Nostalgia for Farm Life

Painter Lee captures life on farms with warmth & peace as if she wants to sooth the tired minds of city dwellers

The 2010 Seoul International Art Fair took place at Seoul Gallery in Insa-dong, Seoul, under the theme of the globalization of Korean painting from July 13-26 featuring works by a number of Korean painters including such renowned painters as Park Jin-yong and Lee Jung-soon, who participated in the event with such pleasure.
“Scenery as viewed from Yong Islet,” was the title of one of many paintings on the subject of the sea. Painter Lee, displaying many of her artwork on the scenery of farm villages in a series including one titled, “The Feast in Autumn,” featured farmers happily engaged in the harvest of bountiful crops on the paddies, sensual enough to take the viewers back in time to grasp memories of a warm farm life in the old days when farmers tended to farming with cows and their bare hands instead of machines, their backs always soaked with sweat, but just happy to bring in a new crop. She also put on display one of her works entitled, “Farmers Planting Rice Seedlings,” making viewers feel as if they are back in their native towns, invoking a warm nostalgia for their lives in the early years.
The painter apparently tries to comfort the minds of the modern people who live in material affluence, but are always tired from the intense competition and challenges in their daily lives and want to heal their spiritual wounds. She shows nature as it changes by the season, trying to secure the spiritual hopes in her sketches and paintings.
It is hoped that those who can’t feel the power of life in nature can share the fantastic sensations that painter Lee captures with the acrylic dyes on her canvases and the shapes of people living in harmony with nature.
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Farmers planting rice seedlings; 25 x 35 cm; Acrylic on canvas

Farmers picking weeds at rice paddies; 25 x 35 cm; Acrylic on canvas

A farmer harvesting rice: 25 x 35 cm; Acrylic on canvas

A view of the sea: 45.5 x 38 cm: acrylic on canvas

A Windy Day: 45.5 x 38 cm; acrylic on canvas

Painter Lee Jung-soon