Lotus Land (part 2)--------lotuses with a butterfly

No matter how improvisational,graceful or spontaneous an masterpiece appeared, there was always an underlying control,which involved a struggle to gain the qualities of individuality and originality ,as is highly valued by a self-critical artist, who would  become distraught when the work has lost all its freshness. Therefore whenever an artist works, the existence of his is like the ordeal of a convict in chain for the artist  is confined in his strenuous frame of mind to chart the most significant technical changes to solve the sort of painter’s questions being raised all by himself.

The artist is involved in exploring the innovative way of expression which could be compared to being engaged in a pitched battle.The artist renders his accustomed manner and at the same time have to find something new through the illumination with his brushwork the process of painting itself.Therefore the drawing paper or canvas is a battlefield for old method and new attempt,traditional values and personal ideas.Such intense confrontation is not a delightful experience,but that could prompt the artist to move on, not being held up at a stagnant stage.Therefore, although it is painstaking to go through the conflict of putting new throughts in the already formed style,I still loved to experiment,and new techniques significantly changed my working methods.Upon looking at the second Chinese painting”Lotuses with a butterfly”of mine,one can tell that it is a bit different from my first painting which has a dragonfly in it.In a measure, to record one’s thoughs throught the wielding motions of a brush is like putting one’s ideas in writing. It seems to me that it is excellent to form one’s style more effectively,provided that the feeling is real,and that the ideas are personal.An attempt to create a series of ten paintings with the theme of lotuse is made and posed for me to grope for the most significant technical changes from one phase of my career to the next.

All painting is in some measure taken from nature;however it is not just the fidelity to nature,a stylistic painter’s motivation to do so would be Corot’s teaching:”While trying for the conscientious imitation of nature.”said Corot,”I never for a single instant lose the emotion which first seized me.”The artistic appeal of “Lotuses rising out of water look natual without showing the slightest trace of wonderful workmanship.” Such kind of celetial beauty is the infatuation to me and I am one of many many people through out many cultures being inspired by the symbolistic virtues carried by the flower.

The lotus flower has a strong pleasant odor and is the only water dwelling plant to regularly rise eight to twelve inches above the surface.Besides,in the belief of Buddhism,the growth pattern of a lotus flower signifies the progress of the soul.The roots of a lotus flower grow from the primeval mud of materialism,the stem then grows up through the waters of experience,where it lies pristinely above the water, and basks in the bright sunshine of enlightenment.

Therefore,the luminosity is the genuine color of the lotus flower.I was obsessed with finding ways to visualize it.Maybe some of the old masters also had the expressive emotion of mine.I found that one leaf from Yun Shou Ping’s Album of flowers used lotus flower as a subject matter and the lotus flower is rendered as a luminant with his own distinctive technique(the illustration above is the lotus flower depicted by Yun Shou Ping).I am receptive to what the art of the past could teach me,but I never directly incorporate specific elements from works by them.The idiosyncrasy of a painting appears to lie with an artist’s own throught and his own ability.Therefore the references of paintings by old masters are out of veneration for the basic principles that sustain my own creativity.

During the course of my creation,I do not exactly have realized where my experiments would lead. However it has striken me that how could the luminosity be viewed without the darkened background to set it off.Therefore the essential natural brightness of lotus flower had irradiated my mind.In the upper part of my painting, the seemingly random jabs, slashes, semi-effaced marks, combining with the illusion of space which is created by the use of subdued color tones,all together constituted  a new and uniquely personal style to describe the extraordinary life and movement being ever lasting in the environment;at the same time,the illuminated quallity of lotus flower could stand out against the muted setting.

In the lower part of the painting,the water flowing in serpentines is an integrant vividity of the orchestrations.As one’s field of vision is rounded rather than rectangular,that the circulated inspection to veiw the painting is induced by the overall energetic and harmonious brushstrokes.The directions of the visional movements is also accentuated by the flying butterfly which is leading our attentions to the pristine beauty of the lotus flower.

The composed and dignified styles in Chinese Culture

The literati painting is the orthodox traditional painting in China. As implied by the name, this kind of painting is created by the persons who are widely-read, or even in the literati and fficialdom’s hands.

The construct of traditional paintings at the hands of scholarly officialdom, this unique style not only involves with poetry and literature, but also associates with the ideology of the refined gentlemen. Sentiments and acquired knowledge of the man-of-letters embodied in the paintings exuded from the tips of the brushes which loaded with ink of delicate tonal modulations. So to speak, the brush and the manipulating hand interpenetrate, and then the individual aesthetic inclination, subtle emotion engender the painting of spontaneous idiosyncrasy.

  

Of such an artistic realm,there is the meaningfulness and reserve in it to settle the soul and the body, as the spritual needs of calmness and composedness could be attained. A kind of remote sentiments imported in the paintings for the giving of the refined gentlemen’s vent, or their stirring of emotions to be expressed,whenever they enaged in their recreation off their official duties or finished readings. These kinds of feelings incubated slowly in their minds similar to the rare old vintages stored in the wine vaults for a long time and they are so mellow and extraordinary that could not be found in the general markets. In Chinese history, Mr. Chao is a great artist possessed the extravagant magnanimity and such disposition reflects in his works of art.

