外師造化:鄧卜君筆下的傳統與當代

文/ 吳秀華（香港浸會大學視覺藝術院研究助理教授，獨立策展人）

外師造化

「外師造化，中得心源」是張璪在唐代張彦遠《歷代名畫記》中對繪畫創作和審美觀的論述，也是傳統中國畫的精神綱領，意即繪畫既要師法自然，又不失個人內心的感悟。以此句來形容水墨大師鄧卜君的水墨畫是最合適不過。

台灣是個多山的島嶼，鄧氏長居於台灣東海岸的花蓮，就有高聳入雲的中央山脈，若未曾到訪過花蓮，觀眾一定會以為鄧氏的山水是純虛擬構築的奇幻仙境。
太魯閣的壯觀峭壁，七星潭岸邊帶砂質感的礁岩，孕育鄧氏自創的「搓點皴」繪畫技法。花蓮的奇峰重巒和巉崖陡壁，全是鄧氏筆下「太虛幻境」的靈感來源，也是他長期對周遭還境的觀照，用獨特創新筆墨去體驗和再呈現後的結果。

二十世纪中國畫改良論

縱然「外師造化」這一觀點在二十世紀的中國畫改革中被視為反對「正統畫派」的依據和旗幟，但其主張是要突破正統畫派的摹古風氣，鼓勵創新和表現個性為目的。自廿世紀初康有為主張的歷史使命式的改革「四王」繪畫論起，中國畫面對不同時代的挑戰，也經歷了很長的實驗階段。有曾為政治服務的時候、有主張以西方現代藝術觀念和技巧來改良中國畫的實踐（有以齊白石、潘天壽和嶺南派畫家們的「汲古潤今」和林風眠、徐悲鴻和劉海栗的「引西潤中」兩種取向），到上世紀九十年代經過對各種繪畫表現方式的嘗試和拓展的實驗後，山水畫家重新回歸傳統，以轉化傳統語言為發展傳統繪畫為方向，找出傳統和當代的銜接點。從傳統藝術精神基礎上發展出現代藝術風格，客觀認識傳統筆墨表現的歷史和價值，成為推動現代中國繪畫（尤以水墨畫）發展的主要方向。

在台灣，藝術由往昔的官方主導，轉為民間各界開拓多元化的局面。台灣政治上民主化之後，現代的、前衛的、新抽象的趨勢，取代以往的鄉土寫實，成為畫壇主要勢力。到廿世紀末，藝術不再純以媒材作分類，強調多元性、差異性和地域性的發展。如鄧氏這群五十年代以後山出生的水墨畫家，便如藝評人崔詠雪所指，趨向以「奇、趣、詭、變、空、茫」為主題，也結合東西文化的「折衷主義」向多元化發展。

這與鄧氏的自述不謀而合：「三十幾年前，一些現代水墨先驅們大喊國畫已死，改革、破壞、丟棄聲浪不斷，我卻在唐、宋、元、明、清的古畫裡，優遊、耕耘，尋找其本質的特色，再加上新觀念的思想與想像，種下了這顆種子。」或許能解釋鄧氏於八十至九十年代中封筆十年的原因。

大器晚成

鄧氏是一位不愛競爭、踏實、嚴謹、執著而又充滿個性的藝術家。他早在年青時，已熱衷藝術創作，廿四歲成功考上國立藝專主修國畫，曾臨摹各代不同的傳統水墨作品。

如民國畫家傅抱石、陳之佛等，鄧氏屬大器晚成。他選擇在三十歲（一般應為是人生確立事業的黃金階段）封筆，到接近不惑之年才重拾畫筆，並成立莫名堂，推出其重出畫壇後的首批現代水墨作品—「空間山水—石情畫意」系列。

他放棄追逐名利、與人競爭的繁華城市，退居山林，遠離繁囂，回歸自然的簡樸生活。其自言：「三十多年來，透過相當的生活歷練，在思維與觀念的形成中，幻想和亂想，卻變成我草圖重要起點。」

