粉点绣球 2016

This painting, 粉点绣球 by 王新福, looks like it was made with oil paint probably applied with a palette knife. I'm imagining the artist, perhaps working alla prima, directly from life, focusing intently on the nuances of light and form within the hydrangeas. They’re wrestling with the paint, coaxing it into representing the forms before them. You can see this constant push and pull in the thick impasto of the paint. The strokes are chunky and rhythmic, like the artist is feeling out the shape of each petal. I keep thinking about how the artist handles the chroma of the pinks and purples – how the tones shift as the artist builds up the composition. It’s like a field of energy made up of touches and dabs of paint. It has a painterly energy that reminds me of Van Gogh. You can see these artists are in conversation across time. The legacy of painting as embodied expression is alive and well!