“Luminous” is a translucent landscape in the midst of a thorough purification – loaded yet still airy rain clouds release a generous yet gentle downpour, which rushes into the solid ground and continues to overflow in the already soaked terrain. The dark clouds, and darker soil, rendered the space in between even brighter, as if backlit, glowing, and luminous. Above the warm earth, the cool rain and clouds leave a refreshing impression.
Luminous
9” x 12”
Gouache on paper
Completed in 2022
“Whirl” explores patterns, rhythms, and perspective in an abstract world consisting of a series of imperfect and progressively smaller concentric circles, which superimpose over a background of pale pink from the top and dark gray at the bottom, and vanish to the center of a muddied white hue, therefore lead the viewers to a hidden world somewhat beyond reach. The gentle contrasts amongst these muted colors, which seep into each other like liquids, enhance the impenetrability of the sphere.
Whirl
gouache on paper
9″x12″
2021
“Autumn Rain” is a semi-abstract inspired by a rainy landscape. I endeavored to capture the pleasant wetness enveloping the fields and hills, and the wonderful interplay of cool and warm hues in the rich fall season. Bold and patchy strokes obliterated the contours of easily identifiable objects and rendered the landscape into almost pure patterns and rhythms.
Autumn Rain
9” x 12”
Gouache on paper
Completed in 2021
“Immaculate” aptly summarizes its subject of the painting – several ethereal white lilies floating in an opaque water body, whose pattern resembles the other-worldly images transmitted by the great Hubble Space Telescope. These dreamily floating flowers and their irregularly patterned background, mesmerize and pull the viewers into the depth.
This painting was published by Your Impossible Voice as the cover art in their 24th Issue in Spring 2021.
Immaculate
gouache on paper
9″x12″
2020
“Waiting” depicts an inconspicuous piano bar located in a large barn, when nothing is taking place and the instruments, along with odd furnishing and decorations, quietly waits for things to happen. A wide wall painted in muted green provides a delicate contrast and wonderful harmony to the shining black instruments. There is a gentle and slightly melancholic atmosphere in this sparse and old-fashioned space which is simultaneously inviting and impenetrable.
Waiting
22” x 28”
Oil on Canvas
Completed in 2021
“Memories of Childhood” is a backward glance towards the distant past, at which time how one experienced and felt might not reflect truthfully in the recollection in adulthood. The distant memory can be fuzzy and mercurial, as illustrated in this black and white snapshot of a little boy stranded amongst several screens of fragmented episodic sceneries, staring at the viewers, defiantly or expectantly, with discernment and awe.
Childhood can be as rich and varied as the life of an adult, and the emotional impacts a child experiences can be just as acute and palpable, even if the stakes might be lower, mainly due to a child’s smaller spheres. Akin to any age group, childhood is the age of exploration and discovery, of closed-mindedness and misplaced confidence, of timidity and bravery, of tenderness and innocence, and of mischievousness and cruelty.
Childhood’s memories – colorful or monochromatic – will haunt forever.
Memories of Childhood
22” x 28”
Oil on Canvas
Completed in 2022
Edge is a fantastic cityscape, focusing on a sharp- lonely house in a peculiar perspective, with a sharp edge menacingly pointing to the viewers. The strangeness of the structure is further emphasized by its faceless facade, its imperfect windows, and the surrounding plantation in unusual hues and shapes. This geometric cube and its tightly closed windows promise some zealously guarded secrets, and invites and dares the viewers to discover.
Edge
24” x 30”
Oil on Canvas
Completed in 2022
Domain was another painting completed during the height of the COVID pandemic, when my daily sphere shrank to my humble dwelling. Besieged by the sameness of familiar settings, I found some distractions from my bright kitchen, from the geometric patterns composed by a few household objects, to the contrast between the hard edges of those objects and the morphic shapes of their shadows, cast by the ever-changing, captivating lights. I recorded this solace with this painting, a study of familiarity, sameness, and subtle variations.
Seclusion is a meditative painting of a young woman and her two phantom images superimposed above the centrally placed figure at the lower half of the canvas. This young woman, head bent, surrounded by dense woods, was in a state of meditation, and solitary despite the two companions, who could be herself in different time frames, evoked by this woman lost in her private thoughts. These three figures, real or imaginative, resembled the traditional grouping of the Three Graces in the western visual presentation canon, therefore, created another layer of mystery to this tableau inside the dark and misty woods.
Seclusion
Oil on Canvas
28” x 22”
Completed in 2021
College Town was a snapshot of the unpretentious college city I live in, during the summertime when droves of young temporary dwellers cleared out their flats and moved on to their next destination, or back to where they came from, and left their transitory possessions at the curbs for repurposing. This still image captured the melancholic and slightly forlorn atmosphere after the adrenaline rush from graduation celebrations, when the excitement had ended and only abandoned chairs and mattresses scattered about in this way station, which dutifully quietly welcomed and sent off the young people to make their great or tiny marks to the world, year after year.
College Town
Oil on Canvas
30” x 24”
Completed in 2021