由於他對古畫勾皴渲染運用嫻熟，又有很強的觀察和專注能力，加上深厚的技巧和豐富的人生閱歷等，因此能融匯眾長，呈現其對山水的獨到觀念於作品中。他年青時的各種藝術訓練包括陶藝和多年來與自然共處的生活體驗，成就今天鄧氏作品中呈現的另類水墨山水。

「搓」的皴法

中國傳統文化的綿延特質很大程度源於對「古」的迷思、崇敬和遵從，這在民國以前的中國畫壇尤甚。鄧氏以水墨創作為切入點，梳理當代中國水墨在複雜的當代文化背景之下，對於傳統的重新認識和呈現。對於一般大眾，其作品很當代，與文人畫追求的淡雅格調相反；對於他個人，其作品植根於傳統。既不是青綠山水，又非工筆花鳥，自成一格。

在八十年代以自然風光和鄉土寫實為題的包括水墨畫作品，曾一度盛行於台灣，並影響藝術市場。正如很多同輩台灣畫家一樣，對鄧氏也有相當程度的影響。戰後出生的鄧氏出身藝專，國畫技法功力深厚。雖傾向以實驗性構圖，但從不放棄傳統筆墨。《屺雲錯》和《滿月吟》系列，以墨色短線積點成線、編織畫面，並透過戲劇性構圖，將部份細部無限放大，又將山石紋理規範化、圖案化，予人整體一致的和諧感覺，平衡畫面部份誇張的章法格局。

至於中國畫的另一重要觀點便是筆墨趣味。雖然鄧氏的作品從未有以書法入畫的文人意趣，但他形容自己的作品「看似點畫，但卻是搓出來的。用毛筆「搓」出的筆法，是中國古老方法技巧。」及後他更把這些「搓」出來的皴擦，從單一發揮到極致。

毫無疑問，如《滿月吟》一類的作品，充份體現鄧氏深厚扎實的傳統國畫筆墨根底。即使我們難以將他的作品與任何古代經典山水作品直接連上關係，但他的自述清楚表達了其對傳統繪畫技法的採納、體悟和認識 。

總括而言，鄧氏游走於傳統與當代邊緣的曖昧與奇麗之間，正深刻反映出其身處當下既親近又疏離的時代感。

傳統新演譯

有一說指，繪畫於不同的社會文化脈絡中，具有不同的功能和目的。繪畫是呈現現實世界的一種方式，至於如何呈現，以至用甚麼形態和風格呈現，則會因不同文化而有所差別。傳統文人畫便是傾向著重主觀和隨心率性的表達，與當代藝術中強調與社會的關係有明顯的差異。

在鄧氏的作品中從沒有傳統文人山水「一河兩岸」的經典圖式，又沒有北宋巨匠山水的高山流水，但卻有如《磐碞位移》的奇峰異石，如《摘星山》、《抱山擁水石擎天》、《朱岩起白雲.環水潄流下》和《奇石—其實—沙皮狗》等。
在空間營造上，鄧氏的部份作品如《山閒佈石水靈》則氣勢磅礡，全靠他遵循另類透視法，令畫面空間顯得更加真實可感，甚至能達到古代表現景物的「三遠」（高遠、平遠和深遠）的特殊透視法效果。

此外，鄧氏將局部的奇山、異石、瀑布和甘泉等，精心挑選和堆疊，重組構圖，製造古法今繹的視覺效果。如《朱岩起白雲.環水潄流下》、《縈迴水抱石漫一響流》和《泉吟》等，如營造假盤景般，精心雕繪，形成文房清供的新景觀，既增添古雅意境，又令文房清玩這種文人畫常見題材翻出新意 。

從風景到意境

藝術既可以是表達個人情感的方式，又能反映藝術家如何理解周遭的世界。鄧氏的山水畫沒有建築物、沒有人，描繪是純自然的空間，呈現無人的大自然。鄧氏表達的是一種幽靜、靈性、超現實的感覺。這可能是其身處的花蓮、又或是另類空間的個人世界，一個肉眼難以瞥見，需要有想像力去感受的世界 。

