Two friends experience reunion in a lodge atop a lotus pond in this beautiful painting called "Summer Freshness" by Chou Chen from his book Joyful Insight.
Of course master Chou's signature elaborate style of landscape painting is on display here in full glory. But the most delightful element of this painting to me was his choice to depict the lotus pond in a more abstract style absent of any line work.
It is rare to see lotus depicted this way as a large collection of plants in a pond but this is the way almost everyone experiences lotus in nature. Plus the choice to do so in a more spontaneous style when the rest of the painting is clearly done in the fineline/gong-bi style was delightful.
See a video book review of the entire book below: