Lotus 1980

Huang Yongyu made this image of a Lotus with ink and colour on paper. It's all about the gesture here, isn't it? Each brushstroke feels like a quick, decisive movement, especially in the broad, sweeping marks that make up the background foliage. The textures are amazing; you’ve got the slick, watery washes contrasting with the drier, more broken strokes. Look at the way the red petals of the lotus are built up, layer by layer. There's a real sense of the artist building the form through the act of painting itself, not just representing something already conceived, a real material conversation. I’m reminded of Joan Mitchell in the way Yongyu uses colour not to describe form, but as a form of energy. The dragonfly hovering above is so light. Yongyu captures the fleeting beauty of the natural world. Art, like life, is a process, an ongoing conversation, a space of ambiguity.