Meanwhile, Shang Hui, the exhibition's curator and a critic with the China Artists Association, says the other paintings on show are half realistic and half imagined, drawn from Shi's impressions of the grand views ranging from the north to south and west to east of the country.

"His vocabulary of art is also built on his long-term studies of the approaches of ancient landscape painters, especially those living in the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, the periods when Chinese landscape painting achieved great momentum," Shang says.

He says Shi's work is a blending of the views and atmospheres of these famed natural destinations, such as the Zhongnan Mountains, Huashan Mountain and Taihang Mountains, which have been revisited by generations of Chinese painters; and he is able to infuse tradition and modern aesthetics into his brushwork, lending it depth, grace and refinement.

Shi has taken short-term courses in Chinese painting at the Chinese National Academy of Arts several times, receiving instruction from noted artists, including Long Rui and Zeng Laide. "They pay great attention to learning to become a consummate artist in painting, calligraphy and literature.

"The best lesson I have learned from my teachers is that the essence of art is not the techniques," Shi says, "but the scope of learning and wisdom, and morality and understanding of responsibilities as a person and as an artist."

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