Getting back in touch with nature

By Vico Lee
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Sep 07, 2003, Page 19

Lee Mei-huei's landscape works capture the spirit of Taiwan, with Ping Trees. PHOTO COURTESY OF HON-GAH MUSEUM

"Our vibrant human civilization over the past tens of thousands of years was made possible by only a few geniuses, but [their contributions] are limited to the field of neurology, genetics and brain research. As for nature, [the importance of] human intelligence remains minimal. ... I myself, in terms of human history, am as trivial as a microbe. But if I can get in touch with the profound soul of the stars, the sea and the wilderness, their love and beauty compel me to create," Lee Mei-huei (李美慧) once wrote in the introduction to one of her exhibitions.

As a result of this insight, Lee, like many ancient Chinese scholar artists before her, chose mountains and the sky to be the walls and ceiling of her studio. Subtle changes in the appearance of the wilderness has been her subject over the past 20 years of her career.

At a time when Taiwan's landscape has become an exhausted subject, Lee fused subjective interpretations into her representations of the natural scenery to create a distinctive perspective.

Wild Cheery Blossoms in Bloom.

Lee's current exhibition is at Hongah Museum (鳳甲美術館) titled Lee Mei-huei Solo Exhibition 2003 (李美慧2003個展), at Danfengshan hill in Beitou, the leafy Taitung Arts Village.

Danfengshan, an ordinary hill just 117m above sea level, is an unlikely subject for landscape painters. With several residential communities encroaching the hillside and an all-to-clear panorama of smoggy Taipei, the area seems far from picturesque. Probably the only thing beautiful about Danfengshan as a hill is its wavy profile, and this is depicted to surprising effect in The Moon Rising above Danfengshan. Like an illustration for a fairy tale, the full moon looks over the rugged hill that seems to extend endlessly on the 62cm by 270cm canvas.

Whatever the subject, one thing Lee insists on is carrying her often meters-wide canvas to the scene to work on instead of making sketches of the landscape first and making an oil painting later inside the studio. The invisible flow of the mountain's creatures' life forces gives Lee the inspiration to make her brushstrokes, she says.

Lee Mei-huei Solo Exhibition 2003 will run until Sept. 28 at Hongah Museum, 5F, 260 Dayeh Rd, Beitou (台北市112北投區大業路260號5樓).