Gaze at the Creek

作品賞析

Gazing Down at a Dry Streambed depicts a scene from the artist Lin Chih-Yu’s hometown. After he had returned after an absence of more than ten years, the stream scene he had known from childhood had completely changed: where there should have been a stream with gurgling water, only bare rocks were left, since the stream had gone dry. Two wild dogs, one black and one yellow, roam freely on the streambed, now their place of activity. The clumps of grass clinging to the adjacent mountain wall, however, make a sharp contrast with the dry watercourse. The foreground is painted realistically, with fine brushwork, while the luxuriantly vibrant large grassy area in the background is rendered with detailed, point-like brushstrokes. A place near Lin Chih-Yu’s hometown is famous for producing mineral water. It turns out that the missing stream had been turned into bottles of mineral water sold in supermarkets. Lin recorded this phenomenon and his feelings with his brush, and wonders what this dry streambed will look like in another ten years.