Chien Chung Wei, who has been on the Watercolor Live faculty, shares his inspiring way of pursuing art. Now you can discover Chien Chung-Wei’s brilliant techniques responsible for his award-winning masterpieces – check out his new art video workshop, “Spontaneous Watercolor,” here.
BY CHIEN CHUNG WEI
My only philosophy of art: To accomplish a profound and unique painting.
I am not so much developing a style, but rather constantly exploring and seeking the essence of painting (or of watercolor) and the ways to express the essence more beautifully, more loftily, and with more meaning and value.
I started learning to sketch and paint in watercolor in a studio when I was 17. Since then, I have never asked anyone the question of how to paint this and that or what I should or should not paint.
The funny thing is, once I completed the basic training in painting; I also forgot what it was. It wasn’t until recent years did I truly appreciate the way Egon Schiele explains that perceiving beauty is to affirm our awareness of suffering or pain, and really sense the mighty bedrock of shapes, lines, and forms in expressionism.
I hope I can make some great paintings to pay tribute to past masters in art and create some works that I myself regard as marvelous in this life. I’ve been working toward it and have not yet seen the results. I know it’s a tough goal which is difficult to achieve. However, it’s the “toughness” that I delight in to push myself forward.
The only thing I adore, being passionate about and having full confidence in is the expressive form of painting in “extracting the beauty and intrigue of form from Nature with various painting media.”
I have been enchanted with the magical art form of painting on plain paper since childhood. With talents and passion, I’ve been in pursuit of beauty for some 20 years. Now I can feel that I am starting to see the light… Therefore, I can feel at ease exploring Nature in the real world, revealing, playing, and extracting shapes to my heart’s content. On watercolor paper or canvas, I create the ideal, perfect, and intriguing image in my mind. No need to seek out my own style anywhere, because “I” am Style.
The ultimate happiness of a creator often comes from the search for self-fulfillment. Striving to create heart-touching paintings is the true origin and the end. It’s just that simple!
Compared with ten-plus years ago, now I don’t use exquisite strokes and I give up all the special techniques. I choose subjects from daily life, set up a clean composition, and try to get back to the original state of “simple watercolor.” I never knew that the past 20 years were just a detour, and it is not until now that I am really getting to know what transparent watercolor painting is.
Interestingly, every time I am in the middle of working on a painting, I feel so convinced that I am a rare genius! However, when I finish the work, the defiant and agitated confidence is completely lost because of the flaws that have gradually accumulated during the painting process. And that is the moment I feel the pain of aiming higher than I can achieve. On the other hand, this is the kind of pain that keeps me constantly improving myself and striving to create masterpieces of immortal value.
Whether I can be regarded as a famous master painter or not cannot be only decided by my works; in addition, my unsociable and introverted personality probably makes it even more difficult for me to achieve fame. I just hope that, for the rest of my life, I will accomplish works comparable with those of the Old Masters, and thus I will have no regrets in my life! Yet, for now, I have to confess that I am still far from being a “master.”
In fact, I have not yet accomplished many works that I can be genuinely proud of. I am looking forward to attaining that kind of happiness. I do not have much patience or perseverance. I only have a strong passion for painting!
Art is not abstruse at all. I paint what I really want to paint, I do not fool others or myself, and I do not aim too high than I can achieve; I ask myself to widen my horizons and strive for excellence… This is my way of pursuing art.
I have just always been doing what I found very interesting, difficult, meaningful, valuable, and beautiful, and I have been doing it with effort and persistence. I have seen how “good” it is and would like to share it with others. ”Virtue never stands alone; it is bound to have neighbors!” I am extremely grateful for all the feedback from these arts-loving teachers, students, and friends.
I just want to speak the truth and paint with sincerity. That’s it!
Thank God for making me meet such an amazing painting medium like watercolor! I will definitely make every effort to create immortal masterpieces until I die. This journey of painting has just begun.
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