Qi Baishi is a master of painting in modern China and a world cultural celebrity. He worked as a carpenter in his early years, then made a living by selling paintings, and settled in Beijing after he was 57 years old. He is good at painting flowers and birds, insects and fish, landscapes and figures. His pen and ink are vigorous and moist, with rich and bright colors, concise and vivid shapes and simple artistic conception. The fish, shrimp, worms and crabs are full of fun.
Qi Baishi's calligrapher, Zhuanli, took the method from the tablets of Qin and Han Dynasties. His calligraphy spared Gu Zhuo's interest, and his seal cutting became his own and he was good at writing poems. He used to be honorary professor of Central Academy of Fine Arts and chairman of China Artists Association. His representative works include Frog Rang Ten Miles Out of the Mountain Spring and Ink Shrimp. He is the author of "White Stone Poetry" and "White Stone Old Man's Self-report".
Qi Baishi was greatly influenced by Chen Shiceng in painting art, and inherited Xu Wei, Zhu Da, Yangzhou Eight Eccentrics and Wu Changshuo in freehand flower-and-bird painting, which has profound traditional cultural skills. He specializes in flowers and birds, and his pen is full of ink. But painting insects is meticulous and extremely fine.
He also praised Xu Wei, Zhu Da, Shi Tao and Jin Nong. Especially shrimps and crabs, cicadas, butterflies, fish and birds, are dripping with ink and full of the vibrant atmosphere of nature. The landscape composition is strange and unconventional, full of creative spirit, unique in seal cutting, and outstanding in calligraphy, which is well known to everyone.
Qi Baishi's paintings are against unrealistic dreams. He often pays attention to the characteristics of flowers, birds, insects and fish and imitates their spirits. He once said: To paint a picture of thousands of insects, to be a god for hundreds of birds, and to' paint your own face'. His sentences are very witty and clever. The two chickens he painted competed for a bug, and the title said, "We will call each other tomorrow.". A picture of cotton reads: "Flowers are warm in the world, but flowers are cold in the world".
The title of the "Tumbler Map" reads: "Autumn fans shake with white on both sides, and the official robes are clearly covered in black". He introduced mice, oil lamps, abacus, hoes, firewood rakes, etc. into the paintings, and revealed the simplicity of farmers, childlike innocence, sincere love and hate, which broke the traditional stereotype that bamboo painting means "modesty" and orchid painting means "fragrance".
He wrote a poem on a picture of Go in the Bamboo Academy, saying, "Let's get together among thousands of bamboos, and let the sun, the moon and the rain turn to leisure. Laughing at Nong is better than Lin Hejing, except that we can play chess and waste." Put chess and picking shit together.