Paper trail shows master's technique

Hu later recalled that the iron wire was on the northern wall of Qi's home, where he would hang every work with bamboo clips, sit opposite it and give it a thorough review. "If he felt satisfied, he would then add titles and comments, and impress seals. Then the work was truly completed."

The highlight at the exhibition is an album of flowers now in the collection of the Chinese National Academy of Arts. Qi drew dozens of flowers he saw at friends' homes while traveling, or the plants he collected back in his native Hunan. He gave the album to his children for them to learn painting.

He commented on the album that "the paper used is poor quality and therefore, the colors do not look good; it is far from graceful in appearance".

Fan Chen, a resident painter of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, says the album exemplifies how Qi turned work on rough paper into pieces of art, as he endeavored to formulate hues, for example, a bold purple by mixing several colors in a delicate way so that they would actually look alluring in years to come.

In a video at the exhibition, Fan demonstrates how Qi created these colors and painted back then.

"He pushed to his limits on the depiction of details, out of years of observing and feeling, and a respect for nature, the same as it was expressed by artists of the Song Dynasty (960-1279)."

Wu Hongliang, director of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, says even on such paper unsuitable for painting, Qi was implementing his beliefs in art to be not ordinary.