On an early September afternoon, I went to Parts Gallery in Toronto’s east end to view Yangyang Pan’s Solo Exhibition on display.
This was the first time for me to see Yangyang’s artwork. I was not surprised to find myself lingering in front of each and every painting without making preference. I simply let my senses be animated by the artist’s lush, exuberant palette inspired by flora and landscapes in the natural world. As a result, I have been visually delighted by the dazzling, vibrant colours in her abstract oil paintings.
Yangyang’s paintings have brought into the gallery, and thus to the audience, the romantic, and idealistically enhanced colours of all seasons to enchant the audience’s eyes and imagination.
As usual, I scrutinized the artist’ brushstrokes, and moved my feet, backward and forward, to appreciate the space management and composition. Before long, I realized I have been enraptured by the intensive rhythm of her energetic brushstrokes.
I believe I heard Antonio Vivaldi’s famous classical violin concerto, The Four Seasons. Among the exhibited paintings, Yangyang has captured the delicate colour in spring, rich lavish summer texture, dense autumn foliage in varying yellow and brown shades, as well as tranquil winter mood with clean, almost transparent white and blue elements. The predominant colour tone in each painting, like the first violin in Vivaldi’s concerto, establishes the mood and seasonal narratives on the canvas.
Rick Santon, owner of Parts Gallery, told me that Yangyang often paints off-hand without a sketch or study. With Vivaldi’s music playing in my head, I can’t help imaging the painter, in a dreamlike mindset at work. Inspired by the non-exhaustible colours in nature, she has created the delicate, youthful, radiant expressions of her own, one brushstroke at a time, from her memories onto the canvas.
As an audience of Yangyang’s paintings, all I can do is to submit myself to the creative process, as the audience would, sitting in a concert of Vivaldi’s the Four Seasons. Vivaldi’s audience in the 18th century told the composer, after the concerto, that they had heard all four seasons in his music. As the audience of Yangyang Pan’s abstract oil paintings, I will not hesitate to tell the artist the same.
Written by Lien Chao, Ph.D