He Qi's recent colored inks on paper paintings with Bible motif reflect a kind of ripe style. When we enter He Qi's artistic conception, we could directly enjoy a kind of spiritual bathe by a clear spring from a high mountain.
In the picture of "The Good Samaritan", He Qi painted a full representation combined with brilliant color; he created an artistic conception with the sky, the earth and the human being. There is a sacred graceful bearing which is rippling in the sky. His art style reminds us of the great artist Georges Rouault's paintings which deeply expressed a magnificent religious feeling.
In "Annunciation", He Qi depicts an angel and St. Mary, who's playing the flute. They ascend from Mary's home by a simple and unadorned gesture. There is a pure white dove bowing its head and spreading its wings; it seems to bless them.
"The Song of Songs" shows an honest figure of a typical Chinese village lady, her spirit has been promoted by the song of an angel, the timbre of the harp is a bright cadmium yellow twinkling in the night.
"Peace Be Still" is called a classical work of the artist, the decoration filling the picture is controlled by a solemn divinity, the moving of the stormy sea is solidified by a great and simple beauty. There is the most brilliant point: a dove holding an olive branch in its mouth has formed a crown on Jesus head by chance, we could easily understand what the artist wanted to say.
To scan He Qi's artistic style of Biblical motif paintings, we find a mutual relationship between the characters and background. It seems like stained glass - the strong colors are surrounded by the black ink outline, throughout his painting, straight edges and inner curves, white contrasting with black. His paintings have absorbed so many Chinese cultural elements from traditional seal cutting, folk paper cutting and even Beijing opera. He blends Chinese traditional art elements together with Western modern art elements, and I do think that he has controlled the way into a realm with ability and ease.
The spiritual origin of He's art work is traced back to his deep experience from the western part of China, from the Buddhism art of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, from his controlling the innocent images of Chinese folk art, and his understanding of the Christian spirit and Chinese Christian indigenization.
All above originally individual elements are marvelously mixed together. The result is that He Qi's work has gradually approached an original art expression which unites substantial content together with exceptional art form. From his paintings, we can read a spiritual narrative.

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