Hsi likes to say that his artlessness and natural style make him an "artistic" painter. The assessment might be considered conceited were it not so honest and accurate.

Concentration and dedication to his art have been the principle factors enabling Hsi to achieve eminence. Although he started his painting career decades ago, he still retains the enthusiasm of a young man. Even today, when he picks up his brush, his heart still swells with the passion of first love. Above all, he is always looking for new directions. "I don't want to say or do what others have said or done. I would rather be a revolutionary and fail than be a follower and win profit and fame," he says.

Hsi's fate as an artist was sealed from the day his mother asked him to draw a design for her embroidery when he was only a young child. After his graduation from primary school, he entered colleges of art in Chengtu, Chungking and Hangchow on the China mainland, where he continued his studies for a further seven years. Under the instruction of the great masters of Chinese painting history, Lin Feng-main and Chao Wu-chi, he laid a solid foundation for his painting technique.

On his arrival in Taiwan at the age of 25, Hsi fell in love with the beauty of the island. During the first stage of his artistic life, he drew on the landscape and natural features of Taiwan as his inspiration. In 1962, he visited the U.S. for a year at the invitation of Congress, before becoming footloose in Paris for the next three years. At that time, under the impact of changes in Western culture, he developed a feeling for such new modes as abstract, Op, and Pop Art.

Soon, however, he began to grow tired of Western art and culture. The architecture in Paris was so strange and unfamiliar to him that he began to long for China. After his return to Taiwan, he tried to grow roots in his motherland. "I wanted to nurture and mature my art from the cultural background and the national feeling of the Chinese people," he recalls. With this object in view, he wandered out into the countryside to look for simple things such as the sunshine on a crumbling wall or the shadows in the eaves of an old building. As he toured the villages and alleys, he was looking for the vanishing "Chinese outlook" and for the answer to what China really is.

During this period, the things that influenced him most were the urns discarded along the ditches, red-brick houses, primitive furniture, wood-carved god statues, and the temples. He realized that primitive Chinese architecture is the soul of the people, and it is neither opposed nor enslaved by nature. It is harmony and order in itself. "From it, I discovered the will, the characteristics, the cosmology, the aesthetics, the outstanding techniques, the supernatural creative power of the Chinese people. It is the source of my inspiration and the direction of my exploration in the unknown world of art," he continued.

Aside from capturing the vanishing China through his brush and camera, he collected antique utensils and made them part of his life. His house is in itself a gallery of antiques: Doors, chairs, tables, bookcases, basins, chopstick containers, lamps, window sills, frescos, god statues, tiles, New Year Paintings, shadow show puppets as well as wooden and stone carvings. His brilliant water color paintings are inspired by antique houses and articles, and rustic scenery and people. Through his sympathy for the world, he has touched the essential love between human beings.

Recently, his painting has been dominated by a desolate, bleak and heavy tone. His color is simplified and unified, his scenery graceful and unearthly. Through simple images, he expresses the harmony and order of nature, and through his artless art, he shows the eternity of the universe.

The secret of his success in mastering watercolor painting is his conscientious practice of Chinese calligraphy. He chose water color instead of ink in his painting because he realized that the former would give his painting a Chinese flavor and at the same time a feeling of modern conditions.

Hsi Teh-chin has always been enthusiastic and unwavering in looking for a new style and new technique of painting throughout his artistic life. His painting has made him a timeless and boundless artist respected by people all over the world.

[Picture Caption]

Summer mountain

Taipei plain

Ship

Island and distant mountain

Carmel beach

Summer mountain.

Taipei plain.

Ship.

Island and distant mountain.

Carmel beach.