Niche Modern Artworks Gallery • Boulder, Colorado: Watercolors by Chen Jialing

I am featuring art by Chen Jialing today. He does modern abstract Chinese style watercolor on rice paper. His art is "fresh" and "cheerful" and "simple".

From Christie's auction house:

Born in Yongkang, Zhejiang in 1937, Chen Jialing graduated from the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1963, studying Chinese paintings under Pan Tianshou (1897-1971). He later became a student under Lu Yanshao (1909-1993), specialising in landscape painting and calligraphy, and taught at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts. Since the 1980s, Chen has explored ways to unite ancient Chinese mural painting and European watercolour painting, resulting in a distinctive style marked by his use of faded, light layers of ink and meticulous lines. In contrast to his soft-hued paintings, as an avid photographer, Chen strives to capture the beauty of nature and the richness of its colours through his camera lens.

He attempts to capture the beauty of nature and the richness of its colors through delicate, sinuous lines and a palette of muted, pastel colors. He draws allusions to classical Chinese genre paintings in his works by adapting similar techniques such as forgoing the illusion of depth and depicting popular genre subjects such as flowers and birds. By nostalgically alluding to the past, Chen Jialing perhaps, is paying homage for the times of the literati when genre paintings flourished and when there existed a great communal sense of poetic appreciation for nature.

And from Artnetworking:

Chen Jialing is a leading figure of "Shanghai's new ink painting". He earned his reputation by using a new technique of applying ink to rice paper. With clean colors and simple images, his works seem to create a soothing effect of misty serenity.

His works convey a brand-new zeitgeist and provide a visual feast.

His works are fresh, elegant and simple. They are different from traditional Chinese paintings. They transport viewers immediately into a world of simplicity and purity.

Sometimes his lines appear almost childishly clumsy, but his works convey a unique aesthetic and the leisurely attitude of the painter. His themes ponder ancient Chinese philosophy.

Chen is fond of painting lotus and landscape. Most of his works reflect a dreamlike world expressing an implicit theme which also protruding the spirit of noble and graceful.