Symbolic Imagery

Zhang Xiaogang shares his relationship with the world through his watercolor paintings of the lotus

Zhang Xiaogang shares his relationship with the world through his watercolor paintings of the lotus

Iwas once asked how could I put in 40 years to the watercolor painting and have never thought to change my mind. I told them that watercolor is not only a carrier of artistic expression, but also a medium for me to learn about the world and establish a relationship with it.

My Understanding of the Lotus

Ten years ago, I began to use this Western medium to express the classic Oriental symbol, the lotus, which was both accidental and inevitable. At that time, it was a little risky in the eyes of my friends because it was hard for them to imagine the combination. In the eyes of Chinese people, the lotus is regarded as a symbol of elegance and innocence. Zhou

Lotus · Hua, watercolor and propylene, 39 x 28" (100 x 70 cm)

The lotus pond in the summer evening looks extremely beautiful with the waving safflower and green leaves under the setting sun. I was deeply impressed by the fabulous picture at this moment, which motivates me to compose a colorful movement for it. In order to create a strong visual effect, first I adopted the acrylic color twice as the ground color in which the sense of texture was created with a dry pen to enhance the light and shade levels of the picture. The red color was the dominant tone of the picture, which is entirely the presentation of subjective ideas and a sublimation of the previous inspiration.

Dunyi, a scholar of the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote a famous paper about the lotus. As he said, “How stainless it rises from its slimy bed! How modestly it reposes on the clear pool—an emblem of purity and truth! Symmetrically perfect, its subtle perfume is wafted far and wide, while there it rests in spotless state, something to be regarded reverently from a distance, and not be profaned by familiar approach.” For thousands of years, the lotus has been endowed with so many spiritual implications and personality connotations. As a result, it is not only loved by more and more people, but also often considered a symbol of Chinese culture. With the connection of the Western painting techniques and the Oriental artistic conception, I want to explore an artistic language that is full of poetic quality without any distortion. From the perspective of the lotus’ form in the aesthetic sense, the flower can be seen as a point, the stem is a line and the leaf is a surface. It has distinctive characteristics that are different from other flowers. That has undoubtedly become a sufficient reason for my persistence in lotus painting.

Aesthetics of Creating the Lotus

In the long history of Chinese culture, there are numerous famous stories and works about the description and expression of the lotus, which have provided us with unique and valuable resources for reference. However, deep inside, I know that repetition and imitation are no way to be out. As a result, the real driving force for my exploration is to find out a new way for

my own works and form a painting language with distinct recognition. Over the past 10 years, I have been repeatedly expressing the theme of lotus. To my surprise, I have never felt dull or boring. Instead, I have become more attentive and devoted to it. In addition, I have been always trying to break through myself to create new ideas, new techniques and new effects. It is not more a painting than a research in the creation. Chinese drawing aesthetics theories and painting theories have embodied the wisdom of Chinese culture. I’ve been penetrating these into my watercolor creation bit by bit, which is one of the key points of my work. As we know, both ink painting and watercolor painting take water as media, but they bear different value orientations and fundamental demands of Eastern and Western cultures. Therefore, in the mutual learning process, it is obvious that we cannot draw the watercolor in the way of ink painting creation. As a consequence, the difficulty of my work is to realize the significant

reference and substantive integration. Chinese painting aesthetic theories such as the vivid aura and charm, spirit and form combination, the combination of virtual and reality and conformity to kind in applying colors have a great influence on my watercolor creation. In Chinese traditional painting, the concept of vivid aura and charm has always been regarded as the aesthetic criterion. When the concept is introduced to the watercolor painting, it means that the painting should be completed one stretch and imbued with lingering aura. Since the watercolor painting exactly has the congenital advantage, it needs to give full play to its characteristics. For the interpretation of spirit and form combination, although both spirit and form have important meanings, in fact, more emphasis is placed on spirit than form. As I understand, the spirit is not an abstract concept. Instead, it mainly focuses on the expression of the physical image and the presentation of the spirit and temperament of the object. Chinese painting encourages people to master the scale between the similarity and dissimilarity. A saying goes that dissimilarity deceives the world while over-similarity is the kitsch. It doesn’t mean to encourage people to neglect the expression of form, but to emphasize the concept of spirit and the sense of wholeness. As for the combination of virtual and reality, there is no so-called virtual concept without reality in the painting, which emphasizes the relationship with mutual promotion and mutual influence. In this paper, the virtual reality indicates a spiritual direction instead of a general physical distance or spatial relationship. As for the concept of conformity to kind in applying colors, it means applying coloring according to the objects. In fact, it can also be understood that the color can be applied according to the needs of the picture. We can change the color of the objects based on the mood of the creator or the subjective wishes. This practice makes me feel the sweetness of freedom without restraint.

Lotus · Xin Series VI, watercolor and propylene, 22 x 30" There is an important viewpoint in Chinese painting theories, which is that pay attention to the quality if you are near the object while focus on its vigor while you are far away from it. This viewpoint reveals a spatial processing method and the law of visual expression. In this work, first I mixed the propylene color with watercolor and used the dry brush strokes to express the texture of lotus leaves, and then adopted transparent warm green to cover the main part so as to form two levels of prospects. At last, I used the big sheep brush to render the whole atmosphere of the background to create a painting momentum.

Lotus · Xin Series IX, watercolor and propylene, 22 x 30" (56 x 76 cm) The art of composition and brushwork are the focus of this work. The art of composition refers to the composition and layout of the work, which is the contrast and arrangement between density and sparseness, light and darkness, big and small, reality and virtual. However, the brushwork pays attention to writing rather than sketching, and the fluency and coherence in the use of brushes is the only way to achieve the standard of vivid aura and charm in the painting.

Lotus · Yuan Series VII, watercolor and propylene, 22 x 30" (56 x 76 cm) This work with warm tone shows a kind of vigor and vitality. Since the lotus leaves are located on the left side of the picture, the center of the picture inevitably leans to the left. However, the lotus flowers painted on the right make a new balance. Line usually plays a skeleton role in the picture which is an important component of the painting. I have tried to express these lines by writing instead of painting in order to convey a unique rhythm.

Lotus · Yun Series I, watercolor and propylene, 22 x 30" (56 x 76 cm) In the poem, Plum Blossom, written by Li Fangying, there are two famous sentences, which are “there are ten millions of plum blossoms while I was impressed by only two of them.” The sentences have exactly expressed the points of options in painting, which have revealed the aesthetic principles that the minority overtake the majority and concision is beauty. On the premise that many complicated details are omitted, the work can concentrate on the expression of the overall atmosphere and aura of the painting.

Lotus · Zi, watercolor and propylene, 39 x 28" (100 x 70 cm) The whole day’s work depends on a good start in the morning. Lotus flowers are the most beautiful in the morning. Some are stretching and some are vaguely awake. Everything looks so harmonious and positive. The fresh blue-green tone implies this vigorous vitality, while the large-scale rendering is the expression of the spirit to nourish all things on earth. As for several important parts of the work, the watercolor mixed with a small amount of propylene color is adopted. In addition, method of separation media is also used, so that the painting can present a flowing texture and increase the expression performance after the painting gets dried.