Landscape

Impressive in scale and refinement, this depiction of a dramatic ravine evokes the monumental landscapes attributed to China’s foremost painters of the tenth and eleventh centuries. Like those early masters, Li Huayi captured the continuous momentum and flux of nature. Steeply curving banks edged by windswept trees tower precariously over the water, whose receding flow is echoed by the cloud-like mist hovering above. This dynamic image is rendered by the artist’s distinctively expressive method of painting. After defining the composition with large areas of ink spilled onto the paper or worked with a broad brush, Li gradually rendered mass and solidity with denser layers and then allowed the paper to dry before adding details with a small, finely tapered brush. By the artist’s own account, such powerfully fresh landscapes exist only in his mind and do not reflect direct observation of nature.