Master of the big picture

A file picture of Pan Gongkai with his master painter father Pan Tianshou.[Photo Provided to China Daily]

The ink painter is adept at producing large-size scrolls, with some of them reaching up to 9 meters.

"I usually paint at one go without any corrections. But it is a challenge for me to control the pace when painting a big picture," says Pan.

Explaining his preference for large-scale paintings, Pan says that while on one hand it relates to his way of macro thinking - which can also be seen in his books on art and his design of buildings - on the other hand, it goes with the change in exhibition spaces.

"When art museums are bigger, works to be shown in these spacious rooms must be big enough to achieve a good visual effect," says Pan at his new studio in Beijing, a complex he designed on his own.

The painting room has a high ceiling and is very long.

Pan's studio is more like an art center, with a museum-like exhibition hall, a spacious garden filled with different kinds of trees and a building which looks like a traditional Chinese garden.

Yang Jie, Pan's student and a teacher at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, says Pan is versatile and energetic despite his age.

Pan, Yang says, is now working on the designs of three projects: an art museum, a theater and a campus, all located in Pan's hometown of Ninghai, in Zhejiang province.

The 70-year-old is expected to finish the designs of the three projects on his own before the Spring Festival (in February).