Truth In Detail

Chinese-American painter Z.S. Liang turns to historical detail to bring to life his works showing Native Americans

- Dan Corazzi

Several months ago I had the pleasure of realizing every serious collector’s dream when I had the opportunity to “shadow” a great artist—in this case Z.S. Liang—as he developed the idea for his latest major painting, did the necessary research, prepared an initial drawing, refined subsequent drawings, prepared a study, drew the final version on the canvas, spent weeks painting the composition and, finally, made minor changes and or corrections before the painting was deemed to be complete and ready for framing.

Getting to know Z.S. over the past several years, I very quickly learned that the reasons why he has been so successful in his portrayal of Native Americans, with his paintings, are varied.

First and foremost, he is a naturally very talented and skilled artist, which goes back to the intense training that he received as a young aspiring artist in his native China. Secondly, he is extremely passionate about Native American culture and most importantly, he is a stickler for detail and for making sure that each of his compositions accurately represent and depict every element in his paintings—from the clothing worn by his figures, to their weapons and or the ceremonial objects and in the case of his large historical paintings, to the geographical setting for the story that he is “telling” with the painting.

In order to achieve such a high level of accuracy in his paintings, Z.S. has become a student of the different Native American cultures and he goes to great lengths to ensure the accuracy of all the elements in his compositions. The subjects for each of his paintings are carefully thought out and they are meticulously researched before he begins his first drawing.