EXHIBITED: Any Scene You Want – Hong Ling Solo Exhibition, Soka Art Center, Taipei, August 21-October 24, 2010

ILLUSTRATED: Xing Ling Shan Shui – Hong Ling You Hua Zuo Pin Ji, Hebei Education Press, Shijiazhuang, 2008, color illustrated, pp. 170-171

Hong Ling is a lyrical and expressive painter whose daily life and creative moods in recent times have all emitted a sense of "casual endeavor." Free of anxiety, self-advertising or a clear target, there is nevertheless an artistic direction that suggests the path he has chosen will be a long road. His approach to life and art therefore all emphasize harmony, and his approach decided Hong Ling's attitude to the landscape which is one of respecting nature and flowing with nature. Within his works, there is the Northern landscape school's lack of inhibition, but also the Southern school's polish. In this " Snowland" the accumulation of repeated strokes across the scene create layers upon layers of mutually supporting colors, creating beauty out of the dappled color layers. This resembles China's ink build up technique, but within the weightiness is a search for lightness, and within the dappling a search for a glimmer of light. Hong Ling's emphasis is on the ambience created by the interaction between the solid and the intangible, so in the work the clouds, mist, water and snow pass through objects to become woven into the theme and set the overall tone. This gives Hong Ling's work an interesting interplay of opposites.