Tian Guan Ci Fu (天官赐福, Shōki‘s Blessing) Painting

Jiang Zhifeng, a member of the Wild Grass Poetry Society, a member of the China National Art Association and a contracted painter of the Tianjin Painting Academy. In 2019 during Global Ink Painting top 500 Exhibition tour, he won the Most Collectible Potential Emerging Artist Award. A disciple of Ink Painting master He Jiaying and Bai Gengyan, Jiang began his systematic study since he was a teenager. Since then he's explored almost all forms of ink art, and later even gone beyond to the practice of western sketches and oil painting. Over the years, he's gained his own style, and many of the works have been selected for national exhibitions, collected by the National Art Museum of China, China History Museum, Tianjin Museum, Anhui Museum of Culture and History, etc. Beside they also achieved great result at auction houses such as Hanhai, Rongbao, Poly, Dingtian, etc. His works touch upon a wide range of subjects, but he's especially recognized for his painting of figures, from modern females to ancient religion figures, connecting ancient heritage with modern aesthetics. Often, with very simple yet fine, concise lines, he's able to create vivid face expression and formulate touching artistic effect by achieving very elegant body posture. Zhong Kui, in old tradtion, was often seen as both powerful and scary. Yet, under Jiang's brushworks, highly connected with his very own idea and understanding about the ghost catcher, the figure seems not only not at all scary but rather approachable, however strong and mighty. Apart from that, he also likes to mix colors by himself. For example, in this particular Zhong Kui series, the bright scarlet pigment is made of ink, mineral and cinnabar so as to achieve the kind of redness that reflects the spiritual nature of this ancient character . This ink work, as usual, is painted on xuan paper and attached with an underneath protection layer for easy keeping or framing.