The sense of wholeness is an important indicator of a painter's talent, especially for an ink painter. No matter how high your skills are, if you cannot grasp the overall picture, it is still insufficient. This includes not only the painter's cultivation, knowledge, vision, and technique but also a natural quality and sensitivity, along with the need for acquired cultivation.

 

Whether from an aesthetic perspective, understanding painting itself, or from the intrinsic principles, I believe the issue of talent has great depth. Lai Zhigang paintings surpass some of the landscapes we see in the art world. This level is very subtle. The depth line is a major spatial element that runs through landscape painting. It is the lifeline of Chinese landscape painting. For a landscape painter to fully express such a depth line is extremely challenging. It is difficult to articulate in words. It must be presented through the visual images in landscape painting. Furthermore, the difficulty lies not only in grasping this lifeline but also in the remarkable spatial extension. In ink painting, we often hear the phrase "vitality flows abundantly, making the screen feel moist." Sometimes, I have been very eager to see what this artistic height of "vitality flowing abundantly" looks like, and today I have seen it.