Viewed close-up, it is just a painting, but viewed from further away, it seems like real scenery. The mist drifting over the mountain peaks partially obscures the verdant trees, reflecting the artist’s own spirit. The art of Tzu-chi Yeh combines composition that has a strong contemporary feel with classical realist techniques, and yet the overall atmosphere created by the works is an expressionism that is redolent of classical Chinese literati landscape painting. Yeh’s paintings subtly blur the boundaries between Chinese and Western art, presenting a unique, modern way of portraying a landscape.

In his re-creations of the natural environment amidst which he grew up, Tzu-chi Yeh uses his artist’s brush to reveal boundless depths of longing and attachment. Hualien County, which is one of the most pristine and unspoiled areas in Taiwan, has provided Yeh with a unique form of aesthetic nourishment. From the imposing Central Mountain Range, through the broad, spacious plains with their fields of rice, to the boundless Pacific Ocean, this whole region is full of beautiful scenery that almost cries out to be painted. Later, when Tzu-chi Yeh traveled north to study at Chinese Culture University in the Yangmingshan hills near Taipei, and when he subsequently went abroad to New York to develop his career as an artist, the marvelous scenery of Hualien was always with him, like an unforgettable encounter that remained always lodged in the artist’s heart.

After spending many years living overseas, Tzu-chi Yeh eventually returned home to Taiwan. Being able to see again the hills, rivers and forests of Taiwan brought home to Yeh just how strong his attachment to his native land was, and it is this attachment that imbues Yeh’s landscapes with such power. Using a relatively simple, straightforward artistic lexicon, Tzu-chi Yeh has succeeded in presenting a complex dialog between himself and the beautiful natural scenery of Taiwan. The depth of the artist’s love for his native soil encourages us to re-experience for ourselves the gorgeous scenery of the land in which we and Yeh live. Through the inspiration provided by Yeh’s work, each of us has the chance to experience our own unique, internal vision of Taiwan’s scenery.