The Poet of Landscape-Exhibition of Zhao Hongfu’s Watercolor Paintings opened at National Art Museum of China(NAMOC) on the afternoon of December 25, 2012.

The exhibition is an all-round show of the artistic exploration and practice achievements Mr. Zhao Hongfu has made during his fifty years of watercolor creation. The over forty pieces of watercolor works on exhibition are rooted in homeland and embody the Oriental culture on the one hand, and on the other, they also possess some modern taste, thus directing people to the poetic, ethereal artistic conception.

Mr. Zhao Hongfu, known as the “the poet of landscape”, is a master of watercolor painting. Born in Nanyang in 1935, Henan Province, Mr. Zhao is currently a member of the Chinese Watercolor Art Committee, member of Artists Association of Henan Province, Chairman of Watercolor Research Society of Zhengzhou City, and Associate Professor in School of Architecture at Zhengzhou University.

He embarked on the road of art creation in 1957 when he finished the first watercolor landscape painting, and still keep sketching and painting at an old age. Mr. Zhao Hongfu has devoted all his energies for more than half a century into the creation and teaching of the lifelong-love watercolor painting. He has made fruitful achievements and educated a great many students.

Mr. Zhao specializes in watercolor wet painting. While stressing rhythmic vitality, he also believes that watercolor creation is “water operation”, that is, the use of large amounts of water could show the ink flavor of the rice paper on watercolor paper, as shown in “Drawing water”, “Thousands of years”, “Soul of Taihang” and “Guarding” on this exhibition.

Sometimes, Mr. Zhao will add a modern color to the traditional approaches. His color is often not the true color, but the one that the painter feels fit for certain emotions. The light and shadow of external color is compressed to the limit, while the use and organization of color tones and lumps rise to a dominant position. The painting is bright and eye-catching. The unique personality style evolving from the oriental aesthetics obtains its new interpretation in his works such as “Autumn” and “Lonely Valley of Taihang Mountain”.

Mr. Zhao’s “hometown series” masterpiece show the poetic landscapes at hometown and display a long scroll of people’s happy life.

“Yellow River Beach” in Mr. Zhao’s “Country Series” is both realistic and contemporary and adopts the splash-ink technique in Chinese painting. Century-old trees are well arranged and magnificent, and it seems that the work was accomplished at one go.

“Image Series” are the achievements of Mr. Zhao’s attempts during the past decade, and these works are divided into winds, seas, dreams and hometowns these four major themes. His work “Heaven” in this exhibition has the deep tones of Prussian blue and ultramarine. It is like a thousand-foot cliff overwhelming with irresistible force. A variety of expression techniques such as “splash-ink”, “piled-ink” in traditional Chinese painting are used on watercolor paper.

Mr. Zhao’s landscapes are filled with romance and passion, and perhaps the vicissitudes of that generation have determined his pursuit of dreams and better things. Setbacks can make people depressed, or make them more exhilarating.