Zhao Zhiqian is versatile and studious, and has made remarkable achievements in literature, history, the study of gold and stone evidence, and calligraphy and painting seal engraving. The painting was traced back to Nantian, Xu Qingteng and Chen Baiyang by his close friend Ren Weichang, and he also entered the painting with the method of sealing grass, creating a new style of xiongmai Qingjun generation, which opened up a broad world for Haipai art.
Looking at Zhao's heirloom paintings, the most amazing thing is his painting subject, which has never been painted before. At the age of 33, he lived in wenzhou to avoid war, where he saw novel flowers and seafood, and he wrote everything he saw into his paintings, thus greatly expanding the subject matter of painting. His "Different Fish Diagram", "Ouzhong Property Volume", "Ouzhong Grass and Wood Diagram Four Screens", etc., have become immortal masterpieces in the history of Chinese painting.
Due to his superb artistic achievements, shanghai-centered artists, especially a new generation such as Wu Changshuo, were influenced by Zhao Zhiqian and gradually formed a new genre , Haipai painting. Pan Tianshou wrote in the "History of Chinese Painting": "He will make a fool of his uncle Zhao Zhiqian, make flowers with the fun of gold and stone calligraphy and painting, and be magnificent and ancient, and open the precedent of the Qianhai School." In fact, Zhao Zhiqian's influence was not limited to the sea, xiao Junxian, Chen Shizeng and other northern masters were also influenced by him.
This picture of the different fish is written by his thirty-three-year-old guest Ryan, the so-called "see the sea creatures have strange shapes, miscellaneous pictures of this paper, interspersed for the name of the examination." The late friend Hu Shu said, "This picture is enough to prepare a product, and it is not comparable to ordinary sketching." "Uncle Huan was very diligent in the art of calligraphy and painting in middle age, and every masterpiece was handed down at the age of thirty or forty. After the age of forty-four, he went to Jiangxi to compile the Jiangxi Tongzhi and several county orders, and his creation gradually became sparse, which was also a major loss to the Chinese art scene.
Throughout the ages, each outstanding painter has had his own unique chapter (composition) program. This particular program is often one of the important factors in forming the painter's unique style. The most common feature of Zhao Zhiqian's works in composition is not the average of ordinary quantities, but the law of balance of force that is the best use, which is a new law that has not been or rarely used by previous generations of flower painters.
The average amount of the picture can make the picture complete and stable, it is easy to achieve "four flat and eight stable", but improper use, it is easy to produce dull, ordinary bad effects, the balance of force, improper use is easy to go to the road of madness and frivolity, which is the reason why the previous generation of painters rarely used, but if used well, it can win in danger and extraordinary, this law has been through the continued efforts and development of Ren Bonian, Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi and others, and has achieved unprecedented achievements, and Pan Tianshou is also the inheritor and outstanding developer of this law.
Zhao Zhiqian's flower paintings often like to concentrate the most important parts on the top of the re-painting frame, such as the upper part of the re-painting of the flowers and leaves of "Taihua Fengtou Yujing Lotus", and even the inscription is also above, and only three long stems are used below to achieve a balance of strength. He once painted an eight-foot folio of "Black Stone Wisteria", the top of the picture spent a large and black stone, almost stuffed with half of the picture, the lower half is empty, only a few young vine leaves and a line of thick inscriptions, just in this way, it stabilized this huge top-heavy composition, this "wanton" thrilling picture, which the previous generation of flower painters who were accustomed to the average amount did not dare to dream.
As for the color of flower painting, before Zhao Zhiqian, there were no more than two tones; one was that the painter imitated the natural colors as much as possible and made them close to realism. The painter's requirements, mainly to do their best to shorten the distance between the picture and the physical object, the shorter this distance, the more successful the painter will be, which is a traditional habit since the two Song Dynasties; another tune is the ink freehand flower and bird painting that developed with the shallow landscape of the Yuan people, most of which are ink-based, slightly light colored, and strive to be light and elegant, from the Ming Dynasty Shen Shitian, Chen Baiyang, Xu Qingteng to Shi Tao, the Eight Greats, and the Eight Monsters of Yangzhou all belong to this main tone.
Zhao Zhiqian, contrary to the usual law of the past, likes to use rich and clear colors with strong contrasts. Good at using red, green and ink three heavy colors, good at seeking coordination from the conflict, so on the screen, it is full of spirit and imposing. In terms of the color of Chinese flower painting, it is unique for modern times. This program was developed by Wu Changshuo and reached a very high realm by Qi Baishi and Chen Dayu.