My paper explores an intriguing series of 30 black and white watercolour and ink works by the Shanghai-born artist Shi Zhiying that give visual form to the unusual musings of Mr. Palomar, the title character of Italo Calvino's 1983 book. In the novel by the Italian writer, we are witnesses to a wonderful and often haphazard exploration of the world from its smallest creatures to the majestic universe it inhabits. Palomar's attempts to grasp these, to make sense of them, constantly elude and frustrate him, and he yet he never ceases trying despite the growing realization that his futility is the product of a greater sense of things that promises a far richer appreciation of life. It is not surprising to find that Calvino's writing has been long admired in China as it embraces a contemplation of the world that is more familiar in the Far East than in the West. Shi masterfully demonstrates her grasp of the world of Mr. Palomar with a visual panorama that complements perfectly Calvino's text.