Mixing East and West
Chen resolved to become a painter, and spent his years as a student in the industrial art department of the National Academy of Arts (now the National Taiwan University of Arts) auditing courses in the fine arts department on top of his coursework for his own major. He gained confidence from the instruction and support he received from painters there such as Fu Juanfu and Ren Bowu, and often spent time outside of the classroom prowling used book stalls for books of watercolor prints. He studied these paintings repeatedly, enjoying both the scenes depicted and the techniques used to create them. Through constant study and practice, Chen gradually developed his own unique “Taiwanese watercolor” style that drew on the techniques of Chinese brush painting and Western watercolor.
Chen painted delightful scenes of Yunlin streets, Tamsui sunsets, and historic Spanish cities, incorporating Chinese techniques such as leaving parts of the sea and sky unpainted. He creates a sense of quiet and harmony in these works by not cluttering his scenes of boats sailing on a lake or of birds or clouds in the sky with excess objects. Nourished by childhood memories of mountains and forests, and of the warm relations between people trading in the cattle market, his brightly colored works are also imbued with an earthy rural warmth.
Chen enjoys sketching local cultures and conditions, and his eye for personal detail has made his paintings of beautiful women especially beloved by collectors. He says that when he works on a painting of a woman, he first notes his model’s best side, then looks for aspects of her face and carriage that are unique to her. Chen always captures his models’ grace and the vibrancy of their expressions whether they are standing or reclining, smiling or gazing intently. “I paint them so prettily that everyone says I’ve made them look even more like themselves,” he says with a grin.
Religious images tend to have an air of solemnity and distance, but Chen chooses to depict Guanyin, Mazu, Bodhidarma and the monk Jigong in a more peaceful, compassionate, and even amiable light. When asked, he says that while he does draw on his memories of other Buddhist images, he also frequently seeks out models with features that correspond to his own ideas about Buddhist figures, dresses them up in the appropriate attire, and then paints them.
Visiting Jiufen by Night, 2015
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