董小蕙的黑白系列作品

Courtyard in Black and White Series

The creations of the artist’s “White and Black Series” of paintings has its origins in the revelations gained from three elements.First, the artist’s devotion to practice drawing over many years. Second, her early learning experiences with woodcutting. And third, her interest in the simple aesthetics of unconventional colors. Because the artist has always enjoyed the succinct style of ink pen lines, and also realized what turmoil might arise in colors from a lack of visual sense, the Courtyard itself can distil a very pure form of model aesthetics, moving, unadorned, and yet full of strength. She also remembered back to when she was making wood prints, the characteristics created by the strong contrast. Thus, she attempted to develop these new ideas on the canvas using various painting techniques.

In 2008, the artist started using plain black and white oil paints to display the Courtyard, by first applying a base layer of black oil paint, and then painting over it with white color. Before the white oil paint had fully dried, she would use a painting knife to scrape houses, doors and windows, old trees, and flowers onto the canvas. She also managed to give the various brick walls a mottled and crude tactile sensation, the black pigments and white canvas in a picturesque disorder. Her skills allow for a very unadorned style of visual presentation, and she uses the effects of smudging and blurring to create contrast between light and dark when dealing with the background, creating a realistic feel of the atmosphere of light and dark in space. Using the juxtaposition of these strong colors enhances the visually striking contrast of the pieces, and the lively depiction of the details of the cultivated plants doesn’t lose its free and easy charm.

Looking at it from the visual style, the artist has mainly utilized the special qualities of Western prints, as well as the veined texture of brushstrokes from modern painting. Another aspect is the pose of the flowers and plants as well as the use of brushes, both of which exhibit the taste of brush and ink use hailing from Chinese art and calligraphy. Thus it can be said that the artist applied the characteristics of both Western and Chinese art, establishing an interplay of black and white, a multi-layered mood and sense of realism. This style of black and white painting that emphasizes line work is especially able to convey the traces of ages left by the passage of time; concise, still, unadorned, simple, rooted in the ordinary, yet possessing a rich, lasting appeal, it reveals a nostalgic and profound cultural feeling.