Roots of the North

Title:​ Roots of the North — Le Venezie International Watercolor Festival Overall Second Prize ($800)

Artist:​ Hanzhao Hu 

Dimensions:​ 31 × 45 cm

Year:​ 2025

Medium:​ Watercolor

About the Artist

Hanzhao Hu is a Chinese-Canada watercolor artist whose work is grounded in a deep attentiveness to the land and the living forms it sustains. Roots of the North speaks with quiet authority to the enduring character of China's northern landscapes — a terrain shaped by cold, wind, and the slow, tenacious persistence of life. The root, as both subject and symbol, carries a weight of meaning that resonates across cultures: it is origin, anchor, and the hidden source of all that grows above the surface. In watercolor, a medium that demands trust in the unpredictable movement of water and pigment, Hu finds a fitting language for this meditation on depth and resilience. The horizontal format — 31 by 45 centimeters — draws the eye across the composition in a manner that echoes the expansive, unhurried rhythm of the northern landscape itself.