Wasp and Poppy

The last days of the summer season are captured in the spontaneous brushwork with contrasting colors of red, brown, and black. A wasp flapping its translucent wings jabs its claws into the petal of a large blossoming poppy, as if sucking the nectar from the flower for the last time before it fades in the approaching winter.

Chao Shao-an’s many works on insects and flowers are fairly straightforward in approach: flowers were created with a quick sweep of the brush, while insects were created with meticulous detail.

Inscribed:

The red flower gradually senses the lonesome mood of autumn.

—In the lunar Jiazi year [1984], autumn. Shao-an.