Master of the big picture
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A file picture of Pan Gongkai with his master painter father Pan Tianshou.[Photo Provided to China Daily] |
The ink painter is adept at producing large-size scrolls, with some of them reaching up to 9 meters.
"I usually paint at one go without any corrections. But it is a challenge for me to control the pace when painting a big picture," says Pan.
Explaining his preference for large-scale paintings, Pan says that while on one hand it relates to his way of macro thinking - which can also be seen in his books on art and his design of buildings - on the other hand, it goes with the change in exhibition spaces.
"When art museums are bigger, works to be shown in these spacious rooms must be big enough to achieve a good visual effect," says Pan at his new studio in Beijing, a complex he designed on his own.
The painting room has a high ceiling and is very long.
Pan's studio is more like an art center, with a museum-like exhibition hall, a spacious garden filled with different kinds of trees and a building which looks like a traditional Chinese garden.
Yang Jie, Pan's student and a teacher at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, says Pan is versatile and energetic despite his age.
Pan, Yang says, is now working on the designs of three projects: an art museum, a theater and a campus, all located in Pan's hometown of Ninghai, in Zhejiang province.
The 70-year-old is expected to finish the designs of the three projects on his own before the Spring Festival (in February).
