Bourbon Street Serenade
Oil on canvas | 2026 | 28 x 22 inches A saxophonist in a black hat commands the center of a vibrant New Orleans street, lost in the music flowing through him. The architecture of the French Quarter glows in warm yellows, pinks, and blues around him while passersby drift through the background like echoes. A departure from Lingling's spiritual series, this work celebrates the universal language of music as its own form of energy — alive, improvisational, and deeply human.
Walking in the Rain
Oil on canvas | 2026 | 20 × 16 inches Oversized magnolia blossoms arch across a misty, rain-softened landscape, their luminous white petals rendered in exquisite detail against a dreamy background of sage and lavender. Beneath the canopy of blooms, two small figures walk together under a single golden umbrella — their togetherness is made precious by the scale of the natural world surrounding them. Painted in a softer, more impressionistic register than Lingling Zhao's large-scale philosophical works, this intimate piece speaks to the quiet beauty found in ordinary moments of connection. The magnolia — a symbol of purity, perseverance, and the transient nature of beauty in Chinese tradition — transforms a simple walk in the rain into something quietly sacred.
Summer Bloom
Oil on canvas | 2026 | 16 × 20 inches Four coral hibiscus blossoms reach toward the light; their petals rendered in warm salmon and rose against a sun-drenched background of gold and teal. Painted in a loose, confident impressionist style, the composition captures the fleeting abundance of summer in full flower — lush, generous, and alive with color. In Chinese tradition the hibiscus symbolizes delicate beauty, feminine grace, and the fleeting nature of precious things. Here Lingling renders that transience not as loss but as celebration — a moment of pure natural radiance caught on canvas before it passes.
Magnolia by the Water
Oil on canvas | 2026 | 16 × 20 inches A magnolia tree leans gracefully over a sun-dappled pond, its pink blossoms reflected in the shimmering water below. Painted in a loose, luminous impressionist style, the composition captures the fleeting abundance of spring — petals scattered across the water's surface, golden light filtering through the surrounding foliage, the tree's ancient, twisted trunk anchoring the scene with quiet permanence. In Chinese artistic tradition the magnolia represents purity, feminine beauty, and the arrival of spring — a symbol of renewal and the tender persistence of natural cycles. This intimate landscape invites the viewer simply to pause, breathe, and be present in a moment of uncomplicated natural beauty.
Sacred Bond III
Women with White Tiger — Series 3 Oil on canvas | 18 × 24 A golden-haired woman presses her cheek gently against a white tiger, both enveloped in a warm, rose-tinted light. The surrounding forest dissolves into abstracted color, focusing all attention on the intimate connection between woman and animal. The third work in the series completes a meditation on trust, vulnerability, and the invisible energies that bind all living things.
Sacred Bond II
Women with White Tiger — Series 1 Oil on canvas | 18 × 24 inches A woman in repose leans against a white lion, her arm draped across its neck with effortless trust. Both figures rest in shared stillness, eyes closed, breathing the same air. The pale, luminous palette — silver, lavender, and gold — creates an atmosphere of timeless peace, suggesting a realm where the boundaries between the human soul and the natural world have quietly dissolved.
Sacred Bond I
Women with White Tiger — Series 1 Oil on canvas | 18 × 24 inches In the first work of the White Tiger series, a dark-haired woman rests her forehead against a white tiger in a moment of profound stillness. Both figures have closed their eyes — surrendering to a connection that transcends the boundary between human and animal, tame and wild. Rendered in cool silvers and muted golds, the composition evokes the Taoist principle of unity between opposing forces.
Edge of the Forest
Portrait #2 Oil on canvas | 18 × 24 inches A young woman emerges from a lush, layered landscape of ancient trees and smoldering earth, her gaze steady and self-possessed. The warm greens and amber tones of the natural world surround her like a living force — protective yet untamed. Rooted in the Chinese classical tradition of figure and nature as inseparable, the work speaks to the soul's quiet resilience within a world in constant transformation.
Between Two Worlds
Portrait #1 Oil on canvas | 18 × 24 inches A young woman turns to meet the viewer's gaze with quiet confidence, poised against a vast mountain landscape rendered in cool violet and gold. The contrast between her composed, present-tense figure and the ancient, elemental world behind her speaks to the tension between the human and the cosmic — the individual soul navigating forces far greater than herself. Rooted in the Chinese classical tradition of placing the human figure within nature as philosophical statement rather than mere backdrop.