FLOWERS OF SUMMER: A lotus bursts into bloom as depicted by the artist (COURTESY OF HONG XUGUANG)

Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010), a famous Chinese ink and oil artist, once commented that the country lacked painters with a thorough knowledge of both Western and traditional styles.

In 1992, the artist and Wu made contact. "Master Wu pioneered the exploration of Chinese oil painting. Though we follow different lines, his efforts inspired me to become a cross-cultural artist, combining both Western and traditional local styles," Hong said.

Bringing forth fresh variations

Discovering new avenues in art is not an easy process.

"It's like finding a window in a dark room. You have to grope around blindly," Hong said. "For about seven or eight years I couldn't find a new way. I felt so frustrated that I wanted to jump from a tall building," he recalled.

In 2000, the artist created a series of abstract ink paintings based on the theme No Subject Variations, stumbling on a new style in the process, catapulting him to fame. Variations normally refer to a set of short musical pieces, repeated and developed in alternate form based around a central motif, Hong said. Similarly, he utilized graphic elements such as point, line and depth to depict various views on the same theme.

"I don't want to pander to the mainstream aesthetic standard," he admitted. "Abstraction underlines intuitive feelings and is hard to put into words."

However, Hong emphasized that his work is still based on tradition. "We must bring forth fresh variations on age-old practices, however," he explained. "In art the only thing that never changes is change itself."

In ancient China, artists worked with black ink of different shades due to the monotone pigmentation of past materials. However, modern painting is not limited by aspects of color, demonstrated by artists such as Hong, who prefers to use bright pigments.

In 2007, he was honored at the An Entrance to Classics of Chinese Water-Ink Painting ceremony while in 2008, his paintings were collected in the Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy Dictionary.

Since 2009, Hong has resided in Beijing, a center of converging culture and art where he feels like a fish in water, spending much time on sketching lotus flowers.

"In Chinese culture, the lotus represents cleanliness and honesty of an upright person," he explained.

In 2011, Hong splashed an ink painting Harmonious Flourishing Time of Colored Lotus on a CCTV show as a representative work of contemporary Chinese art.

In addition, he won a gold prize at the Third East Asia Art Exchange Exhibition in South Korea during 2010 while, in the same year, his work scooped the best original award at the Fifth China Beijing International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo. In December 2012, Hong was short listed for the nation-wide Huaxia Star of Chinese painting and calligraphy master contest.

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