Strolling Monks by Myoe Win Aung in Myanmar.
Aung is quickly becoming one of my favorite watercolorists alive. Every single one of his pieces are worthy of featuring in The Watercolor Gallery archive. Every one.
I chose Strolling Monks, after many pain staking hours of looking through all of the paintings I could find of his, because it epitomizes what I feel are Aung’s strongest traits as an artist. First, he very rarely focuses on the human face. Only in a few of his paintings does the subject’s face become visible (such as Novice at study). Second, Aung’s use of light is really second-to-none of anyone in the gallery so far. The light is shining through the monk’s clothing, reflecting off the front of their legs and hitting the backs of them, shining off of their heads and dancing through the trees.
After studying thousands of paintings and featuring over 140 in the gallery I have never seen someone with as strong a style as Aung.
I’m putting one of his pieces on my Anniversary wishlist.