Impatiens and locusts 1944

Qi Baishi made this painting, Impatiens and Locusts, using ink and colour wash on paper. It’s all about gesture. See how each brushstroke is like a little dance? The locust is perched on some leaves, but really it’s all about the energy of the lines, the way they create form out of thin air. I love the way Qi Baishi uses the ink, so fluid and alive. The blacks aren’t just black, they're transparent in some places, dense in others. There’s a real physicality to the medium, you can almost feel the brush moving across the paper. Look at the way the petals are rendered, how the red bleeds into the surrounding space. That’s not just colour, that’s emotion. You see that one dark stroke defining the leaf? It's simple but so expressive, holding the whole composition together. This piece reminds me of Joan Miró, that same playful approach to form, that sense of lightness and spontaneity. Art is just a conversation, really, artists responding to each other across time. Qi Baishi is reminding us that art isn’t about capturing reality, but about capturing a feeling.