Zhou Haige

Born in Nanjing, China, Haige pursued his academic life in fine arts graduating at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in 1983. Haige has developed a distinctive style as a Chinese watercolour artist; painting a range of themes, varying from a noisy scene of fish in the water to a silent moonlit scene of a lake in China. Through using Western mediums and techniques in collaboration with Chinese subject matters, Haige celebrates his Chinese identity and offers a new perspective to Eastern art. In his paintings he embraces different themes and captures the essence of the view. This can be viewed as the epitome of Chinese art as rather than producing a naturalistic image he reproduces the spirit of the scene.

Haige captures the true feeling and quintessence in his watercolours as he uses bold colouring and conforms to modern Eastern art. In many of his paintings Haige uses vibrant colours, like in his Bay in the evening glow, where he uses a variety of vivacious and bright colours. He projects the mood of the scene through the selection of colours, whereas he uses yellow, red and orange to depict the sunlight and summer scene here, he uses greys and blues to capture the rainy dark scene in the Spring rain.

Haige encapsulates the new age in Chinese art through the confidence in his technique, subject matters and approach. He is an artist of the global time, where some aspects of a painting are taken from some areas of the world and others embraced from another. Currently Haige is the associate editor-in-chief and senior editor of Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House and is the executive director of Fine Arts Committee of Jiangsu Educational Society. His works have been exhibited widely both in China and UK including the 20/21 International Art Fair 2008, London.