Magnificent Spectacle Lotus Pond

Huang Handong (The author of this essay is head of the Special Topic Department, and chief reporter of Shantou TV, outstanding top-notch personnel of Shantou City)

    Green lotus leaves are linked to each other resembling numerous layers of blue jades. They are freely spreading with multitudinous swaying branches. Siu Fun Kee's poetic lotus pond is free and unique. Endless landscape is with thousands of lotus contending for beauty among glowing mountains and graceful water. A spectacular sight with vast expanse of the sky has been constructed by Siu Fun Kee's leisure lotus pond.

    Allegedly, the earliest record of painting related to lotus may be the picture Ceremony by Lotus Lake by Liang Emperor Xiao Yi of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. There are many lotus painters among the ancient and modern Chinese as well as Western artists. Their brilliant great works are as many as stars in the sky. It is not easy to deliver any new surprise given that there are already many paintings depicting lotus pond in the past thousands of years. However, Fun Kee's works are different from the ancient palace painters' perfection with fine detailing. Her style is different from that of many masters such as Xu Wei and Ba Da from Ming Dynasty who experienced freehand brushwork, Zhang Daqian and Liu Haisu who employed strong and aggressive splashing from, Wu Guanzhong and Huang Yongyu who used blending of ink and color. It is even more different from the style of French impressionist who were intentionally focusing on light and shadow. Instead, her works are unique with a random and indulgent attitude. They also show a poetic mood, an ethereal image, and an elegant charm.

    There are too many advantages in Fun Kee's artistic career that ordinary people can't have. She comes from an artistic family with good talent since childhood. She lives in an open city and studies at a famous university. Her superiorities include excellent environment, good education, rich experience, and more importantly her determined to achieve character. Fun Kee's father, Siu Fai Wing, is an artist with profound influence in China and abroad. He is the first Chinese painter with an international asteroid named after him. He draws attention from the art community with his expertise on paintings, calligraphy, as well as sculpture. Siu Fai Wing was regarded highly in the art circle since he was young. He has close relationship with several generations of artists and his contacts are mostly famous masters. Also, he has an immense number of collection of paintings and calligraphy. Therefore, Fun Kee was deeply affected since her childhood and has been able to use the knowledge carefully through extensive observation. She has been able to accumulate a lot and develop good eyesight with scholar's style. As a result, her lotus pond is filled with unique temperament and diffused with a different kind of fragrance.

    Fun Kee favorites painting lotus ponds with her grand mind. According to Chinese culture, it has always been advocating seclusion and evading the world with pure, noble, and arrogant character. Lotus doesn't stain with sludge, symbolizing sanctity and fragrance. All these just fit the portrayal of literary spirit. Through the ages, when creating pictures of lotus, most painters focus on depicting the portion of flowers and leaves, while only a few focus on lotus pond. The picture composition is rather plain and quiet which is lack of excitement. However, Fun Kee's lotus pond is with a variety of levels and intricacies. It is flourishing, majestic, and energetic. She is able to focus on the whole without any repetition and demonstrate her high ability to manage the overall arrangement. Her lotus pond is always misty with smoke in spring, prosperous with green in summer, implicit but not exposed in fall, and warm with harmonious sunshine in winter. Looking at the contents of Fun Kee's lotus pond, there are all sorts of different scenes with vitality, including series of Sights of Lotus and Mountain, Scenery of Lotus in Mountain, Sunny and Cloudy in Four Seasons, Fine and Overcast in a Day, Clear Shadow under Daylight and Moonlight of Lotus Pond. In addition to the symbols of holiness, auspiciousness, love, as well as wealth, it is amazing that Fun Kee's lotus also show the far-reaching implication of rising prosperity.

