Flower 1978

Huang Yongyu made this flower with ink and colour on paper, and I wonder if he worked on it outside, ‘en plein air,’ because the mark-making feels immediate, like it has sprung to life right in front of him. The colour palette is muted and monochrome, dominated by blacks and greys, which creates a calming, natural, and zen-like feeling. I imagine the artist holding a calligraphy brush, loaded with ink, and making bold, confident strokes on the paper. The petals are a soft, cool, bluey white, and the texture looks thin and translucent, like watercolour washes. I’m reminded of other painters who work from nature, such as Georgia O’Keefe, or Joan Mitchell, whose mark-making is also direct and expressive. In each case, the artist translates nature and the observed world into a personal visual language that resonates with our collective experience. We are all in conversation, after all.