My painting, entitled Tu Tu, is an imaginary abstraction which combines both real and virtual images using modern tools and techniques. As a child, I used to dream in vivid rainbow colours, as if to prophesy my future as a visual artist. A painter lives a life of curiosity in which colours and shapes of everyday objects can stimulate flights of fantasy in his fertile imagination. Examples of common objects might be a red chair or green garbage can. The painter’s creative temperament sees beauty in what many would see as ordinary in a mundane world.
While I did not formally train as an artist, including studying aesthetics, I have spent many decades practising my craft and honing my painting techniques. Each individual artwork has been created wherever I happen to be at the time — looking out of a window on a winter scene, in the shade of a tree on a hot summer’s day, or in my studio. Repetition is an important element in achieving satisfaction, rather than relying on luck.
When I am asked about the creation of so many paintings, I respond using a well-known Chengyu four-character Chinese idiom “Niǎo fēi dì yī” which literally translates as “Birds Fly First”. A more specific translation of this well-known proverb is “Foolish birds fly first”. It means that if you are not clever, you need to be more hard-working and diligent. Clumsy birds fly first; diligence can make up for clumsiness.
I have been accused of being one-dimensional, a single-celled creature interested only in creating art and eschewing all other facets of a rich social life. I am unconsciously old, they say. But, if I remember correctly, the ancients did not know old age.
At an age when I am still playing children’s games, daydreaming, and planning new ideas in my sleep, I was right to look back on my formative years. Love is always necessary in an artist’s life, as is worldly wisdom. These apply to my relatives and friends, both local and foreign, whom I thank for their support and to whom I apologise when I have not supported them. I specially pay homage to my wife who is unfaltering in her care for me, day and night, year in year out.

Oil Painting Series 1

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Oil Painting Series 2

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

International Award

Leon' Studio