Grey Cube Gallery proudly presents the fifth Botanicals online art show for the month of June 2024. The show encompassed a range of artistic styles and mediums (oil on canvas, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, colored pencil, bronze, ceramic,ink, digital art, photography). Each submission has been judged based on the following elements of artistic expression: orginality and quality of art, overall design, creativity, interpretation of the theme, demonstration of artistic ability and usage of medium. Out of all entries, 99 artworks were shortlisted for inclusion in the show. The competition attracted entries from many countries across the world: Taiwan, USA, Switzerland, France, South Korea, United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, China and Hong Kong. Enjoy the show and thank you for expressing an interest in our competition.

I am a landscape painter living in and maintaining my studio in southern California. My current oil paintings of colorful, engaging, but otherwise overlooked and isolated flora are magnified to reveal their importance. My Subject matter is discovered from remote to obvious locations across the country. Coming from an orientation in abstraction, my choice to work in a close focus hyper-realistic style remains ever mindful of the abstraction that exists in nature. These paintings examine mark making, and the nuances of color and light in nature. This process involves the close observation of many aspects of landscape and the amplification of these images. They magnify a moment in time, and in nature, when plants are at the peak of their reproductive cycle and are fully asserting their seductive beauty/perfection/ splendor/ripeness. The focus has been on select blooms to show the importance of their smallest components.

Jason Shih was born in 1971 in Lukang Town, Changhua County, Taiwan, where traditional craftsmen are active. He has been interested in folk crafts, temple architecture, wood and stone carvings since childhood. From elementary school to high school, he attended a special art education class for 10 years in Taipei City. In 1993, he began to specialize in metal sculpture when he was a sophomore in the Fine Arts Department of Taipei National University of the Arts. In 2001, Jason SHIH graduated from School for American Crafts, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, USA, and majored in Metal Sculpture. And then, he served as the famous American metal sculptor Albert Paley's assistant, involved in metal crafts and large-scale public art work practices. Furthermore, he earned his Art Ph. D. from China Academy of Art, China (2015). Now, Jason lives in Taoyuan City, Taiwan, and consistently engages in the both areas of sculpture and public art. Jason Shih's abstract sculptures adopt a simplified aesthetic that uses simplicity to control complexity. Jason Shih is good at translating the aesthetic insights in daily life into profound and timeless elements, gathering pure energy in concise and concise words. His creations start from the delicate humanistic thinking of oriental sentiments and invoke the bright expression techniques of contemporary visual art in form and color. The characteristics of the work are simplicity yet grandeur, attention to detail and full of dramatic tension. In a lively and creative modern style, it elaborates on contemporary humanities. As a professional sculptor, Jason likes to experience the taste of life with perceptual observation in the subtle moments, and also likes the ever-changing situation of game shapes in the poetic imaginary space. For Jason, art creation is to share various moods and stories in daily life.

I work on several paintings at a time usually beginning intuitively with a loose color scheme, focusing on initial line and mark making which may show up in the final composition, but give a direction and starting point to my work. These marks add to the layered aspect of my work and as the work progresses, may be “excavated” or revealed to add depth and interest to the final structure. As the work progresses and a compositional structure begins to emerge, I begin to refine with bold color, contrast, more mark-making, and creating a focal point and movement until a resolution is achieved.

I love walking through the woods searching for a glimpse of nature consisting of a little something extraordinary, what I call ‘a purple leaf’ or inspiration, for my natural still life colored pencil artworks. I am fascinated by natural objects composed by nature, time, and conditions that reveal this uniquely beautiful but seldom noticed natural world. The aesthetic beauty of leaves, diverse in types, shapes and colors, combined with elements of earth, water and stone, are my purple leaf or inspiration guiding my artistic journey to discover and share nature's serenity. Frank Lloyd Wright said it best: “Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” While the foliage of woodland trees keeps me returning to the natural world, it’s the beautiful organic lines, the rich earth colors, the dramatic lighting, and the interesting textures that keep me there. I love to hear the sound of leaves rustling in the wind, the smell of rich moist soil, and an overall feeling of tranquility while walking through the woods. Nature does not stand still but I strive to capture the special moments of beauty, of absolute wonder, and serenity of nature in my still life artworks.