Zhongping Shi is a renowned artist whose career spans over five decades. Originally from China, Zhongping studied and later taught Chinese ink painting and fine art at Shanghai University. His work has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout China. In the mid to late 1980s, he was invited as a visiting professor to teach art at the City Universities of New York, as well as Columbia University. After immigrating to the United States, Zhongping worked full-time as a textile artist and designer in New York's fashion district while painting in the evenings and on weekends. His work ranges from landscapes to still life and figures, across mediums of oil, acrylic, watercolor, and ink. His work has been represented in galleries in Chicago, New York, Rhode Island, Florida, and Shanghai. In China his work is commissioned by collectors and municipalities. Upon retiring and moving to the West Coast in 2014, he has continued to expand his range and nourish his curiosity. In this series of paintings, Zhongping draws from his roots in ink and landscapes, infusing his strong sense of color to create works that honor nature, earth, and spirit. For each of the larger pieces, he selects handmade rice paper produced by artisans in China. Each sheet of paper--carrying wrinkles and subtle texture--is unique. From there he works with a varied selection of mediums: traditional carbon based Chinese ink, watercolor, food grade beef gelatin, wax, plant and or mineral based paint, acrylic, and egg tempera to add layers to the work, creating translucence, depth, and movement. The paper is then bound by archival glue to canvas that is treated with three layers of gesso. Each piece is finished with 3-4 layers of archival varnish.