Artist Sun Shao-ying’s (孫少英) watercolor paintings, which depict historic parts of Taichung, are on display at the city’s Hong Wen Senior High School until Dec. 22.
Sun, 88, moved to Taiwan when he was 18 years old. After graduating as an art major, he worked as a designer at Kuangchi Program Service, before becoming Taiwan Television Enterprise’s artistic director.
After retiring at 60, he moved to his wife’s hometown of Puli Township (埔里) in Nantou County, and began focusing his energy on drawing scenery from across the nation, including the outlying islands.
Photo: Ou Su-mei, Taipei Times
Inspired by efforts by Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung’s (林佳龍) administration to revitalize the city’s Central District (中區), Luan Art Co director Kang Tsui-min (康翠敏) proposed that the Taichung City Government commission Sun to do paintings of some of the oldest parts of the city.
Sun spent more than a year drawing and painting nearly 130 images, 110 of which were included in a book titled Art Taichung Urban Sketchers Map (手繪台中舊城藝術地圖), which was published by Luan Art Co to promote tourism in the city.
The exhibition, which opened in the school’s library on Monday, features a selection of 20 watercolor paintings from the project.
Sun said that as a young man working in central Taiwan, he would often travel to Taichung to sketch.
It was easy for him to paint the city, because he is familiar with it and had developed an emotional connection to it, he said.
His favorite subject to sketch in Taichung is the Baroque-style architecture of Taichung Railway Station, he said, adding that painting the older parts of the city reminds him of his past.
Sun said he believes that like literature, art should also communicate a message in a way that contributes to society and humankind.
The school said it hopes that Sun’s paintings will help people better understand Taichung’s architecture, culture and history.
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