We can tell from the paintings above that Wu Guanzhong did not plainly sketch from reality, rather he liked to change the positions of objects and landscapes to enhance the composition of his works. This was the master’s special image retouching skill and he called it “move-the-site sketching”. He would extract the most attractive elements from a scene, then rearrange or reconstruct them to form the unique image he had created in his mind. He said sketching was about capturing the spirit of things, not merely their shapes and form which made no difference to a photograph. That is why his works are so beautifully composed. They may resemble the real landscape, yet it is hard to find a viewpoint that captures the precise scenery — all because he had reshuffled everything to create a new image!

This painting was made during Wu Guanzhong’s demonstration of sketching Victoria Harbour at the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 2002. It was a rainy day and Wu could not see the harbor clearly. Nonetheless, Wu decided to draw the buildings based on his memory. He even included the sculpture and palm trees in the lower right corner of the painting, which were originally behind him at that time.

During the exhibition "Wu Guanzhong: A Retrospective" in 2002, Wu Guanzhong gave his first ever live sketching demonstration at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Sketching the Victoria Harbour in the rain, this occasion became a favourite tale of the local art circle.

From the artist's writings, we can know how he felt about that event. He recalled, "Responding to great public demand, the Museum of Art consulted me about the possibility of performing a public sketching demonstration. I do not like to paint in front of the public, nor have I ever done any demonstration because it is impossible to get into the mood when it is a show. However, they explained that painters today seldom do sketching and young artists do not know where to start. As I have been sketching all my life, they hope people would not miss this only opportunity and asked me to encourage the younger generation. Unable to refuse the host's kind intention and the public's enthusiasm, I agreed to provide a "service" of demonstrating sketching for once. Since it's a service, the outcome does not matter. They were prepared to record the whole sketching process, from my first stroke on paper to the last, which would be put into the archive. I picked Victoria Harbour as the subject, which I would sketch on the podium of the Museum… On the day of demonstration, the lobby was packed with people. Alas! There was heavy fog and visibility was down to fifty metres. All the skyscrapers around Victoria Harbour disappeared in the illusory space of mist and clouds. The fog did not clear up and the audience was getting impatient. I did not want to disappoint the crowd, so I portrayed the buildings and ferries in the harbour by memory. How I composed the buildings, my sequence of strokes as well as the control and balance of strokes might serve as a reference to some people. Yet sketching is not about copying, it's the vitality that is being sketched, a vitality that is open to interpretation.


Victoria Harbour_Wu Guanzhong.jpg

Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA)

Victoria Harbour

Wu already applied the “move-the-site sketching” technique as early as in 1961. During a bus trip in Tibet, he realised that speed could change one’s perception of space and create an intriguing image through illusion while the bus was moving. The composition of Tashilhunpo Monastery was achieved by altering the distances and locations of objects and figures, namely the mountain, temples, trees and lamas in the painting.

This is one of Wu Guanzhong's early oil paintings. Tibet was one of the places which influenced his creative approach.

In 1961, Wu Guanzhong joined the China Artists Association's five-month sketching tour in Tibet. It was a long and treacherous journey, and the alpine climate posed physical challenges. Yet, the painter was overjoyed as if he had won the lottery. While travelling by car, they passed by a particularly charming location that created a refreshing and unusual picturesque scene. He decided to take his painter's box there to do sketching at dawn the next day. However, even walking for more than four hours, he failed to find the scene he saw yesterday. He made comparisons repeatedly and came to realise that space was distorted by speed. When snow-capped mountains, plunging falls, towering trees and wild flowers in different orientations and locations were moved by speed, they conjured up extraordinary sights.

That experience motivated him to start doing collage in painting, adding innovation to compositions by radically adjusting the distance as well as displacing objects. He called this creative approach "move-the-site sketching". Tashilhunpo Monastery is one such example that features this technique.


Standards for The master’s image retouching skill