouquet of chrysanthemums, displayed in a vase. The colors are bright and cheery, and the style is halfway between the more abstract and the more realistic styles that he has used in the two that are in our permanent collection.
This is the third in a series of scenes from Tibet that Xu made, while traveling, there, a few years back. Again it is in the more abstract style that he has been experimenting with. The colors of the sky are dark, contrasted to to the light colors of the buildings: is it really night time or is Xu just using his playful imagination. The lone woman walking down the street with her dog and the more abstract, ethereal style add to the mystery.
Xu never disappoints in his composition or his evolving style.
This painting has so much movement and life captured in it: it is lit up by passion. When you see it, you can almost hear the music and the din of the crowd, in the background. The darker orange colors also give the feeling that one is in a nightclub, listening to fine jazz.
Zhao Qian Xu is a talented artist with a good range of styles and an understanding of composition and technique.
Although China has ravaged much of its land, wiping out whole forests, still, many old trees are standing, even in our neighborhood of Old Dongshan, in Guangzhou.
Xu, as he often does, revised this painting, over time. Originally, it had people doing Taichi, which he eventually replaced with sheep and a herder.
