The exhibition features nearly a hundred selected fine works of the mountains and waters by three young artists, Chen Zhi'an, Fang Yong and Xu Gang.

These three artists were fellow students at China Academy of Fine Arts and all majored in the genre of mountains and waters painting. They share some common points in educational backgrounds, artistic conceptions and aesthetic pursuits. In their exploration of the mountains and waters painting art, they all have their own profound understanding of the true essence of "learn from nature in the outside and perceive from the origin of the heart inside", a maxim of the forefathers of the art. Their works demonstrate the perceptions of the nature as described in the prose: "the fogs and clouds of true mountains and waters have different temperaments in different seasons. Mountains are plain and at ease in the spring, as if smiling, while in summer they are painted the clear colors of blue and green. Mountains in autumn are bright and clean as if put on a fine make-up. In winter they lie in a lonesome and gloomy sleep." In their process of learning from nature, they do not confine themselves to the true-to-the-eye depiction of the exact forms of the sceneries and just re-present what they see. They rather put more emphasis on live experience of the mountains, rivers and lakes in the changing backdrops of dawns and dusk, sunshine, rain or snow of various seasons. They feel with their hearts the magnificence of the all mighty creator and convey their emotions and temperaments in the brushstrokes. On the other hand, these three artists are by all means independent and different in characters.

Chen Zhi'an, Fang Yong and Xu Gang all took systematic training in ink and wash painting at China Academy of Fine Arts. They each pursue a different painting style and form overall different dispositions in their works. Chen Zhi'an's works effuse an unpredictable abruptness. Being typically southern school of mountains and waters painting style, Chen's brushstrokes are lean and powerful. The dry brush runs in an unpredictable yet not undisciplined style. Fang Yong was born in Tong Cheng and studied in Hangzhou, in the south of China. He later taught at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in the north. The geographical change of living conditions led to the change in the style of his paintings. Fang's paintings have a broader layout in comparison with the other two artists. His pictures contain the moist foggy ambiguity of the mountains and waters in the south, while they do not lack the vigorous and forceful power of the northern mountains. In Xu Gang's paintings you can read the old-fashioned man of letters in the south. As a son of the Dongshan Town, he depicts the gardens and woods of the south with much of his intimate emotion in them. Xu gives shape to his happy childhood memories in ink and wash and achieves the true unity of landscapes and feelings.

These three artists share common aspiration in art. They encourage one another all the time while each perfects his own techniques in the painting art of mountains and waters. May they reach far and achieve abundantly in their pursuit to the common ideal of art.——by Yang Jianguo