Wang Hui

Wang Hui, a contemporary painter and calligrapher, inherits the fine traditions since the Song and Yuan dynasties, absorbing strengths and compensating for weaknesses. Her works cover a wide range of subjects, with ingenious compositions, lifelike forms infused with spirit, fresh and elegant beauty, and rich brushwork charm. In creation, she advocates: "Learn from nature and express one's own emotions; unite the self with the object; learn from predecessors for one’s own use, and constantly innovate."
    Her painting technique combines meticulous detail with freehand expression, and integrates realism with abstraction. She excels in depicting the richness and vitality of the floral and avian world, as well as adeptly conveying the artist’s inner feelings and imaginative visions. She emphasizes sketching from life, particularly skilled at portraying small creatures in nature—such as butterflies, mantises, crickets, longhorn beetles, frogs, dragonflies, and wasps—with vivid realism that captivates viewers. She skillfully employs flexible and varied brushwork, combining ink and color, using color to enhance ink and ink to highlight color, integrating Western principles of color harmony into traditional Chinese color schemes to achieve overall balanced contrasts and add rhythmic appeal to her compositions. She accurately captures the dynamic movements of birds and flowers, and conveys fleeting moods through the fusion of scene and emotion. Thus, her depictions of flowers, birds, insects, and fish are exquisitely detailed, lively and colorful, charming and full of delight. Breaking away from the rigid formulas of Ming and Qing dynasty flower-and-bird painting, she created a distinctive style that is fresh,灵妙 (ethereally clever), and appealing to both refined and popular tastes, possessing high aesthetic and collection value.