Unique painting style on show
An exhibition kicked off on Sunday at Qian Xuesen Library and Museum to showcase 30 "coke-ink" landscape paintings by Liu Guoyu, a famous Chinese painter and specially appointed professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Coke-ink painting — which is also referred to as dry-brush painting — uses thick ink that hasn't been diluted with water.
Painters express their emotions using the change of ink color and lines, as well as their painting speed and pressure applied to the brush, which requires highly skilled painting techniques.
Born in Guangdong in 1942, Liu has been dedicated to the painting style for 30 years and helped develop it into an independent painting category.
Liu believes that coke-ink painting has inherited and carried forward the essence of traditional Chinese painting: "the simplest colors, black and white, are the most beautiful colors in the world."
His paintings focus mainly on mountains and bodies of water in his hometown.
The exhibition is free to the public and will run until November 15.
A visitor looks at the exhibited paintings by Liu Guoyu at the Qian Xuesen Library and Museum.