他筆下的山石通常置於畫面的垂直正中位置，又或佔畫面的大部分空間，填得滿滿的。空餘的背景位置都會用濃重的墨色填滿（無論具色彩與否）或包圍，鮮明大膽的對比、設色和清晰均勻的輪廓線條，頗有波普繪畫的感覺。

從另一角度看，密雜的線條和豐富的構圖，予人有點難以言喻的壓迫感。然隱藏在山石中的筆觸或線條，由於有一致的秩序感，加上如點般的躍動線條，令本身猶似封閉和寂寞的感覺，轉化為有如動畫一般的活力和動感，使之不平凡。這正如其形容自己的作品一樣，「運用陰陽協調視覺法，達到手感和視覺結合、協調，讓觀賞者產生一種不可思議的感動。」這個可能是鄧氏眼中的理想世界，又或者是觀眾想看到的世界，又或許是他刻畫那當代人內心孤獨，在追求平靜之餘，又要不平凡的矛盾。

與其象形像真，鄧氏著眼的是事物內在的一面。作品的美和感染力源自畫家想表達甚麼，這正是傳統文人畫所追求的意境。形神勝於模仿或形似，繪畫是表達畫家心中所想。鄧的水墨畫表達了自然形態以外的想像空間，讓觀眾看到大自然與美的共存，這也是每個人心中所渴求的。這也許是鄧氏作品備受稱許的原因之一。

「矛盾」工筆山水

鄧氏的工筆山水，有明顯的輪廓線和富於如圖案般的裝飾性山石，且畫面不失豐富細節。在技法上，他筆力非凡、線條細膩、造形準確靈動、構圖巧妙、欹正相倚，疏密得宜，更創設獨到的「搓點皴」。

鄧氏的作品出現雲霧瀰漫的場景，與郭熙《早春圖》描繪雲霧中的山巒有迴然不同的風格，也不是倪瓚等文人畫家推崇抒「胸中逸氣」、表現「清高堅貞人格」那種寄情托志的隱逸山林。不談鄧氏的重彩水墨，即使是純黑白的水墨作品，如《應山合水》、《石浪漂青》和《鍺岸銀浪》等，用工筆描繪的重巒疊石而成的海岸線，結構緊湊，予人一氣呵成、迴腸蕩氣之勢，既是仙境與現實的聯繫，也是他個人對大自然的獨到解讀方式。

鄧氏在筆墨之中摻入了自己的心性，即那種偏愛重覆的表達手法。通過相似的山石輪廓、形態和筆觸，形成有趣的躍動節奏，不斷在畫面中呈現。他說：「在繪製過程中，雖然形式元素簡單，重複又重疊，反覆也無聊，無奈卻要持續，產生相當多的矛盾。」這就使他的「矛盾」工筆山水，在當代傳統之間找到了一個適合自己的兼收並蓄的方式，慢慢地形成其鮮明風格。

富魅力的賦彩

總括鄧氏的作品，具有超乎尋常的想像力，成了其作品鮮明的特點。他的工筆重彩山水均以超現實的幻境出現，一個如幻似真、局部卻又完整的世界，遊於現實與虛幻之間，又相互交融。

特别濃麗的渲染技法，能看到清晰的線條和皴擦的痕迹。這使鄧氏的畫面在精工之餘，反而又出現了拙樸的氣質，力圖形成自己的工筆山水新圖式。既有古意，又添新意，别具一格。這就是在工整嚴謹的觀察和技法的基礎上，生發出關注的個人情趣和自由意境。

鄧氏注重內容和和諧統一。形象的典型性和造型的裝飾性相結合，是其山水的重要特色。可能受到圖案畫或現代動漫插畫的影響，設計的觀念和語言融入了其工筆繪畫的意識中，形成了他獨具一格的繪畫語言。筆下的葉，化做設計中的點線面相互依存，構築於畫面。

鄧氏的構圖形式也是追求出奇制勝，這更加強了畫面的裝飾感。不論是大幅小幅、簡單抑或繁雜的畫面，都精心審度，反覆推敲，達到密不雜亂、疏不空虛的藝術境界。在感悟與表現自然中推陳出新，再現大千世界的豐富和多樣性，那虚無飄渺、如幻似真的美麗仙境。

