Paddy fields are planted in terraces. Their water reflections are so bright that the people in Sichuan call them the mirror fields. But who are these huge mirrors for? The sky up there. More than just water, these fields reflect the subtleties of sky where light and shadow mingle through the clouds …Ink lines traverse the cosmos; whether they are beautiful or ugly depends all on the form of the sloping hills...From these meandering paths emerge a serpentine dragon. However, this dragon is too big to fit into the picture frame, so painters must run uphill and downhill…in order to capture it. The intertwining mulberry trees along the ridge also add to the charm of these fields……Or simply let go of the varying colours of the sky and the water reflections to avoid the dullness of the oil colours, and to focus on unlocking the full potentials of the swirling lines. That might well create something more transcendent. And this is precisely why I often shift from oil to ink in my subject of paddy fields.
Since the early 1970s, Wu Guanzhong would travel to Sichuan, Guilin in Guangxi, and to the mountainous regions to the west of Hunan in search of mirror-like paddy fields. He produced in this period many paintings of Paddy Fields, some in oil and some in ink. These works usually feature a mountain range in the background that contrast with to the low-lying fields. The current painting dated 1986 represents a breakthrough in the artist’s composition. Capitalizing on the unique qualities of ink and water, Wu steered his brush on the paper in order to create uninhibited colourful lines that would resonate with the distinctive contours of the paddy fields. Seen in this light, the work should indeed be the only example that demonstrates this unique manner within the artist’s oeuvre.
The intersecting lines of red and green in the painting swirls up from the hillside to the hilltop, hinting at the steepness of the wonderous landscape. As for the farmers, depicted here as rhythmic speckles of colours, they move back and forth across the white plateaus in the centre. As broad as they are structured, these plateaus present a wide horizon as though captured through a bird’s-eye view. In other words, the artist has gone beyond merely sketching from life. What this painting represents is the culmination of his rich plein air experience. It is the fruit of his daring experimentations.