Huê Thi Hoffmaster

Hoffmaster’s recent paintings reflect the influence of both Eastern and Western painting traditions. Peripheral depictions of abundant natural growth frame areas of raw canvas, providing the areas of negative space associated with Chinese landscape painting. Hoffmaster views the empty portions of the composition as opportunities for breath and pause, and incorporates a mindfulness practice into his process. He combines this quiet sensibility with saturated colors and heavily impastoed brush marks. The artist is also inspired by the floral still lifes by 19th century French painter Henri Fantin-Latour and draws on his classical training and mastery of representational color palettes. 

Hoffmaster does not work from sketches or preparatory drawings, but rather sees art-making as an event where he can embrace the inconsistencies and energy of the moment. He feels that the aesthetic variety of his work reflects his shifting moods. Hoffmaster views the abstracted shapes of his flowers as symbolic representations of human interactions, engaged in frenzied conversation or arranged in dense gatherings. The artist locates within each blossom an individual personality and presence which reflects day-to-day psychological battles, conversations, and relationships with people around him. The budding forms also visualize the artist’s life philosophy of symbiosis and mutuality – “plant the garden and everything will work to nourish it.”