這都藉由其如夢如幻般的場景，隱晦地傳達他心中的夢土，在奇險扭曲的筆觸下呈現的山巒與屋舍，有著百轉千迴的深思熟慮，是那種大山大水的波瀾壯闊，與台灣濕潤氣候下的混血結晶，而獨自隱身於畫中的人物，有鬱鬱寡歡的呢喃，這是他對「時代深感無力之餘的一個對歷史與未來的眺望」，從畫中得以自我治療與釋放焦慮，而這些被他寄情的山水則成了其江山一統的桃花源與物我兩忘的烏托邦。

鄧氏作品游走於實景與實景啟發的造景之間。他對山石和瀑布甘泉情有獨鍾，以獨特的風格重新建構其眼中的景緻山水。如果觀賞山水畫目的是要感受大自然的氣息，甚至為了漫遊畫家筆下的山水間，達至卧遊的境界，鄧氏的作品定令觀眾有不一樣的旅程。

Regarding Nature as a Teacher: The Traditional and the Contemporary in TENG Pu-Chun’s Painting

Text by NG Sau-wah (Assistant Professor at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University; Independent Curator)

Regarding Nature as a Teacher

“Regarding nature as a teacher and expressing it through one’s comprehension” is Zhang Zao’s theorization about painting and its aesthetics recorded in Zhang Yanyuan’s Record of Famous Paintings of Successive Dynasties from the Tang dynasty. The statement also captures the guideline of traditional Chinese painting—that is, the painter should regard nature as his teacher and manifest it through his personal sensibility. The statement is also a perfect description of ink master Teng Pu-Chun’s painting.

Taiwan is a mountainous island. Teng resides in Hualien on the east coast of Taiwan, where one can see the sublime, towering Central Mountain Range. If one has never visited Hualien, he or she would definitely believe that the landscape portrayed in Teng’s painting is a fantastic world from pure imagination.

In fact, from the awe-inspiring cliffs of the Taroko Gorge to the sandy rocks from Qixingtan Beach, nature has provided an environment for Teng to create his individual texturing technique, the “rolled wrinkle stroke.” The unique mountains and continuous peaks as well as the steep, perilous cliffs have served as a source of artistic inspiration for Teng’s “ethereal realm” in his painting, which is not only the embodiment of the painter’s consistent observation of the surrounding environment but also the representation created through his personal experiments with distinctively innovative ink techniques.

The Chinese Painting Reformation in the 20^th Century

Despite the fact that the viewpoint of “regarding nature as a teacher” was used as a principle guideline and motto to resist against the “Orthodox School” in the 20th-century Chinese Painting Reformation, its goal was to change the Orthodox School’s style of imitating ancient masters and to encourage innovative expression and demonstrate individual style. Since the dawn of the 20th century when Kang You-Wei proposed the historical mission of reforming the painting style of the “four Wangs,” Chinese painting had undergone different challenges in various times and experienced a long stage of experimentation. Throughout history, Chinese painting had served political purposes. There had also been the contention that Western modern artistic concepts and techniques should be adopted to reform Chinese painting. (Qi Bai-Shi, Pan Tian-Shou and other Lingnan School artists argued to “absorb strengths of the past to embellish the modern, whereas Lin Feng-Mian, Xu Bei-Hong and Liu Hai-Li appealed to “incorporate the Western art to embellish the Chinese art.”) The era of the 1990s witnessed an array of attempts and experiments in painting as well. Afterwards, ink painters have returned to the tradition, trying to find a balance and connection between the traditional and the contemporary by transforming traditional vocabularies as a way of continuing and developing traditional painting. Based on the spirit of traditional art, they have developed a modern artistic style, through which they approach the history and value of traditional ink expression in an objective way. This approach has also formed the primary direction of the development of modern Chinese painting, especially ink painting.

In Taiwan, art also underwent a phase of being directed by the government and moved towards the stage of becoming more diversified through the efforts of painters in the public sector. After the democratization of Taiwanese politics, the modern, avant-garde and new abstract movements replaced nativism and realism and became the prominent trends in the art scene. By the end of the 20th century, art was no longer classified according to media but emphasized on diverse, differentiating and regional development. Ink painters like Teng who were born after the 1950s have also engaged in topics that addressed “strangeness, amusingness, peculiarity, change, emptiness and indistinctness,” and developed their art through diverse yet eclectic approaches that integrated Eastern and Western cultures.

