LAM TIAN XING, Hong Kong, China❧

"AN EYEFUL" The Lotus of My Heart, Lam Tian Xing (2004)
Ink and Colour on Rice Paper
Size: 24 x 27cm

The traditional style of Chinese painting on rice paper is usually a stark, detailed and poetic rendering of a subject matter, mostly landscapes, mountain formations, details of branches and trees, flowers, birds, and with a profusion of poem and expressions by the artist in flowing calligraphy, followed by several "red seals" of the artist and sometimes the accompaniment of seals from his artist-poet scholar associates who may add to the calligraphic design with additional prose and poem.

One of the more comprehensive sites mentioning the "Art of the Chinese Brush Technique" is Art Asia, and I'd like to re-quote their mention of a Grand Chinese Old Master's instruction, "Shih Erh Chi", on the 13th century work of Jao Tzu-jan, in "THE TWELVE THINGS TO AVOID IN PAINTING" - Traditional Old Chinese Ink on Rice Paper style:

1. To avoid a crowded, ill arranged composition (composition) - Far and near not clearly distinguished (composition)

2. Mountains without Ch’i, the pulse of life - Referring not only to the need for pictorial vitality created by composition with a quality of spirit, particularly since mountains were symbols of life. Of the Yang(of Heaven and the Spirit)

3. Water with no indication of its source - The element regarded as a source of life and associated with the Yin.

4. Scenes lacking any places made inaccessible by nature(natural and logical)

5. Where man has ventured, paths are a sign of his presence and should naturally lead somewhere. - Paths with no indication of beginning and end

6. Stones and rocks with one face - The rock has 3 faces, referring to the third dimension and technical skill in rendering it .

7. Trees with less than four main branches - The tree has four main branches and is represented as having solidity, roundness, and unity

8. Figures unnaturally distorted - Emphasize fitness based on naturalness, contributing to the harmony of the parts and the whole of a painting. Figures not only should be undistorted but should be shown in action, their position and mood in tune with the rest of the painting and thus with the order of nature.

9. Buildings and pavilions inappropriately placed - Houses, pavilions, bridges, waterwheels, or boats, never overshadow other elements in the picture but contribute to its main theme, usually some aspect of nature rather than of human activity.

10. Atmospheric effects of mist and clearness neglected

11. Color applied without method

12. Mountains and water are not only the main structural elements in a landscape painting, but serve as symbols of the Yin and Yang. They are structural ideas, hence the significance of the term ShanShui (mountain water) for landscape pictures.

Lam Tian Xing's work was brought to me for a potential exhibition in Paris by Samues Leung of State of the Art Gallery in Central, Hong Kong, and I have to admit, Samues is really good and has a great eye when it comes to appreciating art. He's only one of a small number of gallery owners in Hong Kong who promote European and Latin artists in addition to a special list of Chinese artists, Tian Xing being one. As for me, I don't normally follow any particular Chinese artist, especially from Hong Kong, knowing a lot of "commercial" work from the early 1980's and onwards executed to capitalize on the cultural ignorance of the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese.

The Hong Kong and mainland Chinese people, the general young adult generation, really don't know much about art and in fact, there was a time when Hong Kong was known as a "cultural desert" in the 1970's. To change that negative image, Hong Kong took to "buying culture". Which is a start in the right direction if you don't naturally have it and want to acquire "culture". I'm being facetious here.

Anyway, I shouldn't single the Hong Kong Chinese out, most Asians and the young generation these days aren't being encouraged by their somewhat "ignorant" parents enough in appreciating and treasuring art and culture let alone their own very rich and special one, as they've all been fed and conditioned on the MTV, McDonald and Coca Cola diet and lifestyle. (Asians tend to steer their children away from anything related to Arts and have them focus more on Business courses as Art is not understood clearly to be "profitable" ... how very wrong they are. Cultural tourism and the Creative Industries rake in so much for an economy, but these days, they need strong support and promotion among the young by knowledgeable and experienced elders and leaders of society).

Thus, a bit of art and culture talk in some of my articles, but I've written them more for my own teenage daughter and nieces so the writing's simple and really not meant to be intimidating. I hope it delivers something useful in general to every reader though.

Well, after years of appreciating the traditional Chinese Old Masters in Chinese Calligraphy works and Ink on Rice Paper, and Silk, and always taking time out of my busy schedule to visit museums and galleries in Asia, I found Tian Xing's work curiously and wonderfully appealing.

I was amazed to hear that Tian Xing actually does his painting in layers. Unusual and beautiful method actually, and the first I've ever heard of a Chinese artist who works in the traditional ink and brush medium breaking the mold that way to execute something completely exceptional and with incredible depth, and creative blend of colour.

And what a profusion of colour, indeed, executed with coloured ink on rice paper ... breath-taking!

The Chinese Old Masters would be appalled, but we have to cheer this daring creative Millennium Chinese artist for breaking tradition in a fantastic way. Sometimes it's important to see something extraordinary executed with a wonderful manipulation of traditional tools in the spirit of "self-expression". That's fine by me so long as it's not self-expression I can't understand or find offensive to my intellect or my senses.

Tian Xing's Lotus mural, a magnificent, outstanding and beautiful massive piece of work graces the walls of newly constructed Four Seasons Hotel in Central, Hong Kong.