作为中国最经典的文化符号，荷塘莲花在传统文人画里早已脱离了视觉审美的属性。这意味着，每个人心目中都有一个莲荷的审美意象，而每个画家的莲荷也都是这种文化审美意象的显影与再造。陆春涛的莲荷意象，一方面是借用其词语的文化想象，赋予他的那些并非明确的视觉形象以更丰富的审美意蕴;另一方面则是将莲荷置入一个空旷高远的场域，境界的营造大于莲荷形态的描绘。月色的朦胧、星空的寥廓、晨曦的熹微、暮霭的苍茫，都被画家设置在荷塘无尽的地平线上。他画出的是荷塘的伟岸与壮阔，神秘与幽远，虚幻与飘渺。在这些作品里，他不拘泥于微观的荷叶、莲花与蓬茎的具体描写，而注重密密匝匝、繁茂质实的荷塘整体的塑造，他突出了微光从远远的地平线透视出的诱惑感，浓黑的池塘里不时弥散出睡莲于夜间绽放出的圣光。其实，他的画面很写实，正像那些画面都有透视的焦点一样，但恰恰是这种写实的画面被虚拟化了。他让你感受他营造的莲荷场域给予你的过目不忘的整体印象。在某种意义上，他也是把当代艺术的装置场域转换为一种绘画形式，由此打通空间装置与平面绘画的隔膜。

　　富有意味的是，陆春涛的这些荷塘莲花是画在自造纸上的。不仅自造纸是种再生纸，收集废旧纸与再造纸浆过程的本身，就充满了生态和环境富有寓意的人文理念;而且，自造纸的粗糙肌理和画家追求密实皴擦的笔法以及画家对于画面光感的营造，也都起到了相得益彰的作用。借助于这种自造纸的柔韧性，画家完全拆散了传统的笔墨语式，以宿墨的苍茫氤氲和水色的互融渗化来形成单宣难以抵达的丰厚感。而他借用自造纸纸边的不规则性，乃至自然形成的圆形来组构不同的画面，使作品具有了当代艺术的物性特征。其实，这些不规则的具有极强触感的自造纸当被组成一定的空间关系时，也和他画面的荷塘场域一样形成了文本与上下文的关联。他将笔墨与水色的融合、具象与抽象的转换、场域与情景的再造和物性与灵境的生化等，都通过荷塘莲花这一文化喻象而斩获新的诠释，从而形成他个性鲜明的自我语式。

　　As a classic cultural symbol, the lotus has escaped from the visual aesthetics arbitraries in the traditional Chinese paintings and created an especial symbol of character almost when everyone sees this image. However, the lotus under different painters’ brushes present different implications and reinventions. The lotus image of Lu Chuntao’s paintings on the one hand is to add more unspecific visual meanings to enrich the aesthetic content. On the other hand, the lotus has been put into a spacious place to get a prominent description. On the horizon besides the lotus pond, the painter has put many beautiful scenes there including the misty moonlight, stark starry sky, the fresh dawn and the endless skyline. All of these have presented us a grand, spectacular, mysterious and illusive visual picture. Instead of realistic depictions of the leaves, flowers and bulbs, Lu Chuntao focuses on the whole atmosphere by emphasizing the light going through the skyline and the halo shining between the lotuses in the dark pond at night. However, Lu Chuntao’s paintings are very depictive and we can see many perspectives adopted there. The abstract layer of his drawings yet gives us an impressive feeling as a whole in terms of the lotus scenes. In a sense, he turns the device scene of the modern art into a format of drawing, breaking the boundaries between the space and plane paintings.

　　It is meaningful that the lotus flowers drawn by Lu Chuntao are painted on the self-made recycling papers which are full of ecological and environmental-friendly elements. Besides, these self-made papers are excellent for the painter to create a surface to bear on the proper light due to its eclecticism. Therefore, Lu Chuntao uses these papers to finish a series of works that have broken the limits of the traditional Chinese paintings and applied the misty expressions and ink integrations to achieve a rich content in naturally different circles with features of modern art. Nevertheless, this irregularity performs great on the self-made papers to form a coherent context by combining the ink with water, changing between the specific and the abstract, reinventing the scene and the occasion and personifying the objects and the spots. In this way, the cultural symbol of the lotus flowers in the pond has been fully elaborated and Lu Chuntao’s unique personal expression in drawing seems to be amazingly great.

　　t over the Lotus Pond are all exemplified the great touches.

　　Lu Chuntao’s paintings about lotus are different from other painters. His works are delicate in details and unique in layouts to strengthen the representative role of the lotus with sprinkled ink as background. He also uses pinkish color instead of white to paint the petals of the lotus. The white poster color he applies are very thick with strong brushes, unlike the graceful features in the ancient times. Therefore the perspective of how to view this style depends on the viewer’s interests and the painter’s purpose.