This trend matches Teng’s statement: “More than thirty years ago, some modern ink pioneers cried out that the national painting was dead, and argued to reform, destroy and abandon it; however, I have looked for its inherent characteristics by teaching and immersing myself in ancient paintings from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. I have combined what I found with new concepts and imagination, and planted this seed.” This statement might also account for why Teng stopped painting for a decade from the 80s to the 90s.

A Late Bloomer

Teng is a non-competitive, practical, exact, and devoted artist that has a unique personality. As a teenager, he was already enthusiastic about artistic creation. At the age of twenty-four, he was accepted into the National Academy of Arts, majoring in National Painting. In school, he had copied a wide range of traditional ink painting from different historical periods.

Teng is a late bloomer like Fu Bao-Shi and Chen Zhi-Fo from the Republic era. He chose to stop painting at the age of thirty (which should have been a stage of establishing his career like what ordinary people would have done), and he did not pick up the brush again until he was close to the age of forty. Subsequently, he founded Mo Ming Hall and published his first series of modern ink, Space Landscape – Painting for the Love of Rocks, after he re-launched his career.

Nevertheless, Teng did not engage himself in the pursuit of fame and wealth in the prosperous, urban environment informed with competitions. Instead, he retreated into a simple life in nature that was away from all the boisterous and bustling scenes of a city. He once stated: “Over more than thirty years and having undergone through the tests of life as well as the formation of ideas and concepts, fantasies and reveries have become an important starting point of creating my paintings.”

Due to Teng’s mastery of the texturing and coloring techniques used in ancient paintings, his kin observation and high concentration as well as his incredible skills and much life experience, he is able to integrate all these strengths and demonstrate his unique ideas in ink landscape. The artistic training, including pottery, that he received when he was young and his immersion in nature have both contributed to his unusual creations of ink landscape today.

Texturing with the “Rolled Wrinkle Stroke”

The unending continuation of Chinese traditional culture, to a large extent, is due to how Chinese people have mythologized, revered and obeyed the ancient culture, particularly the art scene of Chinese painting prior to the Republic era. Teng uses ink painting as an entry point to delve into the contemporary Chinese ink art under a complicated contemporary cultural background, trying to relearn and represent the tradition. For the general public, his work is rather contemporary, which is contradictory to the elegant style of the literati painting. For him, however, his work is deeply rooted in the tradition, but is unique as it is neither conventional portrayal of natural landscape nor refined delineation of the flower and bird motif.

In the 80s, ink painting featuring natural sceneries and native realism was once popular and well-received in Taiwan and had an impact on the art market. Like many of his peer artists in Taiwan, Teng was also somewhat influenced by it. Born after the war, Teng was trained in the National Academy of Arts, and possessed excellent skills in national painting. Although he tends to experiment with his composition, he has never cast traditional ink painting to the side. His Leaping the Cloud and Full Moon Chant series reveal images created with ink lines of interconnected short strokes. With dramatic composition, details are enlarged and combined with regular patterns of mountain rocks, which create a sense of harmony that balances the hyperbolic design and arrangement of the images.

Another crucial feature of Chinese painting is the calligraphic characteristics. Although Teng has never incorporated calligraphy into his painting as the traditional literati painting would do, he described his painting as “seemingly created with ink dots but actually with rolled wrinkle strokes. This texturing of rolled wrinkle strokes is an ancient Chinese technique.” As his career progresses, he has also brought this texturing method to perfection.

Unquestionably, Teng’s work, such as Full Moon Chant, fully embodies his solid and substantial foundation in traditional national painting. Although it might be difficult to link his work to any of the ancient classics of ink landscape, his statement has clearly expressed his embrace, understanding and mastery of traditional painting skills and techniques.

In short, Teng’s work integrates the traditional and the contemporary and surfaces as an ambiguous yet splendid mixture that precisely reflects the sense of time perceived by the artist, which is both intimate yet detached.

