Li Dong's Chinese paintings give people the first impression of the new and different artistic features of the works. This kind of artistic personality is reflected in the uniqueness of the subject matter and artistic language, as well as the painter's way of expressing his own thoughts and artistic concepts. Over the years, he has paid attention to and expressed three main types of subjects: oceans, ancient architecture, and thematic figure paintings.
Painting the ocean with Chinese paintings has also been expressed by painters in ancient times, but most of them are expressed in light ink lines, and rarely use ink and color blending to indulge in freehand. The ocean of Li Dong's paintings, the ink color is dripping and the brush is smooth, and the waves written in the pen and ink are surging and stirring, giving people a feeling of passion. Li Dong's painting of the sea was influenced by his father, Li Haitao, an important founder of the Chinese marine painting school. Li Haitao is a pioneering representative painter of mainland contemporary Chinese painting to express marine themes, he draws on the expression techniques of Western painting, emphasizes the use of color and figurative expression, and carries forward the brush and ink characteristics of Chinese painting, opening up a new field in the creation of marine themes. While inheriting the artistic personality and techniques of his father, Li Dong gathers the strengths of all the families, combines his feelings for the sea, strengthens the thinking of life triggered by the sea in his creation, and is more freehand and lyrical in the expression language, and forms his own artistic style in this way. His works such as "Blue Sea Pushing Snow", "Lutao Tu", "Love Series", "Potential and Heavenly Communication" and so on, in addition to showing the scene of the sea, also blended into his own emotions, so that the works added a lot of humanistic feelings and touching people's hearts. In the series of works "Undersea Lingxuan", he expresses his thinking on the ocean and life through the relationship between the sea, the female body and the fish, a kind of artistic language of symbolic expression, so that the work has a conceptual expression beyond the natural scene, so it has a distinct contemporaryness. It is precisely this presentation of contemporaneity that makes Li Dong's Chinese paintings have a novel aesthetic character, which is the result of his innovative exploration of Chinese painting and an important factor in the formation of his artistic outlook.
Thematic performance is an important part of Li Dong's creation, as the chairman of the National Public Security Artists Association, he often goes down to the grassroots level to understand and experience the work and life of the public security police, with deep feelings for the people's defenders, he uses his works to show respect for them. The work "Sister Flower" depicts a female special police officer full of youth and vitality and sunshine, showing the cheerful scene after the target training, showing the style of a new generation of public security soldiers; "Between the Moments" shows the heroic posture of armed police soldiers when dealing with emergencies; "We Come from the Railway" is a tribute to the predecessors of railway public security. As a public security soldier who grew up in New China, he had the patriotic blood of his ancestors flowing in his blood, and he used the paintbrush in his hand to inherit and carry forward the spirit of loving the country and the people, and contributed his strength to the peace of the motherland and the people.
"Pen and ink are contemporary", Li Dong's Chinese painting art embodies the contemporary cultural and aesthetic spirit, and records the pulse of the times. With his own cultural self-consciousness, he explores the development of Chinese painting art in the contemporary era; his artistic practice and achievements show us the feelings and cultural responsibilities of a contemporary artist. Just like the sea he painted, because of its vastness and depth, it has gained surging passion and strength, as well as infinite vitality.
Appreciation of Li Dong's works
(Source: Changbaishan Calligraphy and Painting Institute)
Painter Profile
Li Dong is currently a director of the China Artists Association, vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Public Security Literature and Literature, chairman of the National Public Security Artists Association, and vice chairman of the China Railway Artists Association. He was awarded the title of the first batch of "Locomotive Staff Artists" by the All-China Railway Federation of Trade Unions, selected as "Literary and Art Star" by the All-China Public Security Federation of Literature and Art, and nominated by the Central Propaganda Department, the Human Resources Security Department, and the China Federation of Literary and Art Workers as the "Fourth National Young and Middle-Aged Literary and Art Workers". He was nominated by China Net and China Ocean News as the 2017 Marine Person of the Year. He served as a representative of the 4th Beijing Artists Association Congress, the 8th National Artists Association Congress, the 9th National Artists Association Congress, and the 10th National Literary Congress.