Li Wenxiu, the owner of Qiu Shizhai, born in 1952, joined the army in 1968 and studied flower and bird painting for more than 40 years. Since 1982, he has been an art instructor at the military academy with the rank of colonel. In early 1991, he transferred to Shenzhen and served as the executive director of the 4th to 5th Shenzhen Artists Association and the chairman of the Futian District Artists Association. He is currently a member of the Chinese Painting Art Committee of Shenzhen Artists Association, a specially appointed painter of the Calligraphy and Painting Institute of Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the artistic director of the Chinese Painting Ceramics Creation Center of Shenzhen Artists Association, a director of Shenzhen Chinese Painting Society, and the honorary chairman of Shenzhen Futian District Artists Association. Vice President of Shenzhen Calligraphy and Painting Art Society; Consultant of Shenzhen Guangming New District Artists Association; President of Chinese Painting Institute of Hanjiang Painting Academy; Professor of Chinese Painting Research Institute of Los Angeles, USA; Professor of Li Wenxiu Studio of Shenzhen Academy of Calligraphy and Painting.
One flower, one world
Li Wenxiu is known for his paintings of flowers and birds, and his early artistic style was deeply influenced by Su Bao's frames, which belonged to the strict inheritance of tradition. Tracing back to the roots, Li Wenxiu's flowers and birds, ink colors, shapes, and techniques tend to favor Ren Bonian, Xu Gu, Wu Changshuo, and Zhao Zhiqian. Li Wenxiu draws a wide range of flowers and birds, including meilan bamboo chrysanthemums, grapes, rhododendrons, peonies, etc.; birds and insects include eagles, thrushes, magpies, locusts, crickets, fish, shrimp and other species. Its fresh bamboo pride frost red plum and other seemingly unremarkable, but the spirit of high purity can be vividly displayed, elegant and good. A "quiet listen to the rustle of the breeze" is not far from the gentleman's style of a lonely thing.
Wen Xiuyu is good at drawing grapes. Li's grapes and Xu Wei's grapes and other historical masters have many learning references, but they are energetic in temperament, different from some works that are partial to self-pity or cynicism. In particular, the fruit depiction of Plum grapes is both exquisite and transparent, but also bright and plump, showing a rich and auspicious meaning, highlighting the style of the times. The technique is more realistic, and the shape and meaning are taken from the Hai school of freehand style.
Li Wenxiu is famous for painting grapes, and has studied Chinese culture, philosophy, art, literature, etc., and has repeatedly and persistently pondered the styles of Xu Wei, Wu Changshuo, Zhang Shuqi, Qi Baishi, Zhou Huaimin and other ancient and modern people, especially the ideas, qualities and techniques of grape and vine works, and entered into in-depth dialogue and exchange in the historical latitude of time and space.
The grapes of Xu Wei and others, including some other works of flowers and birds, are intended to exude a worldview of ancient intellectuals as a whole, and the large leaf stems and unbridled vines can still express the chest. The fruit is just a finishing touch or a meaning. At the same time, the length of the ink makes the visual tension extremely effective.
Li Wenxiu's grapes swept away the image of loneliness and desolation, and he emphasized the true texture and sense of quantity of the fruit. The techniques of western painting watercolor and Impressionist pointillist strongly show the abundance and self-confidence of the prosperous world. Li Wenxiu thought that the ancients reused the outline, and then added color to the "addition writing method", or depicted the fruit with boneless smudge, which is still very practical in the sketch, but in the large scale or the huge scale of the hall, or in the context of today's times, it needs to be seriously considered.
Despite this, Li Wenxiu still does not abandon the explosive nature of traditional ink painting, changing the thick and dry wet between square inches, and using the pen to make the ink spontaneous and natural. In the process of pursuing perfection, he makes his works elegant and popular, interesting and long-lasting, which can be described as "clear into the five viscera, full of energy and self-flying". We believe that Li Wenxiu's artistic style of painting flowers and birds is a reflection of his philosophy of reverence for goodness and beauty in his life, beautiful, calm, happy, simple, simple and luxurious, beautiful and not pretentious. Such a humanistic art as the foundation of the world and the spiritual fulcrum will surely enable the painter to go healthier and farther.
Li Wenxiu paints snow bamboo, no need to leave white space, no need for alum, and no need to play powder. Look closely at his snow bamboo, no fat powder, charm and frost, charm and natural, can be called a must.
In order to paint a different snow bamboo from his predecessors, he immersed himself in the techniques of his predecessors and conducted countless experiments, for which Wenxiu tried to carry out bold experiments with oil, eggs, alcohol, soybean milk, alum, etc., but because the painting time was too long, or the dryness was too heavy, or bloated and tired, he could not express the snow bamboo in his heart. After countless failures, he finally developed a way to express snow with glue, and after more than ten years of repeated thinking, he formed a unique Li's snow bamboo style.