New Interpretation of the Tradition

There is a saying that painting has different functions and purposes in different cultural contexts. Painting is a way of representing the real world; as for how it represents the real world and in what form and style depend on the specific culture that creates the painting. Traditional literati painting tends to value subjective and spontaneous expression, which is obviously different from contemporary art that emphasizes on its relationship with society.

In Teng’s painting, one never sees the classic pattern of “one river, two shores” commonly seen in traditional literati painting. Nor does it show the high mountains and flowing streams often depicted in the landscape paintings by masters of the North Song dynasty. However, one does see the peculiar peaks and unusual rocks such as those portrayed in Displacement of Rocks and other paintings, including Star Picking Mountain, Rock Mountains and Embraced by the Water, White Clouds over Vermilion Rock．Water Flows Down, Rare Stone and the Dog, etc.

In terms of spatial arrangement, some of Teng’s paintings display a majestic momentum, such as Water Spirit of the Valley, which is created with an alternative perspective that renders the space more realistic. It even achieves the effect of a special perspective, which is called “three distances” (distance of height, distance of plane, and distance of depth) used in ancient ink landscape.

Furthermore, Teng also carefully selects and piles up details of strange mountain peaks, rocks, waterfalls and springs to construct new images and create stunning visual effect with his new interpretation of the ancient elements. In White Clouds over Vermilion Rock．Water Flows Down, Water Around Rocks．Gurgling Water and Spring Moan, one sees Teng’s interpretation of images that resemble potted landscape commonly seen in the study of an ancient literatus. These images are delineated in a minute and elaborate manner, conveying an artistic mood that is archaic and renewing the common motif of decorative objects in the literati painting.

From Natural Landscape to Artistic Mood

Art serves as an outlet to express one’s emotion but also reflects how an artist perceives and understands the surrounding world. Teng’s landscape painting shows no signs of man-made architecture and human beings; it is a pure, natural space without human existence. What the artist aims to convey is a secluded, spiritual and surreal space that might be the environment of Hualien where he lives, or an alternative, personal world that cannot be perceived by the naked eye but only through imagination.

The mountain rock painted by Teng is usually situated vertically at the center of the image, taking up most of the space, and even to the fullest extent sometimes. The blank space in the background is either filled with or enveloped in dark and heavy ink (whether with or without colors). The vibrant, bold contrast of colors and the clear, even lines of the contour are somehow reminiscent of pop art.

On the other hand, the dense and elaborate line and the composition with rich details can give an oppressive feeling that cannot be described with words. However, the brushstrokes or lines implicitly embedded in the mountain rocks create a sense of order. Together with dot-like, dynamic lines, the originally enclosed and solitary atmosphere in the painting is transformed with a sense of exuberance and movement, which reminds one of the effect achieved by animation. This has given Teng’s painting a distinctive quality. The painter has described his own work in the following words: “Using the elements of ying and yang to balance the vision and achieve union and harmony between the brushwork and the visual representation, enabling an incredible sense of being touched in the spectator’s mind.” The world in the painting might be the ideal world in Teng’s mind, or the world the spectator wants to see; it might also be Teng’s delineation of contemporary people’s conflicting state of mind as they feel lonely inside but still long for peace and quietude.

Instead of realistic representation, Teng focuses on the inner world. The beauty and appeal of a painting comes from what the painter attempts to express, which is exactly the artistic mood that traditional literati pursue in painting. The spirit is more important than outward imitation or realistic delineation; painting is to express the mind of the painter. Teng’s ink painting expresses an imaginary space beyond natural forms, allowing spectators to see the co-existence of nature and beauty. This is what everyone longs for inside, and this is perhaps one of the reasons why Teng’s work is so highly praised.

“Contradictory” Landscape in the Claborate-style

Teng’s claborate-style landscape has clear contours and decorative mountain rocks of elaborate patterns. Moreover, his image reveals incredibly rich details. In terms of technique, he has demonstrated powerful strokes, refined lines, precise and vivid forms, ingenious compositions and mutually complimenting blankness and images that are arranged with considered spacing. He has even created his individual texturing technique of the “rolled wrinkle stroke.”

