Mr. Li Xiongcai is a master of the painting school, and his brilliant achievements in painting are well known to everyone. In terms of calligraphy, his achievements in calligraphy are equally outstanding, but his "book title is overshadowed by the name of his painting." Because the name of his painting is more popular, his calligraphy achievements have not received sufficient attention, attention and publicity in the past. Mr. Li Xiongcai's calligraphy attainments are first reflected in his profound understanding of the relationship between calligraphy and painting. In his private notes, he repeatedly emphasized the role of calligraphy rules in painting creation. He emphasized that painting should absorb the essence of calligraphy in terms of writing, movement, and methods of various schools, as well as the expressive spirit of calligraphy. This is his understanding of the relationship between calligraphy and painting. He not only proposed it in his personal notes, but also showed his creative views in his paintings.
The pen and ink and lines in his paintings always reveal his profound calligraphy skills, and the rich charm of pen and ink is everywhere revealed. A characteristic of his paintings is that they are often accompanied by long inscriptions. On the one hand, these inscriptions can help viewers understand the painter's creative ideas, and on the other hand, they can also cooperate with the management and layout of the picture, so that painting, calligraphy, and literature complement each other in the picture scroll, showing a strong cultural flavor and connotation. Mr. Li Xiongcai's high attainments in calligraphy are also reflected in his understanding of calligraphy. He used a notebook called "Collection of Calligraphy Notes" to summarize and select calligraphy treatises from past dynasties. There are many calligraphy treatises in the past dynasties, but he did not include them all, but made selections based on his own understanding. This selection reflects his personal and collective knowledge and understanding of the art of calligraphy as a whole.
In his works, whether they are inscriptions or independent works, we can see heavy traces of copying the ancients. This is especially obvious in the works of his youth. It can be seen from these traces that his regular script was copied from Zhong Yao, his official script was a direct copy of the Han Dynasty stele, and his Zhang Cao was a copy of the imperial elephant, and his achievements were quite high. When he was young, he was also influenced by Gao Jian's father Gu Teng Ti. In his later paintings, this kind of interest was relatively rare, but traces can still be seen in his large-character calligraphy works in his later years.
By appreciating his calligraphy works, we will find that he has a relatively good grasp of each calligraphy method, and has a unique grasp of each calligraphy style, brushwork, spirit and charm. His regular script creations often express Zhong Yao's style of being casual and elegant in ancient times, while his long grass writings also show a lively and natural atmosphere in terms of thickness. In his later years, his large-character calligraphy creations often experienced ups and downs, showing strong and heroic momentum.
Mr. Li Xiongcai’s calligraphy has a broad approach. Because of his broad strokes, he can always create calligraphy according to different paintings, different scenes, and different needs, and he can respond to it freely, so that the calligraphy and painting styles can match and complement each other. This shows that he has a very high level of creation and artistic accomplishment, which is what many young painters in modern times lack. After a painting is completed, if the artist just signs it, the expression will be very limited and the cultural atmosphere of Chinese painting cannot be fully demonstrated. Mr. Li Xiongcai, however, was able to distinguish the different characteristics and advantages of Chinese painting and Western painting and carry them forward. Whether it is study, research or creation, Mr. Li's approach has given us a lot of useful inspiration and is worth promoting.