Either in East or West, nature has been a destination for artists to seek breakthroughs. For example, in the 19th-century France, a group of painters who felt bounded the rigid academic rules found new inspirations and freedom in the brace of woods, streams and lush plants in Barbizon, which led to the birth of pro-naturalism Barbizon school of painting.

A similar situation happened a century later, in China where Li Keran, one of the greatest ink artists of the 20th century, embarked upon several journeys across the country, in search of answers to bring to the ink tradition a new look that suits the changing social aesthetics.