Li Bai Reciting Poems while Walking

This embroidery piece was created by Lu Shuxian at the age of 86 based on the work of the well-known painter Liang Kai of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279 AD) who is regarded as one of the earliest painters practicing simple- and free-hand-brushworks in figure painting. With just a few brushworks on an empty background, the painter successfully illustrated the unrestrained characters and elegant bearing of the household Chinese poet Li Bai (701-762 AD) of the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD).
In order to transfer the bearing and characters of the figure from painting to embroidery, the artist made full use of her ingenious techniques with the combination of various stitches including long and short stitches (changduan zhen, 长短针), broken-line-making stitches (xuzhen, 虚针), seeding stitches (dian zhen, 点针), successfully re-presenting the grace and composure of the poet, with meticulous illustration of his facial expression, hair and beard in particular.
Awards:
“Primrose Award” at the second Oriental Arts and Crafts Capital Exposition held by the China Association of Folk Artists, the Department of Publicity, Association of Literature and Art and Association of Folk Artists of Jiangsu province