The Beauty of Nature in the Harvest Season
The Fall Series represents the beauty of nature at its peak. While nature inspires all my artwork, fall is a time when colors in nature are rich with intensity and meaning. It is also the time of the harvest when many things in nature reach their full maturing.
The beauty of nature, layers fall with many colors. The Fall Series was the first to develop during my transition from traditional Chinese landscape paintings to my new abstract creations. They combine techniques from the old with the new.
Meaning in my art is not limited to the painting. When I paint, I think about nature and fall, and the significance it brings to my life. Fall is a beautiful season with deep vibrant colors. It is a time of ripening fruit and rising mists.
My study of the I Ching or “Book of Changes,” guides my artistic expression. While the eye admires the beauty of nature, the soul contemplates its spirit. As summer swells with its bounty of success, it brims over into the colors of fall.
The beauty of nature in fall
One of the most impressive aspects of fall is the changing color of leaves. As chlorophyll breaks down whole forests turn from green to yellow, orange and red. I focus on the colors of fall as I paint. It is the most beautiful and colorful season of the year.
And it is not just maples or leaves from other deciduous trees such as aspen, sourwood or sassafras that carry rich autumn shades of scarlet and burgundy, but also ferns and varieties of grass too.
Where the climate is moderate both here in the US and in China, especially when cold nights follow warm sun-kissed days, the bliss of fall provides spectacular viewing. Reflecting on my experiences with fall, I like to mix the colors as I paint.
Fall 16, 2015 exhibits the beauty of nature through its use of colors. I use color to highlight the ink in the lower parts of the landscape. For some viewers, the use of black ink resembles the mountain's shadow.
As the mountain rises up towards the sun, the black ink lightens with an emphasis on the intense colors of fall, awash with vibrant shades of oranges, brown and gold. No longer steeped in the shadow of the mountain, the beauty of nature basks in the autumn haze of the sun.
The harvest season and colors of fall
Fall is also known as the harvest season, where fields and pastures brim with the bounty sewn in spring. Where spring inspired planting, fall encourages the gathering of all things to serve as a banquet and a stockpile.
Likewise, our lives follow the change of seasons. When I contemplate the fall harvest, guided by the Book of Changes, I see within the symbolism for success and achievement.
When I paint, I harvest the artistic techniques that I have nurtured, but also the spiritual meaning of my subject inspired by the wisdom of the I Ching. It requires a study of ancient philosophy and an ideal for spontaneity.
In our youth, we plant the seeds for our experiences and life lessons. If we continue to nourish and feed what we sew, then our knowledge and experiences will bloom with the rich colors of nature, ripe for picking.
After many years of study, I continued to collect knowledge and experiences from various sources and subjects, just like the layers of colors in fall. The fall art represents the harvest of a lifetime of artistic experience and the fusion of a rich and colorful bounty.
The landscape aspect of the Fall Series reflects my earlier influences in traditional Chinese art, while also merging my interests in Western impressionism. Wet and dry brush strokes create the wispy effect featured in Fall 1, 2014. It also utilizes spilled ink although this aspect is not as prominent as it is in newer work.
The detailed brushwork continues in Fall 8, 2014 drawing on my experience with Chinese calligraphy. As well, the use of white space creates room for the viewer’s creativity. They may imagine what lies beyond mountains or see other images within the landscape, such as a dragon under the mountain or a phoenix rising at the top.
Inspired by the beauty of nature
The Fall Series exhibited in Washington, DC and Evanston, Illinois in 2017 embodies the rich colors of my experience, my life-bounty.
I harvest this experience to demonstrate my achievement towards a new abstract style of art. It expresses what I have learned with guidance towards the development of my artistic talent.
Layers of meaning, aesthetic and spiritual enrich the Fall Series, just like the colorful layers that sweep through nature in fall. It depicts the colors of fall inspired by the beauty of nature.
Shulin Sun
