Realist paintings have retained their strong vitality from naissance till today, and this vitality is spurred by always drawing inspiration from the ever-changing real life, taking objective images and phenomena as the prototype of art creation, refusing to simply copy, artistically reproducing the nature perceived by each individual artist to reflect their true feelings and innovative ideas while conveying the echoes of the times. Formative techniques are involved in realist paintings, and oil painter need to have the capability of grasping and reproducing the images and applying the right colors and lights in their works. Formative and coloring techniques can be embodied through a variety of approaches, which is especially true in today's world of diversified art forms. Hence, realist paintings should not be restricted to a certain traditional style, and varying genres should be encouraged. Speaking of the status quo of Chinese oil paintings, what we commonly know are classical realism of the academia genre, local realism based on landscape sketching of the countryside, super realism of photography, expressive or symbolic realism which gives full play to subjective imagination, etc. These genres all have their own particular emphasis in the choice of subject matters and techniques of expression and all boast their own artistic values and significance. However, regardless of the changes in subject matters and techniques of expression, the benchmark of evaluating art works remains the same: The works should convey sincere and not false feelings; the artistic quality should be purified and not degraded; the works should manifest cultural connotation, the pursuit of innovation and the modern spirit.
　　When appreciating the realist works of Zhanshan, my intuitive impression is that he has created a unique “bright-colored artistic style”. This is not only because of the strong, bright and pure colors he applies, but also because the people and landscape in his paintings are rustic, peaceful and lucid. This artistic style is best exhibited in his recent creation ---- the “red series”.
　　As an artist born and nurtured in Baiyangdian, a water town in North China, Zhanshan feels so emotionally attached to the familiar countryside where he can trace the beautiful memories of childhood. He loves the simple and kind people and natural scenery, especially after experiencing the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life. The stark contrast prompted him to return to the countryside to breathe the fresh air, enjoy the bright sunshine and paint the things that he has known for years: the fields, mountains, local folks, animals, plants, sunshine and water… In his paintings, the people are not distorted by modern life and the landscape is not polluted by industrialization. For at this time, he has the unique vision of an artist trained in art academy.
　　The question lies before every artist: Which art genre is to be followed? What artistic approaches are to be adopted?
　　Two choices lay before Zhanshan upon his graduation from the art academy: To apply and polish the techniques of classical realism learned and become a realist painter of the academia genre; or, to apply the formative techniques learned in painting the familiar countryside and be an realist painter sketching the landscape of the countryside and nature. After much consideration regarding his own interest and potential, Zhanshan decided to follow the latter artistic journey. For him, what is more important is to observe with his own eyes, experience life and create art by capitalizing on the formative techniques learned, his imagination and self-cultivation. The process of establishing his own style of realist painting very much resembles that of a man walking into the art circle while holding the stick of academic background, and then throwing it away to walk on his own. During that process, he was bold and wise enough to have found new approaches to his desired objectives. In other words, he not only made perfect use of the formative techniques acquired through absorption and reformation, he was constantly summing up his real-life experience, knowledge and artistic accomplishments attained from extensive practice, polishing and improving his artistic language. Thus, his paintings not only reflect his innermost feelings for the reality that he has seen and experience, but also his metaphysical thinking on the universe and the nature. In his works, Zhanshan depicts the rural landscape as he sees it, never attempting to deliberately beautify or idealize it. Of course, every artist has his own preferences and choices. And Zhanshan is more attracted to countryside scenery with brilliant colors and much sunshine, yet enchantingly pure. His paintings give expression to his love for nature, the purity of rural folks, and the great expanse and brightness of the landscape. All these make him feel the poetic beauty and the inner strength. His focus is not just on details and the vitality, but on making them an integrated piece of art. And in this respect, he is a master. All his poetic paintings exhibit an abundance of lines, texture, lighting and colors harmoniously integrated against a clear, pure and open background.
　　Needless to say, only an artist with a broad vision and poetic passion can create such works. Through his works, we can feel his love for nature and his call for us humans to cherish the gifts bestowed by nature, and to treasure the value and great significance of the harmony between man and nature. He once put it this way, “I have been tirelessly painting rural fields, farmers and the land for the past twenty years. This is not just out of my never-ceasing love of the countryside, but also out of my concern for the society as an urbanite… My sincere hope is to paint shiny works with strokes of pure colors, helping to soothe the tired and remind people to revive their love for nature and Mother Earth.” Hence, we can trace his unique personality in his oil paintings.
　　While reaping fruits of his art creation, Zhanshan started thinking of new issues: How to avoid repetition and scale greater height? How to create new works with a modern touch? How to achieve breakthroughs in the artistic style? Years of unceasing pursuit has enabled him to ultimately present new art works recently ---- the “red series” oil paintings. The series mainly featuring pink is, to some extent, a departure from his former style of realist rural landscape painting. He “painfully” abandoned his original fascination of portrayal of details, the expansive space and rich colors in classical realism paintings and applied flatly painted pink to show the grandeur, dignity and strength of all creatures in nature. In his works, the nature and all creatures, not dominated by man, are “comfortably free”. The holistic view of the grand rural landscape is dotted with livestock with their own value of life… The bright pink and the pure holistic layout are unfamiliar yet original, making his works a genuine visual feast, and inspiring people through highly refined art form. During the process of art creation, Zhanshan has been able to shrug off the restraints of traditional techniques applied in realist oil painting, and experience new passion, joy and freedom. His works have thus shifted style from realism to expressionism, enabling the artist to better convey his subjective creative ideas and philosophy. Such a bold choice is, needless to say, a thought-out decision after he delved deep into issues like how to give realist paintings a modern touch, how to get in line with people’s new aesthetic tastes and how to adapt to new exhibition venues, etc. In essence, his works are a continuation of his deep love for the countryside and the nature as exhibited previous realist rural landscape paintings. By using more modern approaches, Zhanshan gives his paintings a flavor of contemporary culture. In this sense, the “red series” is a new breakthrough based on his past success. Zhanshan, as an insightful artist, clearly understands that in the eco-garden of oil painting, a style can take root and grow more dazzling as long as it has its own unique aesthetic values and artistic tastes. And the responsibility of each artist is to sow and cultivate on his own piece of land, where fruitful results are promised.
　　The “red series” sweeps us away with its novel artistic form and intrinsic spirit, winning Zhanshan widespread acclaim. Of course, accompanied with the huge success come new issues to be resolved: How to convey the profound cultural connotation in the simple language of painting strokes? How to avoid potential duplication and monotony ? How to avoid possible emptiness when portraying the grandeur and strength of the landscape? … I firmly believe that Zhanshan, as an artist keen on thinking and practice, can gracefully face up to these new challenges, continuously explore new horizons and present new works.