The sound of traffic in the concrete jungle fills the daily life, yet there is always a sea rising and falling in our hearts. The mountains, sea, reefs, and shells, depicted by Mr. Zhang Shunchuan, are not an illusion escaping from the reality, but a spiritual sanctuary built from the memories of his journeys, intertwined with his inextricable nostalgia. This self-taught artist has condensed half a lifetime of experiences into poetic lines on canvas...

His oil paintings do not employ the sophisticated techniques of the academic school to embellish the subjects; instead, he uses simple brushstrokes to portray the most beautiful scenes in his mind. The rigid textures in his early works gradually soften into the distant, ethereal aura reminiscent of the Song dynasty landscape paintings. When we gaze upon these reefs repeatedly caressed by the tides, the icy plains bathed in polar light, and the peaks faintly visible in the morning mist, we see not only the flow of personal memories but also a collective reflection of people searching for their life coordinates in the contemporary era.

The exhibited works fully present the painter’s creative journey from harshness to clarity. The moonlit tidal flats, the glaciers frozen by the north wind, the mist-shrouded mountains, and the star maps of shell arrays all extend a silent invitation: perhaps, in the gaps of the mechanical time, one can pick up a shell polished by time to hold the never-drying morning dew in everyone's heart.

Zhang Shunchuan, born in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, member of China Artists Association. He is a professional artist and founder of the Bai Gallery in Ningbo. His oil paintings were selected into various significant exhibitions, such as the Eighth, Nineth, Tenth and Eleventh National Exhibition of Fine Arts. His works are also collected by institutions home and abroad.