Times have changed. It is really hard to grasp the spirit that theancients once had. “I want to paint mountains， but after seeing HuangshanMountain or Huashan Mountain， where can I find my uniqueness? Francois admitted that he couldn’t see through the eyes of Fan Kuan， Ju Ran or GuoXi unless he could
ride donkeys， live
in wild shelters， andhide in the forest fora couple of weeks.
Late this spring，
Fr ancoi s went t o
Qinling with a few
students from the
Xi’an Academy of
Fine Arts. It is a wildplace with almost novisitors. Suddenly，he seemed to be able to feel what the ancients felt before. Modern peoplelive in the concrete forests， running around on the highways， andtheir ears are filled with commercials; the image of the virtual world ismuch larger than the real one. Francois said： “How could we ever havethe sense that the ancients had? The famous painter Zeng Laide once said that among all theWestern artists who practice both Western and Eastern art， Francois isthe only one who combines the two so well. It is hard to say that hispaintings are purely Western or Eastern. Both styles exist in his paintingsat the same time， sometimes one is stronger and sometimes theother is stronger. They support each other mutually and naturally. Hecontrols the two styles freely with no difficulty.
According to Francois， the distance between Chinese culture andWestern culture is not really far. For example， the thoughts of PaulKlee are really close to Shi Tao’s. The time is different， their languages188 are different， and their styles of paintings are different， one is oil painting，the other is ink painting， but they are so similar in theories andthoughts.
From the works of jazz musician Thelonius Monk， Francoisfound the finest expression of the combination of the abstract and thepractical. Monk is an African-American musician， now people don’tsay jazz is American music， but describe it as American-African music.
It is multi-cultural.
From Jan Vermeer’s works， Francois saw the Chinese style “leavingblank”。 This Dutch painter’s works displayed the essence of oilpainting， but more importantly， and surprisingly， they contain the styleof “leaving blank” — which is completely Eastern. Francois said： “Wecould never expect anything like this from a 17th century painter. “I saw the ‘blank’ part in his works. Through the exact details，we can feel that uncertainty is everywhere. We don’t know what theyoung girl is doing， or what her clothes are made of. We will have toguess. There is an oil painting hanging behind her， but there is onlyhalf of it and the image is blurred， we cannot tell the content of thatpainting … the observers have to complete it themselves， and this isexactly the feeling I have when I see Ba Da’s paintings. From Jan Vermeer to Ba Da， Francois’s thought leaped dramatically.
He has always been interested in the practice of Chinese philosophicalideas in art. For more than 20 years， he has loved using bamboosticks to lay the patterns of bagua （Eight Trigrams）， then findingthe answers in the Book of Changes. When he is doing so， he has neverthought that this is a Chinese thing. Chinese aesthetics enable him todirectly sense and understand western art pieces without wasting timein reading mountains of documents.
Yu Shuo said： “Francois has more than 100 little sketching bookletswithin his reach. He draws every day， as though it was a religiousceremony， he never stops. The blue color that Francois uses in his painting reminds theguest professor from the Central Academy of Art， Jin Zhilin， of theChinese Qinghua porcelain vase. Francois’s inspiration actually comes from the houses of Andalusia. One night， Francois was looking at theart collection of Ba Da Shan Ren. Sensing the uninhibited spirit of thepainter， Francois suddenly realized that Dadaism from the early 20thcentury actually contains deeply holy and sacred characteristics. It wasjust expressed in a cynical form. Francois feelings and senses have alwaysswung back and forth from the West to the East.
The Strength of Culture Is in MixingOne year， one of Francois’ friends in America received a postcard. On it was painted a black Spanish bull， and the image of the bullreminded his friend of the paintings of Qi Baishi， but he wonderedhow Qi Baishi could ever have seen bull-fighting. When he turned thepost card over， he realized the painter was actually Francois.
Francois loves talking about the combination of cultures andcivilization. For example， Hugo was exiled. He wrote a famous articlecriticizing the burning of China’s Old Summer Palace. Louis the 14th’
