The gladioli rise through translucent washes and thrusting dark leaves. Fauvist color is an obvious comparison, but Lin's brush also depends on the boneless flower tradition, in which petals are built without enclosing outlines, and on calligraphic discipline in the leaves.
The image is energetic rather than decorative. Blossoms press against the sheet, reds and purples shifting in density while the leaves cut upward. Lin makes flower painting capable of bodily force, turning a familiar subject into an event of growth and pressure.
