Chasing Shadows
Landscape paintings are common throughout the world and every
region has its beauty that has been captured by artists for centuries.
In art history, it isn’t new that an artist in one culture
has ventured off to another part of the world to explore and create
in a foreign environment where cultural influences and visual
stimulations change perspectives in the way subject matter is
viewed. New experiences, new surroundings and new methodology
are all influences with any immigrant, as it is so, with the artist
Liang Wei.
We dream, we visualize and we participate in experiences that
influence our lives forever. Remembrances of a moment ago or déjà
vu from an undetermined origin are often pleasant and comforting
thoughts and it is those heartwarming and pleasant memories that
Liang Wei strives to capture on canvas with his paintings.
Moody, thoughtful and alluring are a few words that are frequently
used to describe the paintings of Liang Wei as he wanders the
west coast of the United States capturing landscapes and western
culture.
Influenced by Americana and artists, Edward Hopper, Grant Wood
and Northwest Contemporary Susan Bennerstrom, Liang Wei’s
landscapes reflect a style that is moody, provocative and thought
provoking all combined with an excellent foundation in composition,
design and technique. His exploration of landscape painting is
defined by creating mood rather than fact in combining intellect
and emotion.
Not a realist, not a Naturalist and not an Impressionist, Liang
Wei is a “Moodist.” The impressionists wanted to capture
the moment, Liang Wei captures a mood. Lingering and delicious,
his paintings of long afternoon shadows or a dawn’s rising
sun are remembrances of feelings long put away in our memories
that are awoken again and again when viewing his paintings. The
scent of freshly cut grass as the afternoon sun casts a long shadow
from a lonesome tree or the lung filling fresh air and dry grass
from standing cliff side above the Columbia River as it meanders
through central Washington. These are moments, moods and instinctual
remembrances that are provoked and cherished by his paintings.
While Liang Wei doesn’t walk alone in the painting world,
he is still searching, exploring and experimenting with a delicate
dance between the rhythm of his past and the structure of living
in a western culture. A Northwest contemporary painter, Liang
Wei has lived, painted and embraced the Pacific Northwest as home
since 1988.
Follow him as he chases the ever changing shadow and fading light
of the Pacific sun.
Gunnar Nordstrom
Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery
