Pingtan, the closest place on the Chinese mainland to the island of Taiwan and one of China's only two state-approved international tourism islands, also known as 岚(Lan) Island for the mist lingering over its mountains, kicked off the Spring of Lan Island art exhibition at the end of February 2026. The exhibition features 145 artworks including traditional Chinese painting, oil painting, watercolor and sand painting, all depicting the scenery, customs and contemporary vibe of the island with diverse strokes.

Sun Jianqing, chairman of the Pingtan Artists Association, engages with visitors, sharing the stories behind the works at the exhibition. He notes the exhibition covers various themes like Pingtan's landscapes, seasonal flowers and contemporary figures. The works by artists from Taiwan stand out as a unique highlight, capturing the scenery on both sides of the Taiwan Straits with paintbrushes.

Stone House-Weng Tengfei

One standout work is Stone House by Weng Tengfei, a son-in-law of Pingtan who majored in design and goes sketching every week out of pure love for art. "This work features the distinctive stone house architecture. I want to express the texture of stone houses and the sea — the juxtaposition between hard and soft — and the quiet life of island families hidden within the scene," Weng says.

Lin Dongxiu's Happy Fishermen catches visitors' eyes with a simple rural scene of a fish basket and dried fish in a yard, brimming with life. "The simple scene touched me deeply when I passed by the yard," Lin says, adding that art comes from life and continuous observation, experience and sketching are essential to creating a meaningful work for art lovers.

In contrast to the realism of Happy Fishermen, Zhou Erfei's Lonely Shadow in Snowy Forest is a work of imagination. As an  island of southern China that rarely sees snow, Pingtan is reimagined as the backdrop for a snowy forest and a lone bird, rendered using the negative space technique. "We rarely see snow in the south, but painting is not just about realism, but also imagination," Zhou explains, saying the lone bird in the painting is an impromptu creation of a bird keeping warm in winter, a touch evoking quiet endurance during the season, while the use of negative space highlights the artistic mood of winter.

Sun Jianqing speaks highly of Zhou Erfei's growth from referencing the works of great masters to forging his own creation, praising Lonely Shadow in Snowy Forest for its exquisite brushwork, vivid bird feathers and the vast, vibrant artistic conception of the snow scene crafted by negative space. He also mentions 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of the construction of Pingtan International Tourism Island, and the Pingtan Artists Association will co-host a poetry, calligraphy and painting exhibition with the Writers Association and the Folk Literature and Art Association to tell Pingtan's stories with high-quality works.

The free art exhibition runs until March 10, 2026.

Wind Sweeps the Boundless Plain-Wu Kebao

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 下一页
• 全文阅读