Teng’s work often features misty mountain scenes in style utterly different from the mountains engulfed in clouds depicted in Guo Shi’s Early Spring. Neither does it resemble the secluded nature that expresses “one’s inner carefreeness” and “righteous and chaste virtues” praised by literati painters such as Ni Zan. Putting aside Teng’s color ink works for now, even his achromatic ink paintings, such as Landscape of Mountain and Water, Rock Waves and Silver Waves, which portray continuous rocky seashores with a dense structure in the claborate style, demonstrate a magnificent momentum complete at one go. These paintings display an ethereal realm as well as a connection with the real world, and reveal Teng’s unique interpretation of nature.

Teng incorporates his own personality into his brushwork, which reveals an expressive style centers on repetition. Through delineating contours, forms and texture of similar mountain rocks, Teng creates intriguing, vibrant rhythm that is repeatedly represented in his work. According to the artist, “in the process of painting, these formal elements are simple, repetitive and overlapping. They are repeated in a dull process, yet I have no choice but to continue, which creates such a conflicting feeling.” However, this repetitive process of his “contradictory” claborate-style landscape has achieved a balance between contemporary expression and the traditional art, which allows him to visually express his inner feeling and gradually form his individual, prominent style.

The Alluring Use of Colors

Taking a comprehensive look at Teng’s oeuvre, one sees an extraordinary capacity of imagination, which contributes to the uniqueness of his painting, His color landscape painted in the claborate style revolves around a surrealistic realm of illusion – a fantastic yet realistic as well as partial but complete world – that is posited between reality and mirage that are interweaved into perfect unison.

The poignancy of his texturing and coloring techniques reveal clear lines and traces of winkle strokes, which add an unadorned quality to Teng’s painting despite its refined, elaborate style, and contributes to the formation of his individual style in the field of claborate-style ink landscape. Therefore, Teng’s work conveys an archaic sense as well as innovativeness, making him a unique painter unlike the others. This is because Teng has infused personal sentiments and an unrestrained artistic mood into his work created with kin observation and exact techniques.

Teng also places an emphasis on his content and achieving harmony in his painting. The combination of paradigmatic images and decorative forms is an important feature of his ink landscape. This attribute might come from the influence of graphic drawings and modern animation and comics. He has assimilated design concepts and vocabularies into his exploration of the claborate-style painting, creating his exceptional visual language. The leaves he paints can be viewed as elements of dot, line and plane employed in the field of design, which form a co-existing relation and the structures in the image.

In terms of composition, Teng pursuits an element of surprise that reinforces the decorativeness of the image. No matter the size of the painting or the level of intricacy of the image, Teng always carefully plans, repetitively considers and eventually arrives at the mastery of representing density without disorder as well as employing proper spacing without hollowness. As a result, he is able to integrate creativity in expressing personal understanding and natural landscape, and to visualize the abundance and diversity of the world through his mesmerizing, ethereal realms of illusion and fantasy.

Through the mirage-like scenes, Teng implicitly delineates the land of his dream. The mountains and houses depicted with spectacular and twisting strokes, one can detect the painter’s circumspective and careful consideration. They are the combination of the magnificence in majestic landscape painting and the moist, humid climate in Taiwan. The figures hidden in the painting seem to be whispering in dejection, which symbolizes Teng’s “vision for history and future despite his sense of helplessness towards his time.” Through painting, he is able to achieve the effect of self-healing and anxiety-releasing; and the landscape as a vehicle of his sentiments and emotions embodies the idyllic land of the Peach Blossom Spring without division as well as the utopian world where the inner and external worlds are unified as one.

Teng’s work is posited between realistic landscape and the imagined landscape inspired by real landscape. He is fascinated by natural mountain rocks, waterfalls and springs, and has reconstructed what he considers to be the ideal landscape with his unique style. If the purpose of admiring landscape painting is to perceive nature, or even to be imaginatively transported into the landscape created by painters and to wander in it, Teng’s work can surely offer an extraordinary journey for the spectators.