Huaicun’s World - Blossom

About

Huaicun Zhang Hon RBA's works have been exhibited across the world in places such as New York, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo, and collected by international organisations as well as private collectors. Huaicun’s poetry and children’s writing has been widely published and she is a recipient of the Bing Xin Children’s Literature Award for her book On the Train of Autumn.

Now based in London, Huaicun was born in Qinghai, North China into the Tu ethnic minority. The Tu were horseback riders and Huaicun is a descendant of one of the generals in Genghis Khan's army. He had command of 3,000 soldiers in the town of Weiyuan in the Qilian Mountains, close to the area in which  Huaicun grew up.

Huaicun has always loved art, she started doodling for the age of 3. After graduating from the university, she became a primary school teacher. Besides her time teaching art, she is also inspired by children's spirits, who never tire of learning. Huaicun also spent time studying with masters of Chinese painting Wu Guanzhong and Rao Zongyi.

She says “I often imagine my world as a lotus pond. I frequently use the Lotus flower as the theme of artistic expression and as a metaphor for my cultural ideals. Of course, many painters have portrayed the lotus flower in various forms, so I want to find ways to paint it in my own unique way. So I draw all kinds of lotuses, sometimes in full bloom after the rain, or as new buds in a pond.”