Landscape of River Li

Li's landscape painting often presents unusual views - the appearing and disappearing of light and dimness, the strong contrast between the two and his application of scattered sources of light. Shitao spoke of art creation as being "taken from life, and eventually transcend life". Since 1954, Li focused on travelling to different parts of China, taking inspiration from the various locations and landscapes he saw. His method of "concentrated observation from nature" pushed him away from the traditional modes of Chinese landscape painting, forgoing the grandeur of overlapping layers of mountains and instead, treating landscape as a portrait and focusing on a close-up of a particular scene.

In Landscape of River Li, Li highlights the contours of the mountains, while increasing the intensity of the ink in the foreground and employing lighter ink wash to portray the far away mountains. The mountain ranges glimmer against a backdrop of ink, lined by light through the "left blank technique", liu bai, depicting the distant river punctuated with sailboats, resulting in landscapes full of three-dimensionality, depth and vigour. By illuminating the mountain contours and blending in forceful calligraphy, Li's unique, carefree method of painting expresses the river against a darker backdrop, culminating to a landscape which is more pronounced, profound and grand.