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Painter's Preface
I always say that, it is not the skills that tame the powers between colours and lines, but all kinds of experiences from heart that words can or cannot describe. In many cases, instead of saying these experiences are consumption of feelings, it is better to say that they are sustenance of feelings. For so many years, or even since when I was a child, I have already immersed my senses into flowers and plants, releasing myself and expressing myself there. Using flowers and plants as reference for feelings, I depict my feelings in inks and colours from my paintbrush.
Blending my feelings with flowers and plants ignites my reflection to life. You see, the original ecology of all these flowers and plants reveal the natural beauty of life. Whether the elegance of exotic flowers, or the uniqueness of rare herbs; no matter how dedicated the potted plants are, or how wild the wild life has been, they all let me feel the true qualities, sincerity, and even bluntness of life. Sometimes I cannot distinguish clearly whether it is the appealing but squeamish vitality itself, or the depiction of such vitality that moves me, but I indeed have plainly experienced the comfort and embrace provided by the strength of life.
Blending my feelings with flowers and plants brings my worries to life. Whilst I admire the legends of plants and forms of life in the nature in my numerous experiences in doing painting in the country, I am also worried about the so-called “transformations” by humankind that will lose the authenticities of the naturalness of these lives. I hope I can record the beauty of this nature as it is, and I even hope that our posterities will not have to enjoy nature from frames only. Perhaps it is because of these wishes that I always diminish myself and magnify the aesthetic objects, carelessly but consciously. I respect those who revere the nature, because I do so, too.
Blending my feelings with flowers and plants awakens my wishes to life. For so many times, when I appreciate the lotus in misty rain and gaze at the sunflowers in bright sunshine, they always make me come to realise the meaning of life. The expressions of lotus that are ready to blossom, sunflowers that are neither haughty nor humble, are simply overweening and selfless. They themselves are sunshine when there is no sunshine. They themselves are warmth when there is no warmth. It is more than gratified and enlightened when human life can reach such state.
Blending my feelings with flowers and plants makes me come to realise the Zen of life. Life is unrestrained. Wherever the flower seeds, which drift slowly with the wind, are destined, they will blossom in whatever colours they are settled. Such ability to adapt to different circumstances and indifference to fame can serve as a caution to this impulsive world. Life is self-confident. In the world of flowers, even the wonderful incompleteness sends a message to the human world: if we only pursue a perfect outcome and ignore enjoying the process of pursuit, there will be too many disappointments. Life is autonomous. The joyfulness of flowers blossoming in spring cannot bring the pain of them withering in winter. In our personal journey of soul, we should have yearnings and ideals in four different seasons.
These are my feelings that come from flowers and plants.
Xu Yanting
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