Notes on Practice -- Empty space

My paintings always have the elements of 'blank'. Empty space is a very important part of my paintings. I usually paint on the background which is totally white and with out any color. I changed a bit in this term because of tutor's suggestion. I started to paint the background before I start the painting. I'm not randomly choose the color that I used for a background. Because there will be lots of empty space on my paintings. This means that the background will be the part of my painting as well. So the background color shold match with the colour of other part in this painting.

But whatever the background colour is, there will be blank space in my painting. I paint from photographs, but I don't wanna do a photo-realism painting. I think what interests me is the imaginations and artistic conception of the painting. Such as, How can we feel about the painting? What can we get from this painting? It is not only about the technique which we can see in the painting, but also a kind of connection between paintings and viewers. Painters themselves certainly will have a conversation with their works, but that is not enough. Will viewers get something from a painting when they see it? How can they get it?

'White space' is the key element in most of traditional Chinese painting. The background of Chinese paintings are always white. The main idea of Chinese painting is that they tend to create the feeling of peaceful and beautiful. It requires painters ability to handle the overall composition. The most important thing in Chinese painting is 'peaceful'.

This concept has been used in many different media like photography and film, even in the opera.