Malaysian artist Soon Lai Wai mountain works has the hallmark of his popular lotus paint-ings abeilt an even more primal and subliminal treatment of paint and colours. They exude a rawness that exalt the power of nature and glorify the scale and magnificence of the moun-tains. Lumps of heavy impastos bears down on the viewer with its physicality, glorifying the materiality of paint.

The artist has said "When I look at mountains and nature, I see life". Indeed , with patience, viewers will find a dragonfly or grasshopper perched quietly, camouflaged amongst the lotus blooms and stems, blendinginto it. environment.

Soon's art is very much influenced by the aesthetics of Chinese painting. In both his lotus and mountain series he adhered to the painting structure and approached of ink painting where pockets of spaces are left blank to create the effect of fog and flowing rivers and water. His intention is to express Chinese art philosophy in the medium of oil to reflect his Chinese cul-tural background.

The eight lotus paintings exude a sensual and serene feel that echoes a state of mind, dream-like at times.(perhaps there is a sense of the artist private self and romantic notions), their forms emphasized with broad sweeps of the brush. Soon's has emphasized that his paintings always depict the 'serenity' of the lotus flower amid nature's active ceatures like fish, bees and grasshoppers.

Throughout the past eleven years, Soon has created many successful series on his lotuses, namely : Sensuous Oriental Lotus, Garden of Paradise, Spring Lotus, My Lotus Garden.