When I wrote down "wizard Xiangguo Jia", I remained to be hesitated. From the perspective of artistic ability, it is proper to call Jia as a wizard, because he is a maverick disregarding for conventional wisdom and rule. But as to his personality, his self - effacing modesty, infatuation with rural idyll, and reclusive lifestyle disagree with my impression of "the wizard". He does not like to show off his talents of art, but lead a peaceful life and cultivate his own art garden silently. Perhaps these two contradictory aspects compose Jia's special image as an artist and shape unique artistic character of his paintings.

　　Mr.Jia graduated from Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts as a master of art, where he received systematic education on artistic creation. Owning to his unique view of art, he does not choose the "unorthodox" road of painting. He views art as a way to express freedom of spirits rather than direct imitation of life or the utilitarian purposes in society. He thinks that painting requires artistic skills which are subject to the common law. Nevertheless, what enables audience to empathize is not the technique, but the real feelings of the author which is shown behind the painting. The purpose for Jia Xiangguo's living in Taihang Mountains for years is to foster his love with the mountains, which is accordant with the traditional Chinese literary theory that artistic creator should find his inspiration from life. Ancient Chinese uses "Xing" to refer to the passion of artists, which is associated with the creative impulse or inspiration. Where does "Xing"come from? According to Liu Xie, author of The Literary of Mind and the Carving of Dragon, an influential ancient Chinese writing monograph, if one is touched by beautiful scenery in nature like mountains, rivers, trees, rosy clouds and so on, insisting sensing their beauty for years, they can bring inspiration of artistic creation to him in return.

　　And that explains why Mr.Jia chose seclusion from the perspective of the need for artistic creation. He thinks tranquility is important to artist, especially in an impetuous society of today. He seems to live by the rule of "one can't show high ideals without simple living; one can't have lofty aspirations without a peaceful state of mind." In a word, Mr.Jia determined to lead a pastoral life and explore the mysteries of artistic creation based on his understanding of Chinese traditional culture.

　　Mr. Jia pursues "joy" in painting art and shows this humorous bit of wisdom with pithy drawing style, featuring line modeling and colors. Images of various people, who are enjoying mellow of life, such as sages, woodman, fish man, drunkard, farmers and so on, appear in his painting. And casual style inscription echoed those figures. One inscription "content is happiness, no dire is just "in the painting Cricket Fight shows the life attitude of the author. And some other works indicates the author's blue mood as well.

　　Jia has a harvest of nearly one hundred landscape paintings about the spectacular Taihang Mountains through over ten years' efforts of living in Taihang. The reason why Jia has been so devoted to landscape paintings is that in these paintings he not only expresses his feelings to the scenery but also conveys his aesthetic and understanding of art value. In Jia Xiangguo's opinion, contemporary Chinese landscaping paintings should inherit and develop traditional spirit of exhibiting the powerful beauty of the landscape of motherland and carrying on the righteous and magnificent character of Chinese people, rather than indulge in the style for form for form's sake, which is inadequate in emotions and spiritual strength. In his view, the independent aesthetic value of the ink language of Chinese painting only makes sense as an integrated part for the whole picturesque scenes. In addition, he also believes that the manifestation mode of ink language is also under the influence of times feature and one's personality. He views the introduction of Western realistic form - shaping conception and techniques, which is generally seen as a challenge to tradition Chinese Xieyi painting by others, as a supplement to it. That is the cognition basis of Jia Xiangguo's artistic creation.

　　In Renjian Cihua Wang Guowei labels "building atmosphere" as "ideal style" and "stating atmosphere" as "realistic style". Objects in nature are mutually related and at the time mutually restrictive. But describing them in literature and art one must disregard those points of relationship and restriction. Thus realistic artists are also ideal. And again, no matter how imaginary the state one may construct, the materials must be sought in nature, and the construction must follow the laws of nature. Thus the ideal artists are also realistic.

　　I quote this passage of Wang Guowei to expound the particular artistic characteristics of Jia's landscaping paintings, which is "realistic" as well as "ideal". He combines realistic depictions and ideal imagination and creativity in his paintings. The contents of his paintings, such as foaming waterfall, fancy stone, forests, and cottage, whether it is panorama or only a part, are all based on his observation and experience of nature. But his paintings are not mere imitation on nature; instead, they are highly - summarized artistic re - creation with elaborate design and clever - built vision. In artistic creation, he practices the principle that "based on observation but be not confined by it", which is highly advocated by Chinese traditional literary theory. The spectacular and magnificent Taihang Mountains provides painters with abundant resources for painting, but one still needs adequate courage, spirit and art accomplishment to make full use of the gift of nature. Lu You, a great poet of Song Dynasty, once remarked that object images is base of artistic works and one's temperament and character would influence the characteristics of his works. Exhibiting the magnificence and fertility of Taihang and indulging in its natural beauty also indicate Jia's taste and state. Therefore, just as Lu You says, we can judge one is good or evil from his articles, we can find out what a man Jia Weiguo is from his paintings.

　　As to the self - styled composition, layout, shape and ink in Mr.Jia Xiangguo's painting, they are quite different from both the traditional Chinese literati paintings and those of the modern painters seeking a fusion of Chinese and Western painting skills. He integrates the plastic elements and techniques of oil - painting into brush painting, pursues intangible charm and abstract flavor in concrete shape, and constructs unity in elaborate and precise details. He does not avoid solid modeling in his paintings; instead, he uses lines and plane surfaces to form a tensile and full painting language. And his combination of traditional Chinese painting skills and those of Western oil - painting gives his paintings original content and an artistic character of magnificent and righteous.

　　Nowadays, along with the trend of diversity in art creation, though different artistic ideas and various methodologies are allowed in landscape painting creation, an artistic character of magnificent and righteous should still be the common pursuit of the mainstream. And Mr.Jia Xiangguo's artistic exploration into and innovative contribution of this aspect deserve our attention, applause and advocating.