Night owl – Hua Tunan

I am, quite often referred to as a ‘night owl’. I don’t sleep well as I have mentioned a few times before, and I can often be found wandering through the internet late at night. Usually I am looking at some sort of art or watching crazy YouTube videos about spiders, or trying to find the answer to the deep and meaningful questions of life, such as, why is there a setting on the toaster which will always burn the toast?

Last night, while not sleeping, I came across this amazing painting. I love the chaotic energy and style of the work, so I obviously had to share this, and put my thoughts about it down.

Hua Tunan, is a Chinese artist who is currently making a name for himself on the international street art scene. His career started working in traditional Chinese techniques, but after a trip to Singapore found a passion for street art and started to combine the techniques to produce amazing stylised works of art.

Tunan now mixes western graffiti styles with the tradition which was taught to Tunan by his father, creating these magnificent pieces, enabling him to stay true to his heritage, but also demonstrate his passion for a more modern world.

Tunan’s work takes its inspiration from nature, almost as if he is harnessing an animalistic behaviour within his pieces.

‘Night owl’ has been created using a controlled ink splatter technique which adds to the energetic feel of the piece.

Owls are amazing hunters, they have the ability to hear their prey under earth and snow thanks to their acute hearing, allowing them to find food swiftly, their whole head is essential like a mission control radar for tracking down prey. They have special feathers which break turbulence in to smaller currents, enabling them to fly almost silently. Once they have found their food source, it is swallowed whole, their body then create a pellet of fur and bone which is later regurgitated. Basically owls are beautiful killing machines.

This painting, I feel, captures that powerful essence of the owl. The seemingly uniform paint pattern, gives the feeling of the owls energy, and though at rest, you know that there is a power waiting to strike.

Tunan’s technical is individual and almost mesmerising. The more I look at this piece, the more I see within it. I love how the owl is the only thing in this painting, making it the audiences only focus, and how the owl stares off in to the distance, with no acknowledgement of the audience.

In Chinese tradition, owls are seen as an ominous symbol, but Tunan’s work almost celebrates the owl, giving it the stature of western symbolism which denotes wisdom, the style almost hinting that the universe it contained within the animal.

What do you think of Night owl? Why not tell me in the comments? Like this post? Why not share it?