Artists are extraordinary because they have the ability to turn ordinary materials into something beautiful. Sand, stone or other natural items are nothing special to most people, but in the eyes of artists, they may have great aesthetic value. Li Junsheng, 45, is one such creative artist who sees the world around him as a canvas.

Setting aside conventional painting skills, Li tries to explore a new form of art to portray the beauty of the natural world. He uses colored sand, stone and plants, which are abundant in his hometown, Zhangjiajie City, central China's Hunan Province, a place famous for its quartz rocks and mountains, as the main materials for his sand and stone paintings.

Li's works have the grace of Chinese traditional painting, the freshness of the watercolor, the power of oil-painting and the three dimensional effect of relief, which shows just how limitless one's creative ideas can be.

Intricate technique

The creation of such paintings is greatly different from the formal way of drawing or painting. According to Li, the sand and stone that have been chosen need to be ground into powder, washed, dried and classified according to color. Plant materials need to be collected in different seasons. When making a sand and stone painting, glue and other tools are needed to stick all the necessary materials to the canvas.

But these steps are just basic skills, the creative idea of a painting, the theme it tries to convey, the composition of a picture, and the choosing of drawing materials are the most important, which are crucial to an artist of sand and stone paintings.

From his early sand and stone paintings, which were very simple either in color or design, to his current creations that have won numerous awards both at home and abroad, Li has made his audience recognize this art form. Over the past 20 years, his works expanded from the early landscape themes to portraits and even abstract works.

Li has held many exhibitions of his sand and stone paintings in China and other countries, including the China Art Gallery in Beijing in 1993 and the Paris-Beijing Calligraphy and Painting Exhibition in France in 2004. His paintings are also very popular in auction houses, and some of his works have been bought by collectors for hundreds of thousands of yuan for each. Today, more people are becoming familiar with the art and they are some of the best gifts that the government of Li's hometown presents to its honored guests.

Inspired by nature

The road to success was not an easy one for Li. Born in 1963, he grew up in a very poor family. He liked painting from childhood. But at the age of 17, he had to drop his studies and find work to help his family. He has herded cattle, sewed clothes and painted furniture to make ends meet. However, despite the hard times, he never gave up his dream of being an artist. On the contrary, those days of work have laid a solid foundation for his later sand and stone painting creations.

In 1984, he went to Changsha, capital city of Hunan Province, to study fine art, using the savings of him over the years. He studied there for six years, during which he tried to use materials that cost less than paints so he could keep his money for tuition fees. One day, he noticed that local people liked to decorate the walls of their houses with colored stones, which aroused his interest.

It gave him the idea to paint with colored sand and stone. At first, he did this for his own interest and to increase his income through some sales while he continued to study. As he progressed, Li found the sand and stone paintings sold very well, and this inspired him to continue the exploration into this new kingdom of the world of art.

Today people are amazed at Li's life story and what he has accomplished in the field of art, but are even more impressed by his ideals and the way he draws from nature. As Li says, "artwork is not constrained by materials and techniques; instead it lies in the creator's inspiration."

(Beijing Review November 14, 2008)