Characteristics of Li Kuchan's Works

Li Kuchan inherited the tradition of Chinese painting and absorbed the techniques of Shi Tao, Badashanren, Yangzhou School of Painting, Wu Changshuo and Qi Baishi. And he is very distinctive in freehand brushwork of flowers and birds. There is a magnificent and vivid style, which sets up a new look of freehand flower-and-bird painting. Li Kuchan has created many artistic images with his own aesthetics and expressive techniques. Li Kuchan's flower-and-bird paintings have some realistic elements. It is not an objective description of natural objects, but a concise creation. Simplicity is contained in randomness, and masculinity is contained in nature. The bigger the picture of Li Kuchan, the freer it is. Li Kuchan's works in his later years reached the artistic realm of "simplicity and complexity".

"Big" is a remarkable feature of Li Kuchan's paintings. For example, the huge Summer Map (Lotus Map) is made up of four pieces of rice paper, covering an area of 22.04 square meters. Flowers like pots, leaves like covers, stems like arms, blooming lotus flowers, rocks and waterfowl form a huge picture. Another example is "Ink Bamboo Map": it is a huge picture made up of three and two pieces of rice paper. Li Kuchan likes to use heavy ink in his paintings, making good use of splash ink, Jiao Mo and ink painting, and using big strokes and small works. When talking about pen and ink, Li Kuchan said: "Ink should be thick to look good. Color should also be used as ink, no matter red or green, it can be divided into five colors. For example, the work "Golden Street Map" is dignified and unique. China's traditional freehand brushwork painting has fewer levels of scenery, mainly one or two levels. (right atlas) Li Kuchan applied the horizontal and high methods of landscape painting to flower-and-bird painting, which can reach the third and fourth levels. Li Kuchan uses the shades of ink and wash, the warmth and coldness of colors, and the alternation of black and white to increase the layering of the picture and push the viewer's sight and feeling into the distance layer by layer. For example, in "Summer Map", the first floor is close to the shore and colored with light ochre. The second layer is to draw Zi Qi and aquatic plants with lines and thick ink, and the third layer is to draw lotus leaves with light ink and lotus flowers with red. The fourth layer is the boulder and waterfowl in the painting, and the fifth layer is the lotus behind the world, step by step. Li Kuchan's painting realm is simple and naive. For example, "Land of Green Rain and Clear Bamboo" depicts that under the banana leaves after the rain, several cormorants look around and stop on the thick and quaint boulder, enjoying the fresh air after the rain. The cormorant's head and neck are painted scarlet, and the round eyes make the waterfowl look energetic. Describe the surrounding scenery around the theme and point out the living environment of cormorants. Pen and ink are natural, unpretentious, simple in color and simple in shape. Another example is "Sage Egret", which depicts an egret resting in nature with the water town in the south of the Yangtze River as the background. Li Kuchan painted taro leaves and egrets with simple and heavy ink, and outlined Ye Jin and aquatic plants with lines. It shows the natural wildness of Jiangnan. In the picture of "Lotus Pond Kingfisher", a kingfisher flies over the lotus leaf gently brushed by the breeze, and the dew drops bit by bit, which is full of vitality among the residual leaves of the lotus pond.

Li Kuchan's painting materials are unique. He often paints with pine, bamboo, plum, orchid, chrysanthemum, stone, lotus, starling, cormorant and eagle as themes. For example, the picture "Teach a child to learn to fly" depicts an eagle chick attached to its back, eager to fly. Square eyes and axe-shaped sharp mouth emphasize the relativity between eagle and chicken. The overall modeling of oblique triangle, the overall dynamics of flying upwards. Li Kuchan painted eagles are mostly "static" eagles, mostly squatting. For example, in Song Yingtu, several eagles are standing on the top of the mountain, ready to set off.