Makena 6 2021

Lu Cong made this painting, Makena 6, with oil on canvas, though the date is unknown. The colour palette is muted, almost silvery, giving it a dreamlike quality. I am drawn to the way the artist has handled the fabric of the dress, each fold and crease rendered with such precision. It reminds me that painting is about close looking, and slow looking, and then even slower, more thoughtful looking. The texture is smooth, almost porcelain-like, but there's a tension between the stillness of the figure and the implied movement of the pose. That single hand extended, reaching, or perhaps just floating. Is she falling or flying? I love the ambiguity, the way the painting invites us to project our own feelings and interpretations onto the scene. It feels a bit like a deconstructed Renaissance painting. This makes me think of another artist, Balthus, with his own unsettling dreamscapes, and how art is a conversation across time, each artist building upon the ideas of those who came before, adding their own unique voice to the mix.