It was in Lanzhou Art Academe and Northwest Normal University, where Mr. Zhao Chunlin began his formal education in art under instruction of professor Chang Shuhong, Liu Wenqing, Chen Xinghua and Lou Fuyi. Besides his hard work in practicing skills of oil paintings in the university, he was attracted to readings in art. During this period, he was exposed to extensive readings and research in the development of arts in the history throughout the world, from paintings of Itinerant in Russia to Realism of Soviet art, one of the most influential school of art at that time to Chinese art, from the western schools of arts like Classicism, Romanticism, Realism to schools of modern arts, he laid a solid foundation in arts for his creation in the following years.

  As a senior editor in Gansu People¡¯s Publishing House, Mr. Zhao Chunlin did all his paintings in his spare time. Prompted by his passion and his love in art, he often worked on canvas late into midnight. As time went by, he fulfilled quite a number of paintings that caught my eyes immediately during a casual visit. Actually, I was deeply touched by the poetic and lively image while profound and modest color of his paintings.

  I would rather call Chunlin a poet than a painter. Reading his paintings you would find them full of poetic senses that effectively illustrated painter¡¯s romantic heart and his character of poet. Let¡¯s take some of his works for example: In ¡°peaceful grassland¡±, sunshine tenderly covered the snowy mountain and the grassland where a Tibetan girl riding to send a herd of pack-cow along the streamlet. It seemed that we could breathe the fresh air and touch the waterdrop on the leaves and grass out there. The whole picture characterized with unbelievable poetic beauty. While in ¡°seeking dreams in the mountain Bayankala¡±, the land woke up in wet and the rosy alpenglow swept over the mountain Bayankala under where the herdsman¡¯s shout broke the silence of the plateau and the frisky herds greeted the morning sun for the beginning of a new day. The blue river and the reddish mountain together showed the joy of the morning in the Bayankala. The ¡°ancient road¡± showed us a zigzag path that bore stories of all kinds through ages led pilgrims to the shrine that lay in the deep snow mountain by the guide of lection on the colorful fabric fixed on the poles and the smoky censers along the roadsides and the white tower erected far away at the end of the road. The clouds floated about in the blue blue sky seemed to tell the passengers a long story of the history. The painting ¡°Ruins of the beacon fire tower¡± recorded an lonely beacon fire in the desert with companion of weed that recalled our lost memory of ancient pitched battles happened long long ago. ¡°Saint Lake Lacuo¡±, a mysterious mountain-locked lake seemed forever stayed there like a contemplator who witnessed all the changes and bygones of the ever-changing world. ¡°Small River¡±, described the status of a gently running stream that is unsettled yet right after a shower that released the smells of earth and humidity to the air. In ¡°whisper in the ruins of ancient town¡±, the painter exhibited his master of color with yellow and gray of all levels to built up the ruins of the city on the silk road. ¡°Tender the wind¡± showed us again the painter¡¯s capability in commanding color and his skills in organization. The compare of peak green and deep blue, the contrast of the passing by clouds at a distance and a Tibetan girl walking forward fully depicted the charming scenes in spring in the springhead of Yellow river. All these paintings together gave us a panorama of life and spirits of the western regions and all these works filled with Chunlin¡¯s full efforts and love.

  As a painter, Chunlin has a keen sight in art; personally he is a nature lover. Having been an editor for nearly forty years, he often manages his time to the countryside or Tibetan area in the northwest region of China to embrace nature and get inspiration from ordinary people and their daily performances. Although his footsteps on the road map are not broad enough and the time he spent are not long enough to boast, his continues actions for forty years add up to explain his profound understanding in life that every audience could easily find in his paintings. Mr. Zhao Chunlin¡¯s life experience enriched his art a lot, especially his history during the special period known as ¡°culture revolution¡± in China when he was sent to the Qilian mountain area to be ¡°reeducated¡±. Living and working side by side with local people, cultivating on farm, wood chopping in the forest, feeding up yaks and other livestock, he accumulated a wealth of experiences and got fairly familiar with Qilian region and the life of Tibetan people there. These experiences made him more aware of the real life and made his paintings unostentatious and naturally expressed in conceiving, organization, sight selection and color expressing without artificial senses. For example, one could hardly interpret the uniqueness of the quiet and cozy life of the Tibetan village in Qinghai Province by means of art as it is shown in the ¡°Auspicious Tibetan Village¡±. Not to say the peculiarity of ¡°Under the lee of Lastai¡±, a work in expression of peaceful life of Kazakhstan people under the protection of the lee of Lastai from the rage winds. These detailed description and expression picked from everyday life brightened the pictures and lead the valuable moment into eternity. It was in ¡°sunshine¡±, Chunlin showed us a scene of cherish love between mother and son by a cow and her baby among the herd in the winter sunshine. What an impressive moment it is. Chunlin has tried many times to trial on art in terms of different style and techniques but finally back to his feet in realistic painting, because he realized that realistic style is the most proper way for him to express his passion and feeling in life with his ever effort in perfecting his skill with it. Without oppressive air, without avid ambitious, he laid every touch on canvas at ease which shaped his art in his own style and epitomized his own taste and ideal in pursuing art. Beauty of real and beauty of mellow is what we can see and feel in the works of Chunlin¡¯s art.

  No pains, no gains. Chunlin¡¯s efforts and endeavors reaped many gains. Merely in 2001, 2 of his paintings were selected to exhibit in national exhibitions and saloons. I firmly believe that Chunlin will stride on his way of art with more steady and powerful steps.