A Kingfisher Resting in the Lotus Pond

 

I have in my blood an uneasy need for change, which is the constant evolution of perpetual search for progress in my métier. The thought of finding some new secret of this difficult craft has always haunted me. I have to modify the expressive technique, when setting out the new esthetic ideas, it comes to the means by which they convey the dreams through art. This means that I should pursue a wider knowledge of the resources of my art, that I remain forever an apprentice.

 

Years of obstinate plodding along the same path of painting dotted with difficulties and successes, with anxious self-questioning and uncertainty, I am still able to carry my purpose which is impelled by a desire of escaping from the confines of tradition and the finality of a kind of visual form. The presence of whatever model in a work is just passing reference; it enables me to be assured that my invention is not moving improbably far from the truth.

 

I find that when I abandoned the habitual expressive way, I were not only richer in experience, I were ready to be myself. Therefore each version of the lotus pond would reveal an essentially different ramification of my spirit and feelings.

 

In this painting, I draw a kingfisher perching on the stem of the seed cup. This brightly colored bird is so beautiful that in China in the Qing dynasty, many headdress ornaments wore by the empresses and imperial concubines were covered with kingfisher feathers. My concern of the bird is to retain its glistening textures with the technique of small strokes, with which I endeavored to create voluminous form.

 

I also developed the forms of the seed cup, the leaves, flower in my composition sculpturally and they also take the subtle lights well; here the picturesque could serve to firm up the whole and impose coherence.

 

This is the last painting, the tenth version of the serial of ‘Lotus Pond’. I would apply myself to carrying on the next stage of my development.