About the Artist:
Playful with colors, Odele paints ephemeral moments in which she had partaken. Odele is neither an abstraction nor representational painter. For her, abstraction melds into representation, and vice versa. She asks the viewer, even if the viewer perceives an “image” say a figure or a tree, to imagine if the viewer were an ant or aphid crawling on her painting. Each of her paintings at the infinitesimal point is in itself a Rothko, a moment of Turner or the strokes of Ba da Shan ren. Every infinitesimal point is a painting in itself.
Most importantly, Odele argues that a painting must lead the painter and not the reverse. A running concept or theme should naturally appear after a painting is completed on its own free will. The painting itself has a life and has to be allowed to speak for itself and surprise the painter. The danger of shallowness lurks in a painting when the artist’s hubris of: “I understand the world” “I must comment on this very particular idea because I think I am right. I am going to do research based on a haunch that I have to prove my point.”
True depth, on the other hand, reveals when the painting leads the painter into its own world.
Odele’s education comes from everything. She’s been inspired in becoming a better painter day after day from learning how to cook, critique fashion, execute calculus and physics equations, fly a plane to experience the world in vertical space mentality, and reading profusely from western/eastern classics to modern day nonfictions and teenagers’ internet world. Odele believes that a great painter must learn about everything and anything, and cannot be ignorant or judgmental.
This site description is outdated: https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Odele-Zhang/B7D6D84997EA4076 I don't even like the paintings on there anymore.
If someone can let me know how to reach out to them to change, that'd be great.
Egg Tempera Soliloquy:
What a pleasant sensation to bring an egg in from the farm, break it open, separate the yolk, and then mix it with pigment. Became much more appreciative of Wyeth's american paintings after experimenting with eggs myself. It is less gestural, far more meditative than Oil Painting. It offers me a good dance with my learning in meditation which started in early 2022. It is a lot harder to get a correct color appearing the way I like; it takes a lot more layers, a lot more patience - something that I must practice more of. There are far less egg tempera peers that I can chat with about the medium, which makes it harder to learn, but am excited about its challenges. And I can paint in the kitchen without intoxicating anyone off including myself with the terrible fumes from oil paints!
Oil Painting Soliloquy:
Painting (oil) is very physical to me, I workout intensively to build whole-body stamina for painting. Two thick brushes, one in each hand, as if drumsticks or ancient swords. A lot of physical attack power happens on a good day.
In the way that I paint, I peruse all painting styles and eras. From cave paintings to medieval, from asian ink brush strokes to impressionism and 60s abstraction to even digital paintings of today, digital art and video games. I find all forms of “painting” informative to what I do.
I sometimes grab the tip of my brush bristles and squeeze it into a shape that I’d like to make a line or mark on the canvas surface. I sometimes take off my “laboratory” gloves and feel the paint with my fingers to smudge and mix. Sometimes, I use my feet (rarely, don’t worry).
To me, the act of painting is a momentary reaction, from what I see, what I think, to immediately stamping a mark. I practice this a lot in the woods through en plain air painting, whether through oil or watercolor, whatever I can carry. Producing good work means to detach the act of painting from any ulterior motives. Don’t force a message upon the viewer. Let those ephemeral physical actions do the talking.
And again, I stress the education of everything beyond painting to really understand painting. For instance, classical mechanics and mathematics gave me so much vocabulary to describe and feel my paintings. Translational movement, rotational movement, vectors, directions, these have deeply taught me about painting strokes. It’ not about sounding smart to the audience, it’s about truly feeling and understanding that essence of human/universal knowledge. The list of how various fields inform my painting goes on and on.
Playful with colors, Odele paints ephemeral moments in which she had partaken. Odele is neither an abstraction nor representational painter. For her, abstraction melds into representation, and vice versa. She asks the viewer, even if the viewer perceives an “image” say a figure or a tree, to imagine if the viewer were an ant or aphid crawling on her painting. Each of her paintings at the infinitesimal point is in itself a Rothko, a moment of Turner or the strokes of Ba da Shan ren. Every infinitesimal point is a painting in itself.
Most importantly, Odele argues that a painting must lead the painter and not the reverse. A running concept or theme should naturally appear after a painting is completed on its own free will. The painting itself has a life and has to be allowed to speak for itself and surprise the painter. The danger of shallowness lurks in a painting when the artist’s hubris of: “I understand the world” “I must comment on this very particular idea because I think I am right. I am going to do research based on a haunch that I have to prove my point.”
True depth, on the other hand, reveals when the painting leads the painter into its own world.
Odele’s education comes from everything. She’s been inspired in becoming a better painter day after day from learning how to cook, critique fashion, execute calculus and physics equations, fly a plane to experience the world in vertical space mentality, and reading profusely from western/eastern classics to modern day nonfictions and teenagers’ internet world. Odele believes that a great painter must learn about everything and anything, and cannot be ignorant or judgmental.
This site description is outdated: https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Odele-Zhang/B7D6D84997EA4076 I don't even like the paintings on there anymore.
If someone can let me know how to reach out to them to change, that'd be great.
Egg Tempera Soliloquy:
What a pleasant sensation to bring an egg in from the farm, break it open, separate the yolk, and then mix it with pigment. Became much more appreciative of Wyeth's american paintings after experimenting with eggs myself. It is less gestural, far more meditative than Oil Painting. It offers me a good dance with my learning in meditation which started in early 2022. It is a lot harder to get a correct color appearing the way I like; it takes a lot more layers, a lot more patience - something that I must practice more of. There are far less egg tempera peers that I can chat with about the medium, which makes it harder to learn, but am excited about its challenges. And I can paint in the kitchen without intoxicating anyone off including myself with the terrible fumes from oil paints!
Oil Painting Soliloquy:
Painting (oil) is very physical to me, I workout intensively to build whole-body stamina for painting. Two thick brushes, one in each hand, as if drumsticks or ancient swords. A lot of physical attack power happens on a good day.
In the way that I paint, I peruse all painting styles and eras. From cave paintings to medieval, from asian ink brush strokes to impressionism and 60s abstraction to even digital paintings of today, digital art and video games. I find all forms of “painting” informative to what I do.
I sometimes grab the tip of my brush bristles and squeeze it into a shape that I’d like to make a line or mark on the canvas surface. I sometimes take off my “laboratory” gloves and feel the paint with my fingers to smudge and mix. Sometimes, I use my feet (rarely, don’t worry).
To me, the act of painting is a momentary reaction, from what I see, what I think, to immediately stamping a mark. I practice this a lot in the woods through en plain air painting, whether through oil or watercolor, whatever I can carry. Producing good work means to detach the act of painting from any ulterior motives. Don’t force a message upon the viewer. Let those ephemeral physical actions do the talking.
And again, I stress the education of everything beyond painting to really understand painting. For instance, classical mechanics and mathematics gave me so much vocabulary to describe and feel my paintings. Translational movement, rotational movement, vectors, directions, these have deeply taught me about painting strokes. It’ not about sounding smart to the audience, it’s about truly feeling and understanding that essence of human/universal knowledge. The list of how various fields inform my painting goes on and on.
Medium
Oil
Eggs
Digital
Hybrids