Fun Kee has a lot of courage and boldness of vision when applying color with emotion. In ancient time, Chinese painting was called "Danqing". Painters used to advocate the "conformity to kind in applying colors" and paintings became a riot of colors. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, painters upheld ink painting. They paid full attention to ink and took no account of color. Ink painting was the leading type and only one unique color of ink was used everywhere. Chinese painting has its own esoteric theory and strict formula with full confidence. There are always many limitations in the traditional concept of applying color. Therefore, it is not easy for Chinese painters to have a breakthrough in terms of coloring regardless of the creation of Chinese painting or oil painting. However, Fun Kee has her own unique style in the depiction of lotus pond. She breaks through the traditional barriers, to apply color with emotion, to paint in a free and unconstraint way. There are all sorts of colors such as green, orange, blush, violet, black, white, and indigo. The colors can be expressed in the tones of deep or light, rich or tint. On the paintings, green lotus, red lotus, pink lotus, yellow lotus, while lotus and black lotus are reflecting each other and appear to be extraordinary splendor. Her expression of many colors has never been seen before. The combination and application of colors are extremely unusual, exquisite, delicate, rich in cadence, and full of rhythmic beauty. It's like Li Bai's poetry said, "The beautiful color of the lotus is unparalleled but whom is this fragrance sent to", Fun Kee has undoubtedly presented a new transcendence in applying color.

    Fun Kee's paintings have a natural interest in terms of forgetting the original shape and getting another realm outside the object. Freehand spirit is the essence of Chinese art and contribution of wisdom. It has independent aesthetic value and lofty academic status in artistic aesthetics of the world. When creating lotus pond, Fun Kee focuses on the spirit while detaches from the outside appearance of the objects. This is no other then the inheritance of the freehand style. She basically transforms the ancient style into her new style. She always depicts lotus leaves and flower stalks by just a flourish of the pen. She really uses her pen to fully display the fun and freedom of freehand brushwork when giving vent to her feelings. The modeling is ever-changing and unique with varied content as well as all sorts of different poses. Although her style looks new in appearance and technique as well as avant-garde, it is in fact benefiting from the inspiration of Chinese painting's freehand spirit and it is inherited in the same vein as traditional Chinese culture. The spirit has been condensed between the likeliness and dissimilarity. It goes direct into people's heart with unconventional style and high-mindedness. As ancient poetry states, "Only green leaves and red buds of lotus match each other; all the rolling of leaves, the opening and closing of flowers are natural". Fun Kee's freehand lotus pond contains abundance of creative techniques and artistic languages. She paints with her heartfelt feelings and remarkable energy. It really let us appreciate the new and extraordinary presentation.

    Fun Kee succeeds to open up her field of vision and have the knowledge from both the East and the West. Impressionists in France have used the oriental concept of art for reference. In turn, Impressionists have profoundly influenced the contemporary Chinese oil painting community as well. Fun Kee has already made some achievements in Oriental culture and has also studied extensively in Western art. The Impressionist's creative techniques and the spirit of freehand brushwork are similar to each other and each has its strong points. It is not hard to see the shadow of the impressionism and Divisionism when looking at Fun Kee's freehand lotus pond. The cold and warm of color replace the light and shade. The paintings show a real momentum and brilliant charm with a large area of color, a large brushstroke effect, the ever-changing composition as well as ingenious decorative embellishment. In the foreground of the picture, the lotus leaves are stacked in layers, clumps of clusters, vivid, and swaying gracefully. In the distant view of the picture, the boundless scenes look dim, obscure and starry. Looking at Fun Kee's art works, there are concrete presentation, abstract refinement, impressional ambiguity, intangible imagery, and exalted rhythm. She has succeeded in creating magnificent lotus ponds with thousands of colors and various beautiful postures.

    Fun Kee is ambitious to be great, she obtains the blending feature of the East and the West, and the mutual benefit of knowledge and skill, with the intent to innovation. The excellent distinctive lotus ponds created by Fun Kee are really presenting a unique artistic appearance, demonstrating the elegance of the East, conveying the spirit of Chinese culture, which have gained wide praise from the art world and all social circles. With her good foundation, strong education background, unremitting persistence and lofty aspiration, I believe Fun Kee will create bigger miracles and bring us more surprises in the future!