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"North Coast" by contemporary ink painting painter Chen Tsung-Chen (1948-2020). Inscription: "Man of the Countryside, Spring, Year of Jia Zi (1984)." Name seal: "Chen Tsung-Chen." The painting has a horizontal composition with the main peak on the left. The towering steep mountains are outlined with interlacing dark and light ink and then water stained with light reddish-brown and azurite pigments. The foreground is kept blank to stand for the water surface. A few simple brushstrokes show the clear glistening river, in which a skiff is gently making its crossing. People on the shore are overlooking the mountains, which must be a different view altogether. The riverbank extends to the right side of the painting and suddenly turns inwards to enter a flat green meadow, adding another visual layer and enriching the overall composition. The composition and the water stain technique are all examples of Fu Chuan-Fu (1910-2007)’s influence, i. e., "the Fu-Style Landscape." The imagery in the painting is reminiscent of the poem "Fengliuzi" by the Song-Dynasty poet Ge Li-Fang: "Nanyuan is overgrown with grass and leaves. The eastern breeze is reassuring and relaxing. Flowers are spotted all over the field. Willow trees frequent the shore. Icy glaciers are about to thaw, and mountain snows are breaking up. Or is it that signs of the spring arrival are emerging from ridges between furrows, as the plum buds are falling onto the horses? Whiffs of faint fragrance are detected under the moon. With scant reflection in the water, the sparse plum trees by the river come in pleasant self-effacing colors, a slender frame that has sustained the cold. "
Chen Tsung-Chen (1948-2020), a self-claimed Man of the Countryside, was born in Longjing, Taichung. Chen graduated from the Graduate Institute of Education at National Taiwan Normal University and used to serve as the secretary-general and honorary secretary-general of the Taoyuan County Association of Fine Arts, full-time teacher and director of the Adverting and Design Department at the St. Francis Xavier High School, member of the Taiwan Ocean Painting Society, and executive supervisor of the Fu Chuan-Fu Painting Society. His life sketching concepts were first inspired by Chen Jing-Hui (1911-1968) and also deeply influenced by Fu Chuan-Fu.

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