If painting were an Olympic sport, Charles Billich would undoubtedly have won gold.

From ballet student to an internationally well-known artist, the life of the Italian-born, Croatian-bred, Australian emigrant has been as varied and colourful as the art he has created for the past 50 years.

He has gained international prominence as an "Olympic artist", specializing in sports arts and cityscapes depicting Olympic host cities such as Atlanta, Sydney, and Athens.

Now, Charles Billich has come to China, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with great fanfare.

David Irvine, the Australian ambassador to China, says he is proud his fellow Australian has put so much of himself into the "the search for understanding China. In doing so, he has helped interpret China, its long and rich history, its culture and turbulence, and its people to the outside world. His art has helped Chinese see themselves through new eyes."

A new life in China

"I have passed my old age, but I am beginning to live again. I am re-born because of China," says Billich, 72, who looks as if he could be in his fifties.

"I want to make some contribution to the Beijing Olympics," he says.

Billich's knowledge of China goes back 60 years. At that time, his aunt was a fashion designer and usually made dresses by using raw silk from Qingdao, a coastal city in East China's Shandong Province. It was in his aunt's tailor shop that Billich got to know silk, Shandong and China. He became curious about China, but never expected to visit.

It wasn't until 1996 that Billich came to China at the invitation of the China Artist Association to attend a conference.

Later, it was Beijing's success in bidding for the 2008 Olympics that connected the artist and China so closely and brought the Australian artist into the national spotlight.

"In 1993, Sydney beat Beijing as a contender in bidding for the 2000 Olympics," Billich says. "I felt pleased for Australia, but felt sorry for China. Since that day, I began to pay attention to China and support China in my own way."

In July 13, 2001, at the crucial moment when the International Olympic Committee chose Beijing as the host city of the 2008 Games, Billich presented the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee with a painting on behalf of the local government of Canberra in Australia.

Entitled Beijing Millennium Cityscape, the artistic interpretation of Beijing, 2.8-metre-high and 1.8-metre-wide, portrays the city as a symbol of international goodwill.

The oil painting on canvas includes several of Beijing's prominent landmarks and Chinese people participating in athletic events and festivities. The work is characterized by its combination of ancient and modern architecture - structures like the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven are juxtaposed with modern skyscrapers.

In 2002, Billich conceived a series of about 36 images under the Bing Ma Yong (terracotta warriors and horses) sports theme to celebrate the first anniversary of Beijing's bidding success. The paintings threw new light on the warriors, whose first site at Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province was excavated in 1974.

Billich features the terracotta warriors as modern Olympians. Their bows and arrows become the equipment of Olympic archery competitors, their lances javelins, and their horses run through Olympic courses.

This goes well with how Billich describes his work. "It's surrealist, I manipulate reality. I turn it into some kind of symbolic analysis which works on several levels of meaning. There is a touch of irony in what I paint as there is in all surreal art. It contains a fair amount of humour."

In July 2004, Billich launched another 2.8-metre-high and 1.8-metre-wide oil painting entitled "Jubilate for the Century: Olympic Dream of China" to celebrate the third anniversary of Beijing's success. The piece depicts the rapture of the Chinese people over China's winning bid to host the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with the famous scenic sites of China's provinces providing a colourful backdrop.

His paintings gained Billich not only a big name in China but also some handsome profits.

All his paintings of China have sold out, with each piece priced from US$10,000 to US$250,000 and even US$1 million.

"But I do not work for money," he says. "Annually, I donate about US$200,000 to local governments and some other organizations in China."

Among plenty of highly esteemed international artists, Billich is the only artist designated as the official "Olympics painter" by 28 countries and has received awards and prizes for sports paintings.

"The reason should be attributed to the body of my work and the variety of work," he says.

Billich has produced major cityscapes for the Olympics held in Atlanta, Sydney, Salt Lake City and Paris. Works he created in Switzerland hang at the IOC's headquarters in Lausanne. His paintings cover various types including cityscapes, Chinese kung fu, and non-sporting scenes.

In 2004, Billich began to paint kung fu as part of his contribution to calling the IOC to introduce kung fu into the Olympics."To paint kung fu is to paint the essence of Chinese sports," he says. "Tae kwon do could be an Olympic sport, why not kung fu? I know it takes time."

TKD, a Korean boxing which allows use of legs and feet as well as arms and hands, is a demonstration sport. It was introduced to the Olympics in 1988.

A demanding job

People view Billich as an expert in expressing athletic spirit in his paintings, but he believes it is harder than many realize.

"Sports-painting is demanding and requires lasting ability, strength and consistency," he says. "It is difficult to present dynamics, spirit, energy and passion in a piece of work, and much more difficult when it comes to China."

The artist has always been inspired by China's rich culture and over 5,000 years of civilization. "The more I know about it, the more I want to know about it," he says.

Billich is well-known for cityscapes painting, and he finished painting Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province last July.

"I'd like to paint all the cities in China, and now I have been invited by local governments to paint eight cities, including Beijing, Qingdao, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong."

In preparation for a painting, he usually spends a few months getting to know the city: walking, taking taxis and bicycles around, reading books and watching videos. He usually wears out three pairs of shoes because of his long walks.

"It is very demanding both mentally and physically," he says. "Usually it takes me one month to finish it without stopping, but I divide the painting process into several phases to enlighten my spirit and make it better. I work for a while, and leave for a while and then come back for work. So it usually takes me two months to do it."

Now Billich has a 400-square-metre art studio in eastern Beijing. He spends most of his time in China painting in the studio, but besides painting, he exercises everyday for 20 to 25 minutes.

"I needn't go to the gym, I use my own body as a machine, I do push-ups and high-jumps," he says while he shows how to do it in an empty place inside his studio.

"If I am not fit, the quality of life suffers, the spirit suffers, and the quality of my output suffers," he says.

(China Daily 09/11/2006 page1)