Ms Chen Ying once told me her story. One night, she was dreaming of a beautiful lotus pond. After she woke up，she couldn’t help painting Corner of Lotus Pond based on the dream. On a peaceful night, in the moonlight, some willows were drooping over the lotus pond, swaying softly in the wind. In the water, the lotus and the lotus leaves seemed to be dancing to each other, which led to endless meaningful afterthoughts. In fact in the ancient times, the painter created his works based on his dream, which was not unbelievable. It is recorded historically that a painter named Gao Qipei, living in Qing Dynasty, in Tieling of Liaoning Province, was dreaming of his painting with his fingers in his dream. He immediately had a try the moment he woke up. Fingers’ painting did work well. Later, Gao Qipei turned founder of the Finger Painting, a great master in the painting field. Nowadays, like an ancient painting master, Chen YIng established her works elegant and fantasy according to her dream, which resulted from her deep love, continuous pursuit, and super unique inspiration in the Chinese painting.
Corner of the Lotus Pond, which borrowed and absorbed the approach to applying color and light from the western oil painting, is actually a great combination of western painting skills and eastern painting skills. Great masters like Lin Fengmian, Wu Guanzhong referred to the western painting skills while they created their works. Learning from western painting techniques is currently a trend of the Chinese painting in continuity and evolvement. Corner of the Lotus Pond by Chen Ying and Sleeping Lotus by Monet, French impressionist master in the 1800s are converging. Pan Tianshou, a Chinese painting master also borrowed the painting skill in his works Corner of Xiaolong Pond. This painting method is playing a unique role in deepening the topic by making little better than much. This painting approach creates remarkable feeling of art from common topics, especially makes audience arouse endless imagination to experience the charm of art
Corner of the Lotus Pond takes on unique charm, and vividness, which reveals the painter’s super practiced painting skills. Lotuses and lotus leaves and willow’s brunches are laid out sensibly. Lotuses are lovely and touching, while the leaves of the lotuses are dark green. Free willow brunches are pretty and graceful. The general appearance of the painting looks tremendously reasonable and elegant whether void and solid, bright and dark, thick and thin, or dynamic and static. The subtle combination of the three colors black, green and white makes the painting absolutely lifelike. This painting skill was also applied by a great painting master in Shanghai , named Zhao Zhiqian. Chen Ying’s Corner of the Lotus Pond is actually regarded as a masterpiece.
It is unbelievable that such achievement has been made with only five years of painting. And what is worth mentioning is that she began to learn to paint in her fifties. So, it is not strange that she should be considered to be a super genius in painting. Some people say her remarkable achievement should be owed to her belief of Buddhism. Chen Ying, however, doesn’t think so. She is always putting kindness and goodness first. Be friendly and considerate to others, do anything heart and soul, be open-minded ignoring wealth and fame, respect the law of nature, and all these factors establish herself as a happy man. In addition, she has a strong sense of Buddhism. Everything around her is in harmony. Through her continuous and great efforts, she is conscious to borrow traditional painting skills from ancient great painters in Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. She is also conscious to be applying what she has seen, heard and felt to her concrete painting creation.
Appreciating Chen Ying’s Corner of the Lotus Pond makes me feel that her works looks tremendously touching and powerful and that her super painting techniques establishe her as a painting master at her old age. Let’s wish Chen Ying greater success in her future painting life.
Former Curator of QInghai Museum Zhang Yongxi
September 18, 2013