In many people's cognition, the more complicated a painting is, the more difficult it is to draw. As long as a person can draw complex things vividly, he must be a skilled master. However, there is an old saying in China that "the road to simplicity is beautiful". Taking Chinese painting as an example, Chinese painting is destined to be formed only once because of the smudge characteristics of pen and ink, but the stacking and composition of pen and ink can cover up many wrong strokes. So the simpler the painting, the more expressive it is, just like Qi Baishi's fish and shrimp. Although it looks extremely simple, it is actually as difficult as reaching the sky.

Qi Baishi, 1864, from Xiangtan, Hunan. My ancestral home is Dangshan, Suzhou, Anhui. He has been painting since he was 6 years old. When reading, he often draws in calligraphy books and account books. In order to survive, Qi Baishi spent the first half of his life selling paintings. In fact, his paintings are very good, but he has never seen Bole. It was not until he met Chen Shiceng (Chen Yinque's brother) that his talent for painting was really revealed and he embarked on the road of being a master painter.

Qi Baishi's paintings are very expensive. In 20 18, one of his Twelve Screens of Mountains and Rivers fetched a high price of 93 10/00000 RMB, setting a record for the domestic art auction market. Not only that, his other paintings are basically millions, and they are valuable. Qi Baishi, who reached the peak of painting, naturally had followers. They all hope to learn from Qi Baishi and get advice. Among all his disciples, besides the famous Li Kuchan and Li Keran, even the drama master Mei Lanfang is also his disciple.

What's important is that Qi Baishi, known as "three thousand disciples", not only accepts male disciples, but also female disciples, and Guo is one of them. Guo, 19 1 Guangdong Xiangshan (now Zhongshan), was one of the pioneers of the women's movement in China. She studied painting with Qi Baishi for six years and won the essence of his painting. Over the years, under the careful guidance of Qi Baishi, Guo gradually understood the essence of Qimen School of Painting and became an excellent ink painter through his own eyes observation and careful thinking.

Not only that, Guo Shi learned painting from Qi Baishi, but also learned flower-and-bird painting. Famous painters such as Jie Qing and Lou Shibai are all her peers. They often communicate and learn painting skills together. Qi Baishi has published a picture album, among which 120 works are Guo's, and more than half of them are inscribed by Qi Baishi himself, which shows that her painting skills have been recognized. Because of this, she will question Qi Baishi's works and create her own style.

Qi Baishi has a picture of "Plowing Cattle", which once sold for a sky-high price of 7.46 million yuan. The picture is very simple, that is, farmers are driving a buffalo to plow the fields, and there are bridges and mountains in the distance, which is a beautiful pastoral scenery. However, Guo believes that Qi Baishi's paintings are flawed because there are no shadows of farmers and cows. So, she used this painting as a template to copy a "revised version" of Niu Li. In Guo's Plough of Cattle, there are reflections of farmers and cows in the waterline, which is more realistic.

However, Guo's paintings only sold for 600,000 yuan, which is 12 times lower than Qi Baishi's "Cattle Farming". Although it is not a masterpiece, it is still far from the height of master painting. The reason why Qi Baishi's "Farming Cattle" has no reflection is that he draws water with freehand brushwork and leaves blank space, which is a kind of performance, while Guo is too rigid in reality and bound by reality, which is the gap between master and apprentice.