This piece combines Shiy De-jiin’s unique modern techniques with the unique characteristics of watercolor paintings creating a beautiful work, rich in expression and color. The mountains afar are washed in wet ink, revealing a deep sense of artistic conception. At the foot of the mountain stands Shiy’s favorite historic house, showing a quiet and contented rural landscape. The foreground is a stretch of an autumn forest. The orderly trees, the stones and the water are the garnish of this poetic and gorgeous modern landscape painting.

Shiy believed one should learn from the painters in the Five Dynasties and the Song Period, creating paintings by confronting real landscape. He said: “Only by seeing nature in a whole new way and experiencing life from the eyes and the heart can one create a new Chinese painting style.” In his later years, he immersed himself into nature, studying Chinese calligraphy, painting, folk art and traditional architecture. Although Shiy had a passion for the tropical, natural beauty of Taiwan, he never forgot that he came from Sichuan. He observed “Taiwan’s landscape” through Chinese eyes. Besides his passion and truthfulness, his paintings also carry a kind of refined comprehension of life.

Fascinated by Taiwan’s natural landscape, Shiy once proudly said that “The mountains here are Taiwan’s mountains as well as Shiy De-jiin’s. The strokes and ink here are calligraphy developed in Chin and Han, but it has an artistic concept of modern China. Since I have a good foundation in painting, I can grasp precise shapes. Because I am versatile, my watercolor combines the richness of oil painting and the spirit of ink wash. Other watercolorists cannot produce such a painting, and Western painters cannot create the ridgeline of my mountains and rivers, either. They are the fruit of my diligent practice in calligraphy. Each turn has its own significance. Each pause possesses its own spirit. This is modern Chinese painting, a typical creation of Shiy De-jinn.” (Cheng Hui-mei, Aphrodite Sacrifice: Shiy De-jinn, UNITAS Publishing Co., Taipei, 2005, p. 257)