The Pulse of Paradise: Bali in Paul Nagano's watercolors

The Pulse of Paradise: Bali in Paul Nagano's watercolors

By Garrett Kam

JAKARTA (JP): Throughout East and Southeast Asia intensive
wet-rice cultivation, immense archipelagos, extensive maritime
trade, mighty rivers, and temperamental monsoons led to advanced
civilizations with highly-refined art styles all influenced by
water. Thus of all the artistic media, watercolor is the most
suitable for portraying scenes where water is an important
thematic element.

The Dutch preference for oil paintings, however, gave
watercolors in Indonesia a rather late start. It is very
encouraging, then, that for the second time in five months the
Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is hosting
another exhibition featuring watercolors. "The Pulse of Paradise:
Recent Watercolors of Bali by Paul Nagano" with 50 works opened
last night at 7 p.m. on Jl. Tanah Abang III/23-27.

For Nagano, an academically trained Japanese-American artist
born in Hawaii, this is also his second show in five years at
CSIS. His characteristic style is a kind of "Asian pointillism"
blending the best elements of Oriental brush painting techniques
with Occidental esthetics. Large dots and pools of color mix
visually with the surrounding white paper to create shimmering
scenes of idyllic beauty. Illusions of light and shadow are
created by various densities and sizes of dots and contrasts with
washes of color. Their unusual combinations create the rhythms of
Bali from day to night, youth to maturity, and life to death,
which make up the "pulse of paradise".

Finding the correct balance between such divergent elements is
essential in Nagano's works, for it adds a spiritual aspect to
common scenes. Light diagonal streaks across Paddies at Petulu in
Rain obscure landscape details and create a soothing effect. Yet
the angle of the softly falling precipitation also produces
subtle tension at the same time.

In Cutting Seedlings, more tropical sky is shown on the ground
through soft reflections of color in flooded rice fields,
contrasting sharply with boldly rendered embankments and young
plants. Earth becomes heaven for the time being as new life takes
root.

Nagano's night scenes, however, effectively capture the
mysterious romance of darkness. The monochromatic scheme adds
subtle dimension and perspective to what would otherwise be flat
due to the lack of shadows and contrast. Clouds are outlined by
the light of the moon they obscure, or are rippling patterns of
alternating white and blue-gray as in The Moon Between the Palms.
Distant rice fields become silvery-blue mirrors, while foreground
elements become abstract silhouettes in View from sayan Terrace
Night. The difference in mood is striking in the companion piece
of the same scene by day.

Oriental philosophy emphasizes the harmony of man within the
universe, a concept which Nagano often applies in his paintings.
Figures, which feature in a few works, are depicted to show a
sense of scale. Procession in the Mountains is in the tradition
of East Asia landscape paintings with distant waterfall, misty
mountains, and dense forest providing a dramatic backdrop for a
miniature line of Balinese on their way to a shrine.

In Priest at Pura Kehen, Bangli a holy man ascends through a
gate into a temple. High walls with tile lattices obscure any
further views of the inner sanctuary except for the tops of
shrines, allowing the imagination full play. Furthermore, the
slightly tilted angle of the composition makes a common scene
appear slightly different.

An unusual twist of scale, however, is used in Red Ginger and
Rice Planters, in which sizes are reversed. Farmers in the
distance are dwarfed by being viewed through flowers in the
foreground which take on immense and startling details by
comparison. The twists and turns of leaves and petals do not make
this a botanical study, however. The curves of ginger flowers
echo the bent backs of the planters.

Another unexpected perspective occurs of three men with their
roosters in View from a Cock's cage. Their fragmented faces seen
through the geometric bamboo lattice are like pieces of a puzzle.
The eyes are guided in different directions by this grid,
establishing a visual rhythm throughout this painting that plays
with ideas of constraint.

Dynamic movement essential to the theme is created by nearly
vertical diagonal lines repeated by a series of coconut trees and
a cremation structure being taken to the cemetery by a crowd of
Balinese in Carrying the Tower. Reflections in the foreground
rice fields add yet another dimension and further meaning to the
work: the illusion of life, the reality of death.

In his own personal way, Nagano gives visual form to the inner
rhythms of the pulse of paradise. In an increasingly
technological world, his paintings are delightful surprises and
reminders of a need for balance and harmony in our lives.

The exhibition will be open to public today and will run
through Oct. 28, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.