An Oil Worker amidst a Blizzard

The original work was a classical landscape painting in the 1960s presenting the scene of developing the Daqing Oil Field in Heilongjiang back in the days. It was a typical image of the Chinese worker of the times. The figure was derived from the image of WANG Jixi, known as “Iron Man.” The worker drilled and explored manually in a primitive fashion amidst the blizzard in the vast field in search for petroleum for the New China. With Mao’s On Contradiction and On Practice in his left pocket, the protagonist stands tall in high spirit in front of the tall drilling rig.

In terms of the embroidery craftsmanship, the Straight Stitch, Long and Short Stitch, and Twisted Stitch employed in the work capture the blizzard in the background and the figure faithfully, presenting the spatiality of the environment, the texture of the garment, and the demeanor of the figure true to life.