Lot Essay
Jonathan Ching has been recognized for his impressive painting technique, using a strong impasto and semi-Impressionistic style to render the fleeting sense of a moment. Ching also adds metal collages, giving the already three-dimensional impasto extra form and weight, extending the painting into physical reality. Ching captures the golden light of a halcyon summer in Another Sunday Morning. The woodland animals are made from hammered copper Xa fox slinking towards a pair of rabbits scurrying amongst the human visitors; a humorous scene-within-a-scene, with the sly hunt of the fox in juxtaposition to the idyllic outing. Deliberately weathered by the artist, the metal embellishments have tarnished and acquired a distinct patina sealed in by a coat of varnish. Another Sunday Morning channels the leisurely mood of George Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte from 1884, a luminous pointillist painting. Using bold brushstrokes, Ching achieves the same transformative radiance of Seurat's dots: he elevates an ordinary scene into the sublime and dazzles the eye with the brilliant light of summer.