Protect Our Environment

According to its inscription, this painting is one of a series of works on the theme of environmental protection. The artist presents an idealized village life on a farmland with rows of groves in the background. Happy villagers stand in lively, welcoming poses in a prosperous place. The artist uses soft, casual strokes and bright, flat colors to create a naive presentation of the rural world as if through a child’s vision, which is the most natural and uncontaminated.

Born in the famous scenic city of Wuxi, Jiangsu province, Fang Zhaoling first studied painting with the conservative artist Qian Songyan (1899–1985). She later studied with Chao Shao-an, one of the leading masters of the Lingnan school in Canton and Hong Kong. Fang left China after 1949 and studied in England and the United States before settling in Hong Kong. This work offers a vivid example of this female artist’s involvement in contemporary themes in the manner of Chinese ink painting.