Liu Guo expresses tranquility in paper

Liu Guo expresses tranquility in paper

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

People say paintings helps ones release stress and tension. Try
to see landscape paintings from Chinese artist Liu Guo which are
on display at the Crowne Plaza hotel on Jl. Gatot Subroto,
Central Jakarta, from May 20 to May 29.

Unlike modern people's lifestyles which are colored with
hustle and bustle, noise, pollution, smog, distractions, mental
burn-outs, Liu portrays a perfect resting place which mixes all
coveted qualities into a single landscape.

Tranquility. Serenity. Beauty. Vitality. All are recorded and
mixed through Liu's poetic brushwork in his paintings creating a
perfect portrait of the natural vista.

Instead of oil and canvas, Liu uses Chinese ink and paper in
his works displayed at the Spirit Art of China exhibition
organized by Vanessa art house.

In Zhangbai Forest, Liu depicts a panorama of green pine
forest divided by a river with clear and thawing water. From a
distance, a waterfall is seen amid the beauty of snowy mountains.
Two small deer, almost unseen, are drinking from the river.

Liu appears to be fond of using foggy scenery to highlight the
poetic tone in his paintings, like in his Trees in the Rain and
Dazzling Spring Light.

The strongest impression recorded in his paintings maybe an
unpretentious expression of simplicity which belongs to a little
child who is fascinated by a simple and nice view.

"My paintings reflect all memories dated back since my
childhood while enjoying nice scenery at the valley of
Zhangbaishan mountains," Liu said.

His obsession with natural scenery can be seen in most of his
paintings which take nature as its muse. Mountains, forests,
waterfalls, valleys and lakes are depicted in a style that
immerses any viewer in the power of nature.

The obsession even prompts him to create a remarkable
masterpiece of a 60-meter long scroll painting which portrays his
hometown. The painting, titled The Majesty of Zhangbaishan, took
him 10 years to complete!

Liu Guo alias Peng Seng was born in 1956 in Fuyi, Jilin
Province in China. He began painting at just six years of age. At
10, he obtained a permit to paint several portraits of Mao Ze
Dong.

He studied at the Department of Fine Arts at the Northeastern
University in 1980 and continued his study at the Art Academy of
China.

Besides producing more than 2,000 paintings, Liu has also
written books and articles on art, including New Techniques in
Chinese Landscape Painting.

However, attending Liu's solo painting exhibition will
disappoint those who want to see prints and traces stemming from
the richness of Chinese contemporary paintings.

Different from his contemporary Chinese painters, many of whom
experiment with a wide-range of images -- like Lu Lin of Beijing
who experimented with grinning mouths and eyes without any single
face in his Universal Great Joy or Yue Minjun of Beijing who
depicts laughing people flying in his Floating Clouds -- Liu
prefers nature as his inspiration.

"Nature is inseparable from our life. But now, nature grows
distant as it has been destroyed by human's reckless hands. That
really concerns me," he said.

"It is my mission to share the memory of eternal beauty of
nature with other people as memory cannot be robbed by anybody."

The father of two said the major difference in the style of
Chinese and Indonesian landscape paintings was the colors used.

"Indonesian landscape paintings tend to be colorful. It
results mainly from the country's tropical climate which brings
into life a wide-ranging variety of flora and fauna than
China's," Liu asserted.

He planned to spend some time in Indonesia to record the
scenery of Indonesian tropical nature.

"Perhaps, I can find new techniques in landscape painting
here," Liu said.

Spirit Art of China;
Crowne Plaza hotel;
Jl. Gatot Subroto Kav. 2-3;
Central Jakarta;
Phone: 5268833;
May 20 - May 29