rtists have to have a sentimental heart to find inspiration from the ordinary. For painter Li Bo, inspiration comes from blue skies, running sheep and lonely shepherds.
Those ordinary pastoral sights are re-imagined in Li’s sprawling Tune Spreading in Pastoral Area series. The paintings feature humans and animals looking away from the viewer while they are swallowed into the sprawling, natural backdrop.
“I arrange the pictures this way to create a feeling of desolation. The big sky and tiny figures emphasize the isolation of such a life,” Li says.
Before developing the series, Li spent considerable time collecting and studying photos about the life of China’s shepherds. Some came from his friends, and others were his own sketches of life in the pastoral parts of Qinghai.
Clear, distant and nostalgic are the three adjectives Li uses to describe his work. But those feelings spring less from his imagination than his childhood memory.
From a young age, Li traveled with his parents to Qinghai’s mountains, rivers and prairies. It was a world closer to nature, where adults danced along to the music of aging cassettes or painted their own interpretations of nature. Li remembers being more than eager to help the adults squeeze out their pigments.
For Li, that happy time was different from the days he has been living in a man-made city. Today, those memories have become a priceless treasure.
As Li grew up and became a professional painter he hopes to record those images on canvas. But few of his attempts could come close to copying those memories: that was when Li turned to imagination.
Li resolved to show what the scenes should be like rather than what they may have actually been like.
“The sunshine penetrates through the white clouds and shines over a vast expanse of grassland. Together, the blue sky and golden land create a perfect picture,” he says.
Apart from his landscapes, Li also paints people, cities and still objects. He has also experimented with more abstract work.
Old Person and Dogs is his portrait series featuring elderly men and women walking with their pets. The portraits give off a feeling of tranquility and peace.
In spite of an early influence from his parents’ friends, famed painters Jing Hansheng and Wei Zhenjiang, Li struggled to enter the world of art. He failed the China Academy of Art’s entrance exams twice. After his second failure, he rented a studio in Beijing to refine his painting technique from 2000 to 2003. But in 2003, he failed again and had to settle for an ordinary school in Shandong province. After graduating in 2006, Li took an advertising job in Shanghai.
Li never gave up his dream though, and in 2008 he was finally admitted to the China Academy of Art. After graduating, he settled down in Hangzhou to pursue his work.
His newest series, Words about City and Memory about City, record the experience of shuttling between Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shandong. While the paintings are complete, their descriptions remain in development.
“Written descriptions are very important because they will directly influence a viewer’s first impression of the picture,” he says.
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