The works by Hong Ling are significant landscapes built of oil paints that carry both the spirit of western abstract expression and eastern values of “Snow in Vacant Mountains.” He elevates Chinese literati landscapes to another level, making way for a new world where the vitality of nature and man come together in oil paintings shaped by centuries of western art history. The hazy yet vast “Snow in Vacant Mountains” is a work from Hong Ling’s prime. Amid the ethereal purity, this snowy landscape still bursts with life, as it shines with undertones of the artist’s years of wandering through the past, the present, nature and his own mind.

Born in Beijing, the highly educated Hong Ling received solid schooling in the Soviet union’s socialist realism in China during the 1970’s and the 80’s, later going on to be given a prestigious teaching position at the oil painting department of China Central Academy Of Fine Arts. However, the scholar stirring within him kept searching his subconscious for his first encounters with the nature in his hometown. Eventually, Hong Ling left the rapidly developing Beijing in 1992, crossing the Yangtze River and settling down at the foot of Huangshan. As he nourished himself with poems, writing, paintings, and scenic views by these downstream waters, he forged the spirit of a contemporary scholar anew. The grays and whites splashing into each other with no inhibitions are woven into the otherworldly snowy lands of “Snow in Vacant Mountains,” its flecks of color and firm branches intersecting to bring out the metaphorical tranquility of the painting. Highlights of light yellow, pastel purple and cyan breath life into the the cycle of life of nature and its inhabitants. The entire image holds a refreshing weight that reverberates with the endless potential that life has to offer.