Lin Fengsu

The primary characteristics of Lin Fengsu's landscape paintings are threefold. Firstly, his compositions are full and rich, depicting the vibrant and prosperous new look of mountain villages, replacing the desolate and chilly atmosphere often found in traditional literati paintings, thus celebrating the new era's spirit of the magnificent landscape. Secondly, his use of color is vibrant and lush, inspired by the scenery of his hometown in eastern Guangdong, creating a striking yet tasteful aesthetic that resonates with the mainstream of the times and public interests. Thirdly, he favors employing skilled and delicate sketch lines to shape trees and other elements, complemented by varied shades of ink, thereby transcending traditional formulaic brushwork and imbuing his works with a fresh ink-and-wash style. In summary, Lin Fengsu possesses outstanding innate talent and a solid foundation in tradition, while boldly assimilating modern art education's techniques of modeling, composition, brushwork, and color application, making him one of the prominent representatives of the new landscape painting, or color ink scenery, in the 20th century.

— Lang Shaojun (Researcher and Doctoral Supervisor, Chinese National Academy of Arts)

For Lin Fengsu, "nature" is both an object that requires constant questioning and verification and a mindset being experienced. Here, he neither needs to "go out into the world" nor have the "world" come to him. Instead, he focuses inward, immersing himself fully in nature with all his mental faculties. This is the true essence of his modern pastoral motif and the demeanor of an artist who truly belongs to himself, both emotionally and intellectually.

— Li Weiming (Researcher, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts)

With an ordinary mind, Lin Fengsu uses simple brushstrokes in a seemingly casual manner to express his feelings and inspirations. Such flower-and-bird paintings are imbued with human warmth, making them feel intimate and endearing even to general audiences. For Lin Fengsu, this is a continuation of his approach in landscape painting.

— Liang Jiang (Director of the Institute of Modern and Contemporary Art, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts; Former Deputy Director of National Art Museum of China)

As a southern painter, we should confidently and sincerely discover the value of our southern region, the beauty of its mountains and rivers, its unique sentiment, and even its cultural spirit, and create our own distinctive painting styles that embody cultural character. This is precisely the contemporary value conveyed by Lin Fengsu's landscape paintings.

— Wang Huangsheng (Chief Curator, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum; Doctoral Supervisor, Central Academy of Fine Arts)