Qi Baishi - Settling Down

Settling Down

After all of Baishi’s travels he built a house and settled down. He began reading and writing poetry and painting from some of the mountains he saw while he was traveling. The paintings that were a result of this became a series of fifty landscape pictures known as “Chieh-shan t’u-chuan.” Later, these paintings got poems and postscripts printed on them from artists that Baishi knew (Boorman & Howard p. 302-304). One of Baishi’s earlier series of works that was called “The Carp” was noticed and praised because of the simple style that contained no excess decorations or writings. His work was also praised because of his noticeable talent with wood-carving and all of his personal influences expressed on and threw this work. It wasn’t until Baishi was in his mid-fifties that he was considered a mature painter. As a mature painter, his lines were sharper and the subject matter changed from an animal-life base to a more plant life base in his works of art. As said by Wang Chao-Wen, “he based his work on reality while experimenting ceaselessly in new ways of expression, to integrate truth and beauty, create something yet unimagined by other artists, and achieve his own unique style, on that should not be artificial” (p. 127).