Nearing the end of my Chinese Folk Art series of small paintings, I completed one thatlooks like an amalgam of Chinese and Russian Folk Art. I call this painting “Going Home,” so named for the red print in the lower right hand corner that was printed from a stone with those very words carved on it in ancient Chinese. The print now serves as an embellishment for the tail of a partially obscured dragon. With his head at the left side of the painting he appears to be moving westward, in a direction opposite the travelers with the goat cart and the red kid. West bound dragons and east bound travelers. Perhaps it is emblematic of my belief that for the last few decades China is becoming increasingly westernized as the west becomes more eastern. But perhaps that may be reading too much into a simple painting.
The yellow goat, although painted in western colors, is in a classic pose from Chinese painting, his head twisted backwards and upwards to look at birds flying overhead. His colors, as are all the other colors, are freely painted with no regard for the monochromatic paper cut from which they emerged. I painted the center of interest, the yelping kid, a bright red to highlight his terrified white eye. He obviously doesn’t want to be making this trip.
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