Chinese ink panels by 齊白石

Week 20 features Qi Baishi with Forest Green, Saffron, Dusty Pink & Sea Foam

Qi Baishi (齊白石) (1864–1957) was a prominent Chinese painter, noted for his distinct style that blended traditional Chinese painting techniques with modern sensibilities. Known as China’s Picasso, his works include a set of ink-brush panels entitled Twelve Landscapes painted in 1925 that sold for over £100m.

Born Qi Huang (齊璜) in Hunan Province to a peasant family (his later adopted pseudonym Baishi translates as “white stone”), Baishi trained as a carpenter from age fourteen. He taught himself to paint by using a guidebook focussed on the painting styles of the Qing Dynasty. His early works included everyday people and street performers and works from nature such as birds, florals and landscapes all painted in careful detail with fine brushstrokes.

Baishi was already in his 40s when he took up art full-time. He began travelling around China, looking for more inspiration from the different regions. Although he never studied, his style progressed when he came across the Shanghai School and was introduced to a more freestyle method of painting known as Xeiyi by his mentor, Wu Changchun.

His artistic philosophy was that “paintings must be something between likeness and unlikeness”. His subjects were from nature, with a focus on smaller creatures like frogs, insects and crustaceans but also plants and florals all painted with a distinctive and elegant brushwork technique.

Baishi’s achieved recognition during his lifetime in China where he was elected president of the Association of Chinese Artists and honorary president of the Beijing Academy of Chinese Painting. Beyond China he received the International Peace Prize in 1956 but it was only towards the turn of the century that his work started to achieve international recognition, driven in part by the sums paid for it by mainly Chinese buyers at auction, who recognise how his innovative approach bridged traditional and modern Chinese art making it accessible to all.

Read more about him here and here and view a selection of work sold at auction here.

“Flowers and Insects”, ink painting, Qi Baishi, date unknown

Colour Combination

The colours for this weeks prompt are Forest Green, Saffron, Dusty Pink & Sea Foam. Use the #coloricombo colours along with any neutral light and dark colour to create an artwork in any medium and style. 

Coloricombo prompts are released once a week on a Monday, and this year I also link each month with a theme. To coincide with Floral Fusion, May’s theme is "Plants". If you like you can use this as topic, or create in any way as you wish, using the colours in any medium and style.

I love to see what you do with the coloricombo colours. If you'd like to share your work, please tag #coloricombo and #estemacleod on social media. You're also welcome to post in the private Facebook group Creative Prompts