Qian Tieshi, 2016, Westward Journey, people and pack animals carrying red, yellow, green and blue loads in a procession beneath a broad grey-white field

Westward Journey by Qian Tieshi - mounted rider and two horses detail

Westward Journey by Qian Tieshi - caravan and brushwork detail

Westward Journey by Qian Tieshi - warm earth-tone terrain detail

Westward Journey by Qian Tieshi - western terrain and movement detail

Westward Journey by Qian Tieshi - surface and signature detail

Emerging

Westward Journey

Name: Westward Journey
Brand: Paint For Heart
Price: 2715.0 SGD
Availability: InStock

Artist Qian Tieshi

Creation Date 2016

Material Oil on canvas

Size 90 × 60 cm

Category original

Make this artwork part of your collection Available

Current total $2,715.00

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Perspectives

A closer look

Artwork Notes

Art appreciation

The procession runs from the lower right towards the left. The backs of several pack animals form an uneven horizontal rhythm, interrupted by upright human figures. At the left, a red-and-black figure beside a pale animal head gives the crowded group a more legible beginning. Bodies overlap, and bright packs or tack distinguish one unit from the next. Because the group occupies so little of the total height, the surrounding terrain seems extensive.

Black-brown, deep blue and grey blocks construct the figures and animals, often disappearing beneath encroaching white paint. Red, yellow, green and blue loads function as beats within the dark line. Legs are reduced to a few downward or forward strokes, yet their angles still imply burdened walking. Long horizontal drags build the pale upper field, allowing violet, light blue and earth tones to show beneath. Dense bodies and open ground are contrasted through both colour and handling.

Qian Tieshi made repeated painting trips to Tibet and developed an imagistic oil language combining Impressionist colour, Chinese freehand practice and rugged form. The decision to reduce the travellers to a narrow band follows from that experience. Long movement is communicated through formation, load, pace and the scale of the environment rather than facial detail. A small number of dark masses hold the bodies, while the long file of figures, repeated steps and loads carried across open ground make the journey feel extended and demanding.

Theme

Style and context

Long-distance travel is a longstanding subject in figurative and animal painting. Formation, load and the relative size of travellers against their surroundings can communicate a journey more directly than individual faces. Westward Journey follows this approach, joining people and pack animals into a low, sustained procession while the title supplies a concise direction.

The work is expressive figurative painting informed by the Chinese freehand emphasis on summary and rhythm. People, animals and bundles remain recognisable, although their contours repeatedly break within impasto. The dense dark procession and broad pale field work together, allowing the slow pressure of laden movement to emerge from composition and paint.

Artist Profile

About the artist

Qian Tieshi was born in Kaiyuan, Liaoning Province, in 1964 and is now based in Shenzhen. He graduated in 1990 from the Department of Design and Modeling at Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, then worked in art education and oil painting from 1990 to 2002. He is a member of the Guangdong Artists Association and serves as vice chairman of the Hong Kong International Chinese Calligraphers and Painters Association.

His practice centers on what he describes as searching for oil painting between likeness and unlikeness. Qian developed an imagistic oil-painting language that combines Western impressionist color, the expressive spirit of Chinese freehand painting, and a broad, forceful treatment of form. From 2002 to 2006 he made repeated field trips to Tibet, creating western-region subjects while also studying Chen-style taiji and bringing its sense of movement and inner rhythm into his painting.

His works have been selected for national and provincial exhibitions, including New Artists and New Works, Guangdong Artists Association anniversary exhibitions, and Shenzhen’s Pengcheng Autumn Art Exhibition, where Tibetan Wind received an excellence award.

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