Meifen Zhong "Baby Blue" Oil on Canvas, Porcelain Portrait Painting in Blue, Shanghai Chinese Art, Original 31.5 X 31.5 Inches, 2025

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Shanghai artist Meifen Zhong crops this porcelain portrait painting in oil on canvas close, so the whole picture is one … Read more Shanghai artist Meifen Zhong crops this porcelain portrait painting in oil on canvas close, so the whole picture is one tilted face under a glossy bob of cobalt blue hair. Two dark eyes look down and slightly aside, one half lit by a pale reflection, and the small amber mouth is pressed into a quiet, reserved line. Apricot and caramel skin shines against a cool, pale ground, with bright highlights on the fringe, the nose and the tear-like streak on the cheek. Zhong grew up surrounded by art and music, and there is a sense of rhythm in the repeating curves of the hair. She makes oil look like polished porcelain while leaving the face warm and tender.

Square and calm, it works above a mantel, in a dining room or beside a window. The cobalt and amber tones sit well with natural wood, white plaster and brass, and the blue is a good partner for ceramics, glassware or a bold textile. It brings a clear, modern note to traditional rooms and a little warmth to cool interiors. This piece is unframed and will be shipped unstretched, carefully rolled in a protective tube for safer international transportation.

Oil on Canvas, 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.5 in (80 × 80 cm).

Meifen Zhong works in oil on stretched canvas, using subtle gradations of light and meticulous brushwork to build a glossy, porcelain-like surface. The restrained compositions let each face carry the whole painting.

Meifen Zhong (b. 1986, China) is a painter based in Shanghai. Immersed in visual art and music from childhood, she graduated from the China Academy of Art in 2010 and has worked across oil, drawing and egg tempera ever since. Her practice centers on portraiture and the quiet intensity of human presence, with a particular attention to porcelain-like surfaces that are smooth, luminous and fragile. See less