




The Chinese artist Wuchao Zhao painted “Twin Magpies.” This painting shows twin magpies playing in someone’s garden. The architecture in the painting is typical of the ancient China style. Zhao combines dynamic and static features along with warm and cold colors to give “Twin Magpies” rich emotion. He also uses the magpies to symbolize people inside of the house.

In the foreground, there are two magpies on the ground. These two little magpies are doing different things. The smaller one is extending its neck, spreading its wings, and lifting its tail toward to sky, as if it feels pretty excited to communicate with another magpie. The other one is bending over to search for something on the ground, and its wings are close to its body. Zhao paints with dark gray and white to depict magpies. He uses white to draw the magpies’ plump body. He then uses dark gray to paint their tails and emphasizes sharp edges. He creates contrast between these two magpies by giving them different movements. These details show the magpies as animated and appealing. It is not hard for viewers to imagine that they are playful, twin magpies.  Zhao depicts the ground using light brown, which is not only good to match the painting’s mild hue, but also to contrast with the magpies. Zhao depicts the two magpies’ figures to give a lively scene to the viewers. This is a main dynamic feature in the “Twin Magpies.”

In the midground, on the one hand, Zhao uses red to draw the fence. He then uses orange and yellow to describe the flowers in the pots, which are neatly kept. It implies that they are taken good care of by the house’s owner. Zhao depicts the flowing water coming from the fountain, which creates ripples. It is worth noticing that the artist gives a contrast between the neat flowers and the dynamic flowing water. The static flowers highlight the dynamic water, and the flowing light green water implies that the fountain is fresh. Zhao gives vivid color to the flowers, which are the only bright-colored thing in the midground. The artist draws flowers by using the bright, warm reds and oranges, which contrast with cold greens of the trees. This gives viewers a sense that the flowers are blossoming. Zhao uses this cold-warm color contrast to bring the flowers to life.  Zhao also does a lot of work on the upper wall design. There are elaborate patterns on the top. In Chinese culture these patterns imply the house’s owner has a high social position. Usually the higher class society uses red and yellow colors to decorate their houses as much as they can. The artist gives viewers a clue about the who the owner is. The patterns on the wall do imply the owner’s position. The artist also shows viewers the owner’s elegant, yet simple garden. The artist’s intention is to reveal the house owner’s nice character. As a result, the painting is not just limited by the details in the backyard, since it also gives information about the house owner’s character and social position.

In the background, there are trees and a house. The painter uses light green, dark green, and gray to show the trees’ layers. Furthermore, the painter uses light green and clear outlines to depict the closer place. He also uses gray, dark green, and blurry outlines to depict distance. Normally, the light colors draw the viewers’ attention more than darker colors, so when people are looking at the background of this painting, most of them would see light colors, then dark. The artist conveys the physical distance of the painting according to sequence of the light and dark colors as they catch the viewers’ attention. Behind the trees, there is the owner’s house. The trees and the house overlay most of this painting. The painter blurs the trees’ leaves.  Also, the house’s edges are not clear, which lets viewers feel the house is hidden in the lush trees. Zhao combines the light and dark colors and the clear and blurry outlines to show the changes of distance. In the window, it is hard to see the things inside of the house. The landscape, however, reveals how the painter uses shadows. He conveys warm yellow, which is the color of the candle’s light, to imply that people live there. And not just that, Zhao adds a bunch of shadows, which shows more obviously that people are inside. He blurs the shadows together.  We cannot see how many people live there, but it doesn’t matter if the shadows are visible. The whole painting has features such as the well cared for flowers, the flowing fountain, and vivid magpies. These vivid features give the viewers a sense that people live here.  He uses the light brown yellow on the building to create a warm feeling which gives the viewers a homey sense. It is a warm house, rather than a cold building. As a matter of fact, here is another way that the artist emphasizes the dynamics of scene. He wants to let the viewers know about the inside of house, just by using shadow and warm colors. The bunch of shadows in the window gives enough space to allow the viewers to imagine the world behind the windows. 

Further, the painter connects both background and foreground through painting three magpies. Two are in the foreground, and the third magpie is on the tree. The third magpie is not noticeable at first, but the viewers will notice it by following the line of sight from the smaller magpie on the ground. The artist paints this magpie by using dark gray and black, which is similar as trees’ hue. The artist implies a connection between the magpies in the foreground and the people inside the house in the background.  The emotions the painter puts into drawing the magpies and the relationships between the magpies apply to relationships between people. The Magpie stands for happiness and luck in Chinese culture. So, the artist wants to convey much more than what those magpies are doing through the painting. Happy and easy family life is probably what the painter would like the viewers to think of.

In conclusion, Zhao uses a close shot to depict someone’s yard. He makes contrasts between warm colors and cold colors, combines static parts and dynamic parts, and uses shadows to show this lively garden. The painter focuses on magpies and connects them with people living in the house to reflect their happy and easy life.



