ShuQiao Zhou is a premier artist and I am honored to have been asked to write this short introduction. As president of the California Art Club (est. 1909) I am delighted that our organization has attracted some of the finest, trained artists of China to join our ranks. ShuQiao Zhou is certainly one of the finest. He is most highly revered by all of our artists in the CAC for his portraiture, his story-telling ability, and his flawless technical skills. His paintings of China village scenes have a wonderful feeling of outdoor light mixed with a love of people caught in the wholesome activities of everyday life.

He is a prolific painter like the German artist, Adolph von Menzel (1815 - 1905), he cannot stop painting, and paints everything he sees; still lifes, landscapes, nudes, genre and people. At a recent event at Mission San Juan Capistrano when we had a half hour to spare, Zhou whipped out a portrait of my wife Elaine – a portrait that we cherish. Since joining the CAC in 2000, Zhou has won many of our top awards and has introduced to our Western artists the high standard of techniques he learned in the 1960s and 1970 as a student at the Guang Zhou Institute of Fine Art and later as lead artist and vice chairman at the Guang Zhou Art Academy.

He has inspired a younger generation of artists to new heights. Furthermore, he has reinvigorated California art with his knowledge, his passion and his dedication to hard work. For this we are truly thankful.

Peter Adam
President, California Art Club

Truth without Regret

This is an artist with an intense sense of history.

This is also a man who has weathered the tribulations of a unique era.

In the early years of his career, Shuqiao Zhou committed himself wholeheartedly to the creation of epic works. He knew how to blend the art and important political events together with elegance. It is because of his exceptional talent that he has achieved great success. He never toyed with his paintings, each was derived from an original idea. We can say that early on he understood what creativity is, and what it means to be a mature artist.

Throughout his career, Zhou was fortunate enough to secure posts that afforded him the opportunity to paint. Zhou excelled in the City of Guang Zhou, a fertile colony nurturing many artists. With many opportunities to practice his arts, Zhou’s unremitting improvement drove him with the desire to paint even more. As the years passed, more and more of his fine paintings were selected for exhibition and publication.

I could visualize the difficulty Zhou faced as I looked through the four albums of note books and sketches that he compiled in years of travel. The volumes are an accumulation of both gain and loss throughout the country, the mountains and across the rivers. His lust of creativity drove him forward.

As an artist, Zhou is steadfastly orthodox. He has never wavered from this attitude, with never a single moment of regret. There are many students who have received professional training from fine art institutes, but how many of them would stay true to their training when they go forth as developing artists? I have great respect for Zhou as an artist for his honesty, loyalty and integrity.

Earnest, refined, abundant, solid! These are the qualities in Zhou’s paintings. His achievement came from a lifetime of hard work, built upon countless notes, drawings and sketches. In epic works one human figure may be rendered with ten poses, each with revisions and refinement; the amount of work multiplied by thousands of portraits paves the path to achievement.

Nowadays many painters are no longer interested in improving their technical skills because they find it difficult, without realizing skills are measured by difficulty. Many who cannot paint have become “theorists” and art teachers. Isn’t that absurd? Zhou knows the great importance of technique. He realizes that it is necessary to go step by step. He continued to study and never ceased pursuing his goal of furthering his technique.

People of our generation have had our moments in our youth, and we squandered our youth and summarily waved it away. We have made our history, and at one time even adhered to our belief with religious fervor. Now really! But then we also had our share of bitterness. We endured poverty, we laughed, we reflected. Now that we are older, we have a clear conscience.

My summary of Shuqiao Zhou: He is truthful, humble, righteous and solemn. Irreproachable in every way, he has left his indelible impression with every step.

Lin Yuang
Vice Chairman, China Art Association
Chairman, China Art Association Guangdong Branch