All Sorts of Colors

“All Sorts of Colors” is derived from "Ode of Beautiful Colors" by Jiang Yan of the Southern Dynasty, “Five types of lights flow, and ten colors are gorgeous and diverse.” It describes a variety of colors and patterns. Light and color are essential elements in Western painting. Since the birth of Impressionism in the 19th century, people's understanding of color has shifted from the inherent color of objects to the rich and changing light colors in nature. Painters walk out of the studio and go deep into the wilderness and countryside. Their works express the fresh and vivid natural feeling bathed in sunlight.

In this series, I have emphasized the colorful lotus pond, including a series of paintings in which I depicted the subtle changes of the lotus pond from different angles. Light color is an interesting theme. In his "Haystacks" series of paintings, Monet has depicted the color changes at different times of the day, while the light and color presented by the lotus pond in nature are highly variable. From a sunny summer day filled with shimmering light, to a quiet and gloomy darkness when the dusk gradually subsides, the traces of time left in the lotus pond can be seen everywhere. The lotus pond itself is also a scene composed of colors. The green leaves and red flowers set each other off, showing layered color changes under natural light and shadow: deep and shallow, cold and warm, bright and dark. These elements make the lotus pond shine with extraordinary splendor. They are no longer conceptualized objects, but the flowing vitality in nature.

Great ancient Chinese thinker Lao Zi said, “Man follows the earth, the earth follows the heavens, the heavens follow the Tao, and the Tao follows nature.” The Tao of Nature is the core of the Taoist spirit and the foundation of all things. Painting starts from observing nature and ultimately returns to nature. Only by removing all inherent conceptual impressions can the most authentic colors be displayed.