This is an original oil landscape painting on canvas is inspired by a legend about a man named Xiang Dakun who declared himself king of Tianzi Mountain in ancient times. He promised to create a peaceful world and soon gained followers. When the emperor heard of the uprising and sent troops to suppress him. Xiang Dakun was ultimately killed in battle, but not before he leapt into a ravine together with his men to save them from capture. Their bodies turned into the peaks seen in the valley today. The boulder standing out among them is said to be Xiang Dakun himself, and the other peaks are his soldiers.
The Wulingyuan District in Hunan Province, China was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. I have used the impasto technique and expressive brush strokes to form these stunning quartzite sandstone pillars and peaks, many over 200 metres in height and were formed 400 to 350 million years. The tree of life in this painting acts as a sign of the strengthening and revival of human potential. Many myths have linked birds to the arrival of life or death. With their power of flight, these winged creatures were seen as carriers or symbols of the human soul, or as the soul itself, flying heavenward after a person died. The monk sitting in the foreground I imagine being Xiang Dakun himself or his Holy Spirit, whose mission can't be prevented just because his earthly life has ended. This painting is about the legend, I imagine these peaks and pillars being strong, brave men, which today exist in the space and time we call history.