Is it true that every artist goes through a red period? I know I did.
I am a self-taught artist and so I discover everything about painting through my own experience and investigations. I do enjoy this process of discovery- it makes the process personal and always fresh. There is a sense of wonder in discovering the archetypal process of painting.
My red phase was early in my painting career. I was obsessed with red. I bought up pots and pots of red paint. It also coincided with my obsession with Rothko and abstraction.
My obsession with red coincided with my initial real passion to paint. I was happy spending hours just painting red on a canvas – red was a colour addiction.
My love of red has never diminished – just the quantity that I apply. Most of my paintings, even today, have a splash of red.
The colour red is associated with passion, power, hunger, energy, and aggression/ dominance. It is an imperial colour in Chinese art and culture. My obsession with red ultimately led to my focus on all things Chinese and Vietnamese.
My research also shows that red paintings fetch the highest prices on the International art market.
As my love affair with red diminished, I phased into orange- but that’s another story.
In this retrospective I share some of my early red paintings.
Many of these paintings are now on display in not for profit organisations. ©