At the beginning Chen Te-wang went to Tianjin to take courses, then he moved to Tokyo to study painting. He did not want to enter the fine art colleges but only preferred to travel among famous painting schools to study freely. Chen Te-wang's very unique character began to show clearly at a young age. After returning to Taiwan, painting, exhibiting, and teaching were just all his life. And this persisted unaltered through his life. Each day, as long as he picked up his paintbrush, he would immediately fall into an ocean of colors, spiritualism, thoughts and space, and forgot all completely. Also he took a nearly harsh attitude to his own works. Although he left only a few works, his devout and sincere attitude to art had built a real rare model for modern generations.

Roses and still life were one of the most important subjects for Chen Te-wang. He used implication instead of description with symbolism to express unknown mysterious inward messages. Harmonious grandeur and delicate poetic feelings burst forth from dazzling romantic flowers on a deep classic foundation. The sincere artist put all of himself into his paintings with a pure heart. He made a life of enduring value with the steps of an ascetic monk.