BY THE POND is a series of works in response to the pond in Carlton Gardens. These paintings draw from my experiences of this place and the duck’s impressions on me.
Over the past year, I have been visiting the pond in Carlton Gardens. It was there that I noticed numerous ducks that seem to reside in and around this pond. They were always there each time I went and I was drawn to their unassuming nature and the way in which they naively resided within their own little space amidst the busy city. One time I brought bread with me to feed them. As I was feeding them their characters were revealed to me and I found them each to be rather individualistic in their personality. These subtle characteristics are what I intend to continue to convey in my paintings. Each duck’s character is distinguished from one the others through the use of form and colour. By painting these ducks, I am celebrating their impressions on me and my encounters with them during the days. Overall, this series represents a portrait of my experiences by the pond and aims to translate them through painting.
Within my practice, I am interested in capturing the everyday and my experience of this everyday, through deliberately understated and modest works. The everyday to me encapsulates the quiet moments in life, the mundane, the slow living and the smallness. These moments may be seen as dull and boring, but I have found them to be especially beautiful and comforting. So much so, that my current body of work is a celebration of these distinctively personal moments of my every day, whether it be at home or by the pond. The subjects are all from my life and my encounters with them. The resulting paintings aim to capture a moment in time I have experienced. I wish to evoke feeling and create an atmosphere and mood that permeates my paintings whilst presenting my experience in a suggestive greater narrative.
Yi Cheng is an emerging Asian Australian artist from Melbourne/Naarm. He is set to finish his final year at RMIT’s School of Art, graduating in Fine Art (Painting).
