WORKS ELABORATION:
Cats have soft bodies and hairs, as well as sharp claws and teeth. Many people love the tameness and cuteness of cats, but I love their instinctive savagery. What really moved me was the elusive stray cat on rooftops, in bushes, in dark corners. As night falls, the party of stray cats begins, the love and hatred between them are also staged on the moonlit stage. In terms of the structural relations and color collocation of the picture, I strive to keep the overall form simple and color unity in the rich detail level shaping, and produce subtle color changes in the blue and purple tone, aiming to create a hazy and mysterious artistic conception of the picture under the night.
Cats have been domesticated by humans for thousands of years, but they are never just human pets, but living individuals with independent spirits. This series of works is a group of portrait creations with stray cats. In the creation, I strive to make the painting language more simple and concise, and pay attention to the portrayal of cats’ demeanor. For each work, I have explored different forms of language, absorbed the forms of modern painting, emphasize the overall sense of modeling and color, with the most vivid and refined brush strokes to depict the cats’ manner, formed a more innovative picture language.
TUTOR COMMENT:
Xu Ziqi’s graduation project “IN the Gathering Darkness” and “Cat Portraits” , have novel composition, elegant color, delicate and exquisite artistic expression. Through long-term observation of cats, the cats’ demeanor and nature are endowed with artistic expression, in the form of meticulous-style painting. In this group of works, the shape is condensed, expressive and has a distinct personal appearance. On the basis of inheriting traditional meticulous painting, Xu Ziqi also possesses the spirit of exploration of modern painting language by contemporary young artists. Therefore, her works reflect her deep thinking on artistic creation and her down-to-earth and diligent creative attitude.