"Cricket and Loofah Flowers" Painting

Peiming Lu (陆培明, b. 1947; 号“半眠”, art name lit. "Half-Sleep") is a Chinese Painting artist living in Taicang, Jiangsu, China. He was born right after the World War II in the then extremely destructed China. Peiming grew up in a poor village and only finished elementary school because his family couldn’t afford his education any further. He then started learning Chinese Painting by himself. He loved observing varieties of plants in the countryside, and he would focus on practicing even in the hottest summers, despite the mosquito bites on his legs and the sweat trickling down his back.

Peiming is known for painting peonies. People call him the “Lu Peony”. The composition of his paintings seeks balance from both symmetry and asymmetry of positioning, integrates pointed and slanted use of brushes, and brings out great energy from bright colors. Although most of his paintings are in freehand style (写意), he sometimes combines line-drawing (白描) or Gongbi (工笔) techniques innovatively, creating a layer of simplicity or complexity as needed. Peiming’s style is appreciated for its poetic elegance and the folktale-like straightforwardness.