Qi Baishi was a Chinese painter whose long life and career extended from the mid 19th to mid 20th centuries.
When he was young his frailty made him incapable of working the lands of his family farm and he was permitted to apprentice to a carpenter. He went on into cabinet making and carving and upon discovering The Mustard Seed Garden, the traditional manual of Chinese painting, determined to achieve a mastery of painting. He studied traditional techniques for many years and at the age of 40 began to develop the style for which he would be known in his mature career.
His early work, which I like a lot, is more like traditional Chinese landscape painting, his mature style was a turn on the schools that emphasized the portrayal of simple small bits of nature rather than grand landscapes. He combined that ink painting style with modern colors and is renowned for his deceptively simple, colorful and intimate portrayals of flowers, insects, vegetables and grass blades.
