Carolyn Van Lang
Piedmont, California
Biography
Carolyn Van Lang has always been painting while practicing architecture. Her love of painting has helped tremendously in her work in architecture and vice versa. Her architectural education had prepared her with drawing, painting, compositional and color coordination skills- all of which lend themselves well to the art of her choice: Asian brush painting. She gave credit to Parsons School of Design for giving her a well-rounded education in the Arts and endowed her with design sensibilities and visual acuity for artistic endeavors. In the art of brush painting, Carolyn is mostly self-taught at the beginning and now, with new on line technologies, she has taken some zoom classes and watched Youtube videos for acquiring new techniques. She professed influences from renowned Chinese and Japanese artists such as Qin Tian Zhu, Zhao Shao'ang, Ohara Koson, and Shibata Zeshin. Since 2024, she has been taking classes with Lingnan artist Philip K.K. Chan who had received instructions from Master Zhao Shao'ang.
In her paintings, Carolyn strives toward lyrical simplicity that takes the viewers beyond the edges of the paintings. She aims to invite a curiosity to understand the languages between living things in nature. She embraces the Japanese aesthetic concept of Iki whereas a simple work of art when the viewer understands the effort taken to achieve its result but one's first impression is that of spontaneity and carefreeness. A tranquil lack of self-consciousness coupled with ephemerality is what permeates through her paintings.
Haiku
Slow Reach
The lotus still gleamed
Past a fortnight, its bloom peak
Slow reaching, its friend
The Complaint
Reeds rustling by
Worn out leaves weighted down low
The night is still young!
Moon Gaze
The peony stretched far
Its leaves made way, slightly out
Did the moon matter?
Winter desolation
Winter desolation
The moon beckons urgently
Better yours than mine
The Underbrush
A faint outline
Through the stillness of leaves
A sigh from somewhere
Wind Rush
There went the wind rush
A sudden burst of whistling
My love stayed unmoved
Carolyn Van Lang has always been painting while practicing architecture. Her love of painting has helped tremendously in her work in architecture and vice versa. Her architectural education had prepared her with drawing, painting, compositional and color coordination skills- all of which lend themselves well to the art of her choice: Asian brush painting. She gave credit to Parsons School of Design for giving her a well-rounded education in the Arts and endowed her with design sensibilities and visual acuity for artistic endeavors. In the art of brush painting, Carolyn is mostly self-taught at the beginning and now, with new on line technologies, she has taken some zoom classes and watched Youtube videos for acquiring new techniques. She professed influences from renowned Chinese and Japanese artists such as Qin Tian Zhu, Zhao Shao'ang, Ohara Koson, and Shibata Zeshin. Since 2024, she has been taking classes with Lingnan artist Philip K.K. Chan who had received instructions from Master Zhao Shao'ang.
In her paintings, Carolyn strives toward lyrical simplicity that takes the viewers beyond the edges of the paintings. She aims to invite a curiosity to understand the languages between living things in nature. She embraces the Japanese aesthetic concept of Iki whereas a simple work of art when the viewer understands the effort taken to achieve its result but one's first impression is that of spontaneity and carefreeness. A tranquil lack of self-consciousness coupled with ephemerality is what permeates through her paintings.
Haiku
Slow Reach
The lotus still gleamed
Past a fortnight, its bloom peak
Slow reaching, its friend
The Complaint
Reeds rustling by
Worn out leaves weighted down low
The night is still young!
Moon Gaze
The peony stretched far
Its leaves made way, slightly out
Did the moon matter?
Winter desolation
Winter desolation
The moon beckons urgently
Better yours than mine
The Underbrush
A faint outline
Through the stillness of leaves
A sigh from somewhere
Wind Rush
There went the wind rush
A sudden burst of whistling
My love stayed unmoved
