WorldArtcentre

WorldArtcentre.com 1 offers high quality original Oriental art, reproductions of oil paintings by well-known masters such as Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, Renoir and more contemporary masters like Salvador Dali and Picasso, as well as a service to produce custom-made oil paintings of subjects that are defined by their customers.

This website is operated by World Wind BV, a Dutch company that positions itself as the connector between Europe and Asia.

Supplies for this web-shop come primarily from Dafen Oil Painting Village in the town of Buji within the Longgang district in Shenzhen city. Although termed a ‘village’, Dafen is a modern collection of residences, shops and factories, covering an area of 4 km2 and housing more than 600 galleries and 5000 artists. Since its founding in 1989, local Chinese governments have invested in Dafen, turning it into an icon for cultural construction and highlighting it for its unique industry.

Reproduction oil paintings

WorldArtcentre.com positions itself as offering the opportunity for everyday people to own a work of art. Although they are not original, they are still hand-painted by talented artists. The results are still incredibly beautiful and only a trained eye would be able to tell the difference between a good reproduction and the original masterpiece. This has been the topic of some controversy - whether the use of artistic talent to paint reproductions is true art at all. [Keith Bradsher] of the New York Times writes 2 that some of these artists have art degrees from institutions of higher learning. WorldArtcentre.com believe this is a way to bring art to the masses.

Oriental Art

The single most astonishing fact about [Chinese brush painting] is that each brush stroke is a defining move that produces a portion of the painting that can neither be improved upon nor corrected afterwards. No sketches are prepared and no models used; the artist paints with quick strokes, transferring the image that was mentally constructed onto mulberry paper. From first to last stroke, the artist must 'get it right' while in Western watercolor paintings or oil paintings, corrections and painting over are a part of the technique.

Chinese Brush Painting is meant to be more than a representation of an object; it is also a symbolic expression. This is why a full plant is never painted, but rather a few blossoms which will represent the plant in its entirety, and, in fact, all of life - a [tao] principle. Rather than looking at the subject and painting from that visual image, the artist brings it forth from his mind and heart.

WorldArtcentre.com's Oriental Art section offers works from [Qi Baishi], [Shi Tao] and [Pu Ru], among others. There are also works on [East Asian calligraphy|Chinese calligraphy] in poems and Bible verses.

Special Customized Art

One of the biggest honours that anyone could receive is a work of art in his own likeness. WorldArtcentre.com offers a service to create oil paintings according to photos or pictures that their customers provide. These could be portraits, holiday photographs, wedding shots, a picture of a beloved pet or a treasured antique car, anything at all. The artists in China are skilled enough to combine different photos into a montage painting as well, allowing you to bring together your long-lost friend and yourself into a painting.