A friend sent Zhou Chunya a German shepherd dog named Heigen as a gift in 1994. The more familiar it became with people, the more understanding it had of people. It seemed that they can understand each other even without saying anything at all. Zhou Chunya recalled some memories of when Heigen and he were together, “When it was a little dog, it slept, walked and had meals together with me. He stayed by my side watching me when I painted. So I would rather paint him that was near me than other things that were far away. So Heigen became the leading actor of my paintings.” And soon Heigen became a model for him and one of his beloved painting subjects.

The black painting of Heigen was more like a diary that showed the artist’s real life. Heigen’s natural disposition made him very happy. Paintings called Heigen Played on the Flat Top, Running Heigen, Standing Heigen and so on showed the emotional connections between the artist and his beloved dog. Heigen was painted in 1995. The style of painting, which carried on from Zhou Chunya’s exploration of rock and flower subjects in 1990s, was just like the textural stroke of wood and rocks in painting and calligraphy. The scattered strokes are dragging, wrinkling and rubbing, with brush in sequence inverse, and aside, and make the whole painting filled with energy. It shows a return of the artist’s mood - an easy and natural journey of the heart filled with pleasure and simplicity.