Ink wash painting was Shiy De-jinn’s ultimate concern. He spent the first half of his life studying Western sketches and oil painting, which distanced himself from classical and traditional art. In his later years, he maintained: “As I get older, I have become fonder of calligraphy and classic Chinese landscape painting.” He worked hard to develop his calligraphy skills and published articles on the reform of modern ink wash painting as a return to the cultural identity of Chinese aestheticism.

In 1979, on a visit to the northern, mountain town of Jiufen, Shiy painted “A Delightful Contrast of Sea and Mountain,” a series of ink wash paintings. On one of the paints, he inscribed: “Traveling to Jiufen to capture this landscape finally made me realize that Taiwanese scenery cannot be depicted using traditional techniques. Shiy De-jiin of Sichuan, a guest in Taiwan for thirty-two years.” He abandoned the distinctive texture strokes of traditional Chinese painting and chose ink as his primary medium. Damp brushwork and a keen sense of color, the white space in his paintings becomes a shade of color, light, and emptiness to rebalance the harmonious relationship between ink and color. In “A Delightful Contrast of Sea and Mountain,” Shiy uses thick color to highlight the grandeur of the mountains in various shades of blue, adding rich layers that the viewer will never forget.