After the Tide
Kevin Liang
"Trace of Times 1" Mixed Media on metal 30X40 inches 2026
This new work continues my ongoing exploration of the space between abstraction and representation, but with a quieter and more simplified approach.
I began with a photographic image of flowers as the foundation of the painting. Instead of preserving their original brightness, I deliberately muted and darkened the colors, allowing the image to feel more distant — almost like a memory slowly fading over time. Inspired in part by Gerhard Richter’s squeegee technique, I then dragged broad layers of turquoise and blue-green paint across the surface with a palette knife, allowing fragments of the flowers to emerge naturally beneath the paint.
While working, I kept imagining the movement of ocean waves washing onto the shore — rushing forward, then slowly slipping away. The repeated covering and revealing became central to the painting itself. The flowers are no longer meant to function as the “subject” of the work, but rather as traces: fragments briefly preserved beneath layers of time, motion, and erosion.
Compared to my earlier works, which often contained more calligraphic gestures and dramatic movement, this piece intentionally moves toward reduction. I let go of complex brushwork and shifting color systems, focusing instead on a simpler visual language and a calmer emotional atmosphere.
I am becoming increasingly interested not in painting flowers themselves, but in how images transform through layering, concealment, and time — how something familiar can slowly dissolve into mood, memory, and texture.
This work does not attempt to tell a dramatic story.
It is closer to a quiet pause — like the lingering warmth left on the sand after the tide has receded.