A little Blue

Enigmatic and enticing, Yuan Chen’s "A little Blue" is both cosmic and grounded in the earth. The bronze and green inflected palette (particularly of the painting’s lower half) are evocative of earth tones and soil, but the inscrutable nebulous brushstrokes and the forms they create, conjure celestial images. The careful painterly gestures and expertly mixed colors call to mind cosmic clouds (Nebulae, the stellar nurseries for young and forming stars). The picture would be dull and inaccessible had Chen not injected it with a splattering of vibrant turquoise cutting through its center. This instance of intense color provides an exciting break from the cryptic and impenetrable shades of purple, bronze, yellow, and green. A little blue goes a long way.