The Spirit of Freehand Brushwork
<< When I am painting, I hope to reinforce the images if tigers in people’s mind, which can serve as a reminder of the importance of protecting animals >>
Yao Shaohua, one of China‘s top artists, is conveying his deep understanding of his rich life experience in his unique tiger paintings. Yao’s tigers, which are depicted with powerful strokes, are seen as a symbol of people’s strong inner world. He showcases all his energy and talent through his works and has created a new spectacular style of tiger painting featuring Chinese favor.
The essence of Yao’s tigers is about courage and power, the characteristics of Chinese nation. During an interview, Yao shared his concern about endangered spices: “Although I am not familiar with other spices, I know a lot about tigers, Asian tigers in particular,” he said. “In the early days of last century, due to the surging of population on Bali Island, the habitat of tigers were converted to fields. What’s worse, they were slaughtered by man-made factors and sold to Europe. During the World War II, not a single tiger could be found on the island because the last one had been killed on Sep. 27, 1937. The massacre of Caspian tigers were not banned until the 1960s to 1970s and they went to extinct in the 1980s. The tigers in Java died out in the 1980s. South China Tigers are listed as one of the endangered species and now can only be seen in zoos.”