Boating along Mountain Rivers

In this dramatic painting, the contemporary Hong Kongbased artist Fang Zhaoling portrays nature in an imaginative and grand manner using a grittier, more expressive approach to atmospheric efforts. She deviates from standard conventions of Chinese landscape and creates bold patterns that suggest natural forms, rather than sketching more directly from nature.

Forms of giant boulders are exaggerated by bold, irregular frames and quickly colored with bluish-gray washes. A few bushes and mountain villages are randomly framed by rocks or hidden behind water lines. In the lower part of the river, a group of people on boats enlivens the mountain scene, forming a contrast with the lone man boating in solitude seen in traditional landscapes.