Cheng Shifa (Chinese, 1921 - 2007) "Girls with Chicken & Rooster" Signed upper right. Watercolor on Illustration Board. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. Born in the Songjiang district of Shanghai in 1921, Cheng Shi-fa studied in Shanghai Academy of Fine Art. He definitely was one of China's greatest traditional art masters, famed for his landscape paintings, calligraphy, comic strips, depictions human figures and scenes of minority tribes from the southwestern province of Yunnan. Cheng was strongly influenced by masters like Ren Bo-Nian and Chen Hong-Shou, then he developed a strong personal style combined traditional elements through his rustic art. Cheng quickly mastered the traditional skills of creating figures, flowers and birds and expanded a style recognized for its effective use of thick lines, traditional colors, transparent washes and a suggestive use of space. His landscape paintings with conceptual technique that he applied to the creation of ink and water pieces in his later years were also very significant with an artistic quality. Image Diameter: 10 in. Overall Size: 15 x 15 in. Unframed. (B08655)