Out of
doors, there is a greater variety of light than the interiors, where to all
intents and purposes it is constant. But for just reason, light plays too great
a part in the broad daylight, and all the entities are subject to the luminary
whose shafts of sunlight illuminates all things and produces a kind of
momentary effects according to different hours. The individualities of objects
are indeterminate. When Nature is under cover of night, the vague visual images
of the existences tempt us to figure out what they are and what forms they are
in. Regarding a painting of night motif, an artist has to exercise his
penetrating vision to give the obscure nature a marvelous sense of the
contents, and also a sense of the form of the soul.
It is
proper for an artist not to want to stand still, finding a new language to
express his new approach to art, but if it fail to have reference to the
reality of nature, it is about to perish of dryness and vacuum. For nature is
an inexhaustible reservoir of energy, images, emotions, rhythms and light, that
everyone can draw the strength of his expression from the earth itself, and
such strong relationship built up could vivify every brush-stroke. There is something
more about painting the night scene of nature; it is like closing the eyes to
the outside world, and let the feelings of nature’s inward musicality and
bewitching mystery being the leaven that provoke and accelerate the germination
and blossoming of a slice of a silent night.
The
visions of night solicit my imagination. Each detail in the painting is
carefully described and loving positioned, that flowingly reveals each
intrinsic element, detached from and yet inseparable from the whole work. The
scene being shrouded in night mist, the appearance of objects will keep fading,
but my persistent attempt is to pin down their outward appearance, shimmering
in the dim moon light. The contours of the distant lotus leaves are delineated with
soft light tone to make it visible in the dark environment, while the front
leaves are immerged in the misty night.
The
external reality was transposed into tonal rhythms, charming in subtlety and
gracefulness. In this work, with a subtle difference given by a tone that I was
looking for and which I have found at last. The background must be suffusion of
air and light; they have to be vague because they must not distract us;
especially the two roses in the upper right corner, I treat them with undertone,
and give a sensation of soft freshness and porousness, whereas the plastic
intensity is given to the lotus flower with the much more resonant and
high-pitched quality of hue. The butterflies and bird retaining their opacity and
their solidity dispute the field with the transmutation into the land of spirit
by turning them into phantasms. The persistence of the link with the
inspiration of the earth allows me to venture much further beyond external
reality.
