A vase full of flowers. Don’t you worry about the flowers being picked up. They’re better to be enjoyed with candle light and aroma. Why let them wither in strong wind and rain. Southern Song, Fan Chengda “Flowers in a vase” Zhou Chunya is one of the few iconic artists that fuses the traditional Chinese Literati art with Neo-expressionism in artworks. With his intrinsic talent and exquisiteness, Zhou infused the traditional Chinese painting elements to Western style presentation. Chinese Literati art was originated from China’s Tang and Sung dynasty, and made to its prime during Yuan and Ming dynasty. The style is heavily influenced by Zen and Taoism - fresh, refined, elegant and savor of the wild. Zhou Chunya used Neo expressionism to create various iconic series of colorful and classic flowers. Zhou’s fusion of the eastern and the western art defines the spirit of Chinese traditional literatis and connotations in a whole. “It is because the mysterious, sensitive elements in our traditions are unpossessed by westerners. Realization of this has a considerable impact on shaping the character of my paintings.”Zhou Chun-Ya Flower is a commonly admired and presented theme by Chinese literati, and the theme is redefined under Zhou Chunya’s paint brush. Flowers was created in 1993. The shapes and the colors of the flowers are abstractified with layers of colors which were dyed or painted across each other. The structure of the painting was based on an unique diagonal composition along with the sharp colors, which truly shows Zhou’s proficient skills. The lush blossoms tangling with the branches in the paint. In traditional Chinese literati arts, the artists tend to focus on expressing the flowers with literatures to show exquisite elegance. Zhou followed that tradition, but presented his own flowers with his own unique style which absolute contradicts with the old styles - bold, enthusiastic and irregular. The clouds represents the air flow as the background of the painting to focus the spotlight on the flowers in the vase. Exquisite details and texture replacements of the flowers looks as gentle as if they were drawn with traditional ink brush. The complex volume structure breaks the flat visual image of traditional literati art, which is the language of expressionism Zhou has been looking for in literati art. “The superior atmosphere beyond geographic culture and history, so enormous that brings people into a fantastic, powerful universe where earth and heaven were barely formed.” Said famous critic Yin Shuangxi on Zhou. With western art technique, Zhou’s flowers bloom with bright and lively colors, and that is the perfect combination of the eastern and western art. In Flowers, Zhou uses relatively calm and restrained colors with bold brush strokes which come together perfectly. The cardinal red color of the exquisite flowers present a typical Chinese literati composition. Zhou successfully presented the artistic conception of Chinese ink art with oil paint. Zhou has been dedicated to Chinese traditional culture. In this work, the refined oriental poetry is perfectly presented. It is elegant and ethereal like flowing clouds or traditional literi’s zen and spirit. Zhou’s art style is a combination of western expressionism and eastern ink painting after years of practice. The colors and shapes he uses represent the emotion and experience of an artist. He has the aesthetic of a literati. Zhou is able to paint mountains, rocks, flowers and plants at ease along with thoughtful artistic conception. Zhou uses his unique art talent to demonstrate the legend of modern literati. Flowers represents a life-filled continuation like blue sky and jade-green steam, and reveals Zhou’s consciousness of life.