The general public recognize Mr.Chao from his brilliant calligraphy; we also know that when Southern Song Dynasty had perished, the Yuan Dynasty took the regime. In this critical juncture, Mr.Chao was a member of the royal clan, because of taking up the offer of an official post of the invader, he was criticized by others. As a consequence, his calligraphy was deemed too dainty and was devalued unjustly. Perhaps thus historical situation, an amateur astist with the influential official position in court, drove him to immerse himself in his pursuit of arts with the unmatchable enthusiasm and devotion to release his pent-up emotion. From the painting of his horse, we could see that the depicting lines of it is invested with strength despite the seemingy delicate of them. The succinct manner establishing an air of simplicity, he stripped away all minor visual elements; the precise lines were used with more concern for representational necessities indicating hair, muscles,tendons and bones beneath the skin with the subtle variations of the lines.

Furthermore, the pertinent perceptual qualities of precision is not only as clear-cut as the perceptual features that carry it, but the briefly outlined contour also encompassed the signs of vitality in it. By looking at the local part, the way of representing the mane at the forehead and neck make them look soft and grossy. Just by a few strokes,the short hair under the chin,the eyeleashes are well orginised  and echoes with the other part of the head. Putting around the head is a thin piece of leather with the little knot and the small metal components, which are appropriately rendered but the bridle is not for practical use as it is loosely attached to the head demonstrating it’s graceful curve, without the purpose of tightening it for driving. The rest part of the meticulous delineation is neat with nuanced

variation by the control of the inward mental force. It is something more than the mere linear drawing, for the whole configuration of brush and ink is so leisured,so graceful, that it is the leading model of refinement of the literiti painting.

The traditional Western art shows the fidelity to nature and assumes a scientific attitude to view our world, and the motive power for creation originates from the willpower of the individual. Such as Da Vinci the paragon of great master,a fount of wisdom,who was not content to express what the naked eyes could see, he made a thorough inquiry of the internal structure to understand the constrution and function of the things he was depicting and at the same time could organize complex perceptual patterns with the utmost clarity. It is said that he had dissected dozens of bodies and his manuscript confirmed the records with illustrations and propositions as the reference to articulate the visual idea of his own. Therefore painting is a process for him to explore all things under the sun, so it took him several years to finish a work of art which was the outcome of his efforts and patience.

The cosmological conception of of Chinese is established in two dimensions: the space of our dwelling places（宇）is the epitome of the vastitude of the universe ;going out and coming back to the dwelling places is the concept of time in the universe（宙）,From the taking turns of going out and coming back, Chinese people deduce that the space and the time of the universe is an organic whole. In ancent time , common people’s concept of space and time was as that “when the sun rises , go out to work; when the sun sets,come back to rest.” The endless rotation of the sunrise and sunset, the blossom and languishment of flowers, the change of four seasons are purposeful scenes towards the literatus.

They grasped the profoundity in these phenomena with their hearts and sensed the rhythms of the cosmic space and time and bosomed these rhythmic repetitions to savour. The prime minister of Song Dynasty Mr.Yan’s classic poems are famous through ages, and one composition is much more well- known than the others for it’s simplicity and insignful, and a couplet of it recorded his penetrative sense about the action of time to our world, “The flowers look the same year after year, but the person is not the one of the previous year.” This kind of perspicacity enabled the literatus with self-cultivation to be calmly symphonious with the rhythmical rotation of life-force.

Therefore the horse depicted by Mr.Chao is constructed with the mellow and classically elegrant lines,

seemingly effortless. There is no preparatory work to dissect horses as Da Vinci would have done to help him to shape what cannot be seen. The sophisticated wisdom merges the course of life with the cosmic law of rhythm, and the refined offical could wield his brush with cadence in the void of aplomb, and freed himself from the cramped life. The brief lines do not mean that its content is meager. It was Mr.Chao’s fate to have qualm and conflict in his whole life, but from his masterpieces we could not find any personal anguish or feelings of melancholy in them. Viewing his works of art, we sympathize with the rhythmic and self-contented lines which are resonating with the heart’s chord of a composed intellect. It is the outcome of the sincere seeker for the truth of the analogy between the hamonious macrocosm and the concordant responses of our spirits.

Many unfortunate men of letters with the disturbed minds would show an aroma of abjection, or narrow sense of self-pity in their works. The unreconciled individual moodiness just can voice it’s own grievance in a restricted space. There are also some genre of art which ignores the nature of human existence or the mortality per se; the vocabulary of artistry, the vacuous lines, is used with more concern for pictorial,ornamental necessities, devoid of the interaction and resolution between underlying order and the irrational variety of clashes happening in this pace-time continuum. When

Mr.Chao,the literati and officaldom,used the lines for the composition of a painting,he was as if plucking a string instrument. All his composed and dignified disposition, the dispassionate nature of the universe were enbodied in his wielding brush.

Lotus Land(part 1)-------lotuses with a dragonfly

After Eastern Han Dynasty when Buddhism began to disseminate in China,lotus,taken as the devine flower representing Heaven and symbolizing purity,had become the main theme of many decorations and the motif of paintings.Therefore an artwork with such theme embodies the desirable Pure Land for our bodies and minds to experience the absolute liberties to free ourselves from all the vexations of this mortal world.

In this painting,the lotus flowers in full blossom is executed in washes of ink and colour without outlines presenting the charms of a free-hand painting and the implication of the noble moral integrity of “Emerging unstained from the fifth”.Such qualities of extraordinary beauty and grace can only be expressed after careful observation of the subject and the distinctive technique to coalesce the traditional expressive power of brush of Chinese painting with the westernized visual aspect of depicting volume,light,shadow and texture.

As for the setting,the billowing mists and clouds seem entirely detached from earth;and the whole compostion appears to be in a state of perpetual motion and change,while the static dragonfly landing at the rim of a lotus leaf is set off as an amusing contrast.This painting has a dream-like quality of the divine fairy realms which maybe is the aspirational place of many people.