Lonely Seagull

This piece of embroidery was done by the artist when she was 85 years old based on the painting of Li Shan (1686-1762 AD), one of the well-known painters dubbed as the “Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou”. Inspired by the lines “knowing nowhere to go, (I’m) just like a lonely seagull in the world” in the poem “Feelings at Night During Travel” by the heavyweight ancient Chinese poet Du Fu (712-770 AD), the painter depicted a lonely seagull with a curled neck and a drooping head, shivering while standing among several withering reeds, a scene full of bleakness and loneliness that touches the viewers’ heart right away at the first sight. With bold experiment in terms of artistic expression and combination of various painting techniques, the painter made full use of both elegant and rigid brushwork, coming up with a piece of real treasure.
While transferring the atmosphere of the painting with her unique embroidery techniques, the artisan endowed this piece with something new based on her recreation, expressing her value of calm and composure during adverse moments of life. By use of a series of embroidery techniques including thickening stitches (shi zhen, 施针), long and short stitches (tao zhen, 套针), seeding stitches (dian zhen, 点针), full-and-broken-line stitches (xushi zhen, 虚实针) and masterful coloring, the artisan successfully created a rare piece with vivid depiction of the seagull and plants, illustrating a soothing zen-like scene.

Award:
Gold Award at the “Hundred Flower Cup-Tian Gong Yi Yuan” Chinese Arts and Crafts Masterpiece Exposition of the International Exposition of Arts and Crafts, namely, the 9th Chinese Arts and Crafts Masterpiece Exhibition in 2008