Featured Oil Painting “Quest”

My latest oil painting, Quest, is a mystery piece - whose underlying message, even evades my own grasp, as the painting was, once again, built upon an image visited my mind when I was in the state of between sleep and awake, repeating the experience inception of another featured painting, Father and Son.

The focus of Quest was a blurry figure, either a man or a woman, who gingerly and wearily treads on a bridge or a pathway, which could be floating on a vast body of water, or suspending in the sky. The weary traveler's situation on the pathway was quite precarious, and he or she was in danger of slipping off the bridge; yet the traveler pressed on, hands raised, head bent and steps hesitant. Therefore, this painting could be interpreted as either a cautionary story, or a depiction of a spiritual journey, a journey or penance, a quest for truth, or relentless self-discovery. A quest.

 The starry sky, in vibrant blue, decorated with moving yellowish green lights, was highly dramatic and textured, reflecting the turmoil inside the traveler; down below, there was a large body of smooth green water, interlaced with bright long red waves, soothing and seductive, pacifying yet can be just as dangerous as Narcissus's pond.

This ambiguous, elusive and dichotomic piece reflects the perpetual anxiety of self-conscious human kind.


Originally published on my website: Featured works: Oil Painting “Quest”

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- Featured Oil Painting “Father and Son”
- "Arabesque" and Other Paintings Inspired by Literature
- My Featured Work - Portrait Painting "Grandma"
- My Featured Work: Oil Painting “Interaction” – A Group Portraits
- Featured Oil Painting "The Triumph of Saint George"

Featured Oil Painting “Father and Son”

Often, when I started to drift into sleep at night, my restless mind would conjure up some images more imaginative than I could think of when I was wide awake. Sometimes, during those dreamy moments, my mind kept its presence and I was able to rouse my in order to make a quick sketch or to, attempting to capture those fleeting impressions.

A recent such instance presented me an entangled group of tight embracing muscular bodies, in agony or ecstasy. In the end, my decipher of the image drew the conclusion that it presented the embrace and reconciliation of estranged persons who ought to be close to each other, father and son.

Base on that quick sketch, I made a monochromatic and muted yet quite evocative and powerful painting, on the theme of Prodigal Son.

 The strength of this piece lies in its universal touching theme, the heartbreaking posture of those once broken men, the strong outlines of the figures and the high relief of the bodies.

The painting is small in format but big in the feelings it emotes.

Originally published on my website: Featured works: Oil Painting “Father and Son”

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- "Arabesque" and Other Paintings Inspired by Literature
- My Featured Work - Portrait Painting "Grandma"
- My Featured Work: Oil Painting “Interaction” – A Group Portraits
- Featured Oil Painting "The Triumph of Saint George"

My Favorite Reliefs in Franziskanerkirche, Graz

The Franziskanerkirche in Graz was visually pleasing in its simplicity, befitting to its name; even its many multiple-colored stained glass windows didn't distract from its purifying sparseness.



In that rather somber and scantly decorated space, what I found most striking was a small format relief cycle on the life of Jesus.  These emotionally charged reliefs were as simply and economically delineated as the church itself - terse, understated, and never showy or ostentatious.



Amongst this cycle, I found these two pieces below were most exemplary - The Nailing of Jesus to the Cross and The Resurrection:


The Nailing of Jesus to the Cross


Resurrection

The interplay and dialogues between the reliefs consisted of monochromatic and line drawing-like figures and the flat and light maroon tinted background, helped to create a somber and sanctified atmosphere and classic timelessness.  The drama was not diminished when the wrenching and emotional scenes were not presented in some obvious and overwrought styles; rather, the constraints of the execution of these reliefs enhanced their emotional impact.


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 98:  My Favorite Artworks in Palazzo Ducale, Venezia (Doge Palace, Venice)
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 96: My Favorite Altar and Fresco at Barmherzigenkirche, Graz

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

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My Favorite Altar and Fresco at Barmherzigenkirche, Graz

Though thee baroque monastery church, Barmherzigenkirche (Brotherhood of Compassion), in Graz, Austria, was founded by the Archduke Ferdinand and Max Ernst in 1615, the present construction was from later period - built in 1735-40, was by J. G. Stengg and it presented visitors stark contrasts between its austere though flowing architectural elements and the overstuffed, overwrought religious paintings, sculptures and altars. 



For the latter, it was their almost naïve sincerity and the heart-felt solemnity rescued them from the disaster of complete kitsch and drew viewers' attention to elaborate splendor.



Amongst those unusual objects, I found a huge altar centering on an ebony Madonna very intriguing and most memorable.  Underneath a seashell arch, enshrouded in beautifully decorated cloth of ceremony, which was covered with alternating dark and light patterns, this Madonna, shaped like a typical Christmas tree, embodied the universal elements, manifested by the bold motifs on the ceremonial cloth.  A tiny arm of hers held high the small head of the Baby, which, like his celestial mother, wore weighty crowns gilded in rich though subdued red gold.

I really love the primitive feeling of this particular Virgin Mary.







The second memorable piece in Barmherzigenkirche depicted a typical sacrificial scene of a certain saint.  It was a fresco on a side wall near an alter of the theme of the Lamentation.  What struck me most of this side fresco was the beauty of the subtle coloration, and the elegance of the postures, therefore, the rather terrifying scene was beautifully presented and such dichotomy generated a high drama of its own.  Furthermore, one could see that a sculptural lamenting cherub from the altar cast his sight on this painted scene, thus bound those two elements tightly together, forming a continuous narration from altar to the side wall and then back.






My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 97: My Favorite Reliefs in Franziskanerkirche, Graz
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 95: My Favorite Sculptures at Schloßberg, Graz

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

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- My Favorite Sculptures in les Jardins du Ranelag, Paris

Monumental "Andy Warhol: Shadows" in Los Angeles

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, is celebrating Andy Warhol, one of the most influential American artists from the 20th century, by presenting his monumental Shadows series of 102 canvases.

MOCA stated that "conceived as one work, Warhol’s exceptional series of variously silkscreened and hand painted canvases features two different compositions, ranging in hue from an electric green to a somber brown. Based on photographs of shadows taken in The Factory, the artist’s New York City studio, the Shadows paintings alternate between positive and negative imprints. With few exceptions, “the peak,” or black positive, always appears on a colored ground, while “the cap,” a smaller, colored form, hovers before a black background."

"“The Shadows are one of Warhol’s most mysterious and beautiful works, full of mood and feeling, repeated over and over, not unlike a song. Seeing them all together at MOCA provides a special occasion to consider an artist we think we know from a new angle,” said MOCA Senior Curator Bennett Simpson."



In October, I had the chance to visit MOCA in LA, and I was surprised by how compact this series seemed and how grandiose it really was, when confronted by those arrays of canvases displayed in a modest corridor and a single albeit huge hall.  At the first glance, I was rather underwhelmed by the seemingly smallish looking display; upon closer inspection, I realized the amazing scope of the endeavor and was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of those canvases and the myriad variations they conveyed - the imagination of the artists was apparently boundless and the beauty of these subtly differentiated coloration was incredibly moving.  Below are images from that incredible exhibition:































Below images offer closer look of those canvases:































The show ends on February 2, 2015, so people still have chance to see the exhibition. Even for those who are not big fan of Warhol, me included, it can still be a moving experience to see those incandescent beautiful pieces together.  High recommended.


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