Artist's Statement

There are more than fifty minorities, most of whom reside in China's wild west: rigid mountains, grassland and desserts. Lack of communications and transportation has largely limited their contact to the highly modernized world and allowed them to conserve their traditions and social customs. In Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, for instance, tribes of Tibetan, Dai, Yi, Bai and Buyi, etc. would often fascinate me with their unique clothes, simple living styles and religious beliefs. These cultural attractions made me pay many visits to these regions. The minorities have become an endless resource for my subject matter paintings. During my visits, I lived with the tribal people, sleeping in their tents, participating in their social activities and religious ceremonies. Doing so, I was able to collect valuable data including many drawings and photos that are a source of inspiration for the creation of large subject matter paintings.

I am in my studio	B orn in Shanghai, China, I acquired a BFA degree in China and a MFA in the United States. In addition to creating subject matter paintings, I specialize in portraiture and landscapes. My versatile styles and skills at still life and in Chinese traditional painting and calligraphy have also won popularity. My primary painting medium is oil. Others are watercolor, acrylic, gouache and Chinese ink. A professional artist, I have been focusing on two types of subject matter paintings::
My studio	1. The Chinese minorities and their indigenous cultures and traditions: There are more than fifty minorities, most of whom reside in China's wild west: rigid mountains, grassland and desserts. Lack of communications and transportation has largely limited their contact to the highly modernized world and allowed them to conserve their traditions and social customs. In Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, for instance, tribes of Tibetan, Dai, Yi, Bai and Buyi, etc. would often fascinate me with their unique clothes, simple living styles and religious beliefs. These cultural attractions made me pay many visits to these regions. The minorities have become an endless resource for my subject matter paintings. During my visits, I lived with the tribal people, sleeping in their tents, participating in their social activities and religious ceremonies. Doing so, I was able to collect valuable data including many drawings and photos that are a source of inspiration for the creation of large subject matter paintings.
My gallery in the house	2. Classical Ballet Dance Another favorite theme is the Western ballet. Like the Western classical music, ballet has been my dream: a perfect combination of visual and performing arts. From the perspective of visual art, ballet shows perfectly the beauty of female body shape representing the classic aesthetic standard. Therefore, it becomes an attractive theme forever for me. I have visited many ballet schools and professional dance studios. Deeply impressed by the hard work of those ballerinas, I understand the proverb which goes "One-minute success on the platform is a result of ten years of hard work." The images of the young dancers are a symbol of purity and beauty, Painting them has become my strong desire and passion. That is why I call these paintings "the soul of dancers."
A portrait demonstration	My painting style developed through three phases: (1) My education of fine arts including normal pre-and post-college studies in China, was strongly influenced by the Russian realistic painting of the 19th century and the Soviet times. The focus was always on life model drawing and painting, studying the combination of color contrast and dark and light values as shown by different brushstrokes. Under professional gallery lighting, this kind of painting produced a realistic and vivid style but lacked delicacy and visual attraction In addition, the subject matter painting, like other media, would often be used for political propaganda in China. Most of my paintings of that period are unfortunately gone.
I met one of my Tibetan models in Lhasa, Tibet.	(2) After I came to the United States, I studied the Western art theories and many original master pieces from the Renaissance to modern ages: I was fascinated by Rembrandt's unique lighting and shading, Velazquez's fluent brushwork, Monet's and Renoir's brilliant coloring, Ruben's and Delacroix's magnificent composition. After that, my paintings looked much brighter and more delicately detailed. I began to pay more attention to composition and local colors. The new style generated a much better visual effect when the paintings were nicely framed and displayed at galleries. At that time, I painted a variety of subjects: ballerinas, portraits , landscape and small Chinese subject matter paintings. They were very well appreciated and collected by people in a great number.
Painting in a snowy day in Colorado	(3) During the second phase of the style transition, the visual effects of my paintings improved significantly. However, they might be just too pretty to express personality, as if they nearly fell into a pattern of commercialization. I asked myself where the early 'spirit of painting' had gone. The 'spirit' had driven me to relentlessly pursue the true art of the first phase. I was eager to have it back. I realized that the key was to balance style and personality. After a trip to Europe, I came to the conclusion that I must follow the model of realism of both Eastern and Western European styles of the 19th century. Specifically, I try to combine the Impressionist colors with the big and rough brushstrokes of Russian realism. I have applied this combination of styles to the two types of subject matter paintings.:
Talking about my art in Lyman Allyn Museum in CT.	The Chinese minorities To represent their strong social and cultural characteristics, I did a few large complex paintings with rich colors and heavy wild brushwork. Heavy, solid and natural images were thus depicted with multi-layer colors. Ballet dance For this subject, I have also done some big size works but with simple compositions and fewer figures. I used delicate brushstrokes and simple palette in order to represent a classical image of the heavenly beauty, peace and harmony.
With customers who commissioned their daughter's portrait that I just finished.	Today, I spend most of my time on those two kinds of theme paintings. There're many challenges: from getting new ideas, drafting and drawing all the way to finishing. I may need years to complete one creation of those paintings. Nonetheless, this is a rigid road for an artist to take a higher standard so as to continuously improve his art and reach greater success. Aside from this hard work, I paint portraits and landscapes occasionally. Portraits, as mostly commissions, are simply to satisfy patrons. Landscape painting is an easy and interesting creation. I paint them for relaxation. I enjoy painting the sea sunrise and sunset as well as the golden New England autumn. I really feel that I express my love of nature from the bottom of my heart in many small landscape paintings.
At the book signing - behind me are the original illustrations	With more and more works winning prizes and collected by the public, I have an increasing feeling that art is more about the level of intellectual and cultural understanding than about the level of technical ability. In other words, a painting is not just composition, perspective, colors and values; it is the interaction of all visual and performing arts including music, dance, film and literature, etc. One can better understand the painting if one understands such connections. That is a serious artist's goal and life mission. That is all I want to say about my art. Of course, paintings themselves should speak better than words. Thank you for visiting my website. If you have any questions, please let me know. (info@chriszhangstudio.com ).

CHRISTOPHER ZHANG STUDIO

1. The Chinese minorities and their indigenous cultures and traditions:

2. Classical Ballet Dance

My painting style developed through three phases:

The Chinese minorities

Ballet dance