Online exhibition, 50 Years, 50 Artists: A Celebration of the West (from over 1,000 submissions), celebrating CaFÉ’s parent organization, the Creative West (formerly Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF)), turning 50 in 2024!
Online exhibition opens Mid-November.
A quote from Karl Marx “All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned” perfectly capture our sad epoch and this monochromatic painting of a disintegrating city/landscape reflects such pessimistic sentiment.
“Luminous” is a translucent landscape in the midst of a thorough purification – loaded yet still airy rain clouds release a generous yet gentle downpour, which rushes into the solid ground and continues to overflow in the already soaked terrain. The dark clouds, and darker soil, rendered the space in between even brighter, as if backlit, glowing, and luminous. Above the warm earth, the cool rain and clouds leave a refreshing impression.
Luminous
9” x 12”
Gouache on paper
Completed in 2022
“Autumn Rain” is a semi-abstract inspired by a rainy landscape. I endeavored to capture the pleasant wetness enveloping the fields and hills, and the wonderful interplay of cool and warm hues in the rich fall season. Bold and patchy strokes obliterated the contours of easily identifiable objects and rendered the landscape into almost pure patterns and rhythms.
Autumn Rain
9” x 12”
Gouache on paper
Completed in 2021
“Immaculate” aptly summarizes its subject of the painting – several ethereal white lilies floating in an opaque water body, whose pattern resembles the other-worldly images transmitted by the great Hubble Space Telescope. These dreamily floating flowers and their irregularly patterned background, mesmerize and pull the viewers into the depth.
This painting was published by Your Impossible Voice as the cover art in their 24th Issue in Spring 2021.
Immaculate
gouache on paper
9″x12″
2020
Edge is a fantastic cityscape, focusing on a sharp- lonely house in a peculiar perspective, with a sharp edge menacingly pointing to the viewers. The strangeness of the structure is further emphasized by its faceless facade, its imperfect windows, and the surrounding plantation in unusual hues and shapes. This geometric cube and its tightly closed windows promise some zealously guarded secrets, and invites and dares the viewers to discover.
Edge
24” x 30”
Oil on Canvas
Completed in 2022
An open, terraced, and desiccated field, dominated by a truss tower of industrial scale, dwarfed by the vault of leaden clouds, served as the backdrop of a small-scaled human drama, which centered on a lone figure looking toward the city silhouette in the distance, as if contemplating his or her future, in the region unknown. All these formed the subject of my landscape painting, Prospect, which suggested some inner turmoil without resorting to gestural embellishments – understated but impactful. I am pleased with the contrast between the vast landscape and the insignificant figure who got lost amid the cold and uninviting surroundings.
Several years ago, while traveling to Seattle, I encountered an unusual man-made lake, whose smooth surface was dotted with numerous bleached tree stumps, scattering across large swatches of the water surface. These turned out not to be tree stumps, rather relics or ruins of former workers’ dormitory sheds, which were abandoned and flooded with the change of the industries. The moving and melancholic image of the disappeared past haunted me ever since, and later the stumps-dotted lake and the ghost town underneath became the subject of my landscape oil painting Still Water, aiming to capture the poignancy of the sight.
Still Water
Oil on Canvas
30” x 40”
Completed in 2020
My allegorical painting Surveying portrayed a nightmarish landscape consisting of fluid and unsettled patterns, suggesting disturbed soil or waves, like the aftermath of a fierce battle. A large figure dressed in a similarly patterned white garb, floated above this mystic landscape, surveying the ravage brought upon by whatever malicious agents. The figure’s outstretched arms, along with the melting drips from the white dress, suggested immense sorrow and compassion.
Surveying
Oil on Canvas
28” x 22”
Completed in 2013
Waifs depicted an almost surreal landscape, tranquil and dark, as if under the spell of a mysterious and shushing moonlight. Amongst tall trunks, a group of figures shrouded in white, ostensibly young women, trod, plodded, or frolicked on the richly vegetated ground, ever deeper into the woods.
Despite their being in a group, there was an overwhelming sense of isolation and loneliness, and their internalized presence was touching to behold. Their billowing dresses were as mysterious as these figures themselves – were these innocent young girls or runaway women? Were they spirits, witches, or visiting phantoms from beyond the reach, and acted in tandem?
Waifs
24” x 30”
Oil on Canvas
Completed in 2020