Wenyi Zhu "First Day of Summer" Oil on Canvas, Figurative Painting of a Braided Girl in Aqua, Texas Art, Original 24 X 24 Inches, 2023

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A girl seen from behind stands before a wide, minty sky, her long black braid running down the center of … Read more A girl seen from behind stands before a wide, minty sky, her long black braid running down the center of her back and ending in a loose flick. She wears a plain white short-sleeved shirt with a stand collar, and the waistband of a dark skirt shows at the lower edge. Cumulus clouds roll across the picture in cream and pearl, over a ground that moves from deep aqua to pale jade. Her face is never shown, so the moment belongs to whatever she is looking at. Zhu works in grisaille and glazes, which gives the white cotton and bare arms a gentle bloom and the sky an even, breathable calm.

Aqua, green and white make this an easy fit for a bedroom, a sunroom, a nursery or any room that wants air. It sits well above a deep green velvet chair or a bentwood chair, and it pairs with brass, natural oak, rattan and cream linen. On a plaster or off-white wall it reads like an open window. Hung a little lower than usual, it draws the eye into the sky.

Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 x 1 in (61 x 61 x 2.5 cm). Unframed.

Wenyi Zhu works in oil with a traditional multi-layered technique, building each canvas from a grisaille underpainting through successive transparent glazes. The result is a soft, luminous surface with smooth transitions and quiet depth. It is unframed, with painted edges, and ships ready to hang or to be framed to suit.

Wenyi Zhu (b. 1981, Suzhou, China) is a figurative painter based in College Station, Texas, whose work explores the human figure as both a physical and a psychological presence. Introduced to image-making by her grandfather, a Chinese calligrapher, she later earned a PhD in environmental science from Rutgers University, a background that shows in the patient structure of each composition. Working in oil with a traditional multi-layered technique rooted in Renaissance and French academic painting, she builds each canvas from a grisaille underpainting through successive transparent glazes, and her quiet portraits of women and children are known for their soft, luminous finish. See less