Traditional Chinese Scroll Paintings by Edwin Chau

Here are two fine examples of the craggy landscape so well loved by chinese painters through the ages. The Yang forces of the vertical cliffs are balanced by the Yin of soft mists and clouds. Unworldly villages perch high up on the peaks, reached only by tenuous footpaths. Pines and other vegetation that have weathered extreme conditions reflect the endurance of the mountain folk that live there. Improbable as these asymmetrical compositions may seem, they were based on actual geographical regions in China, such as Huang Shan (Yellow Mountains) in Anhui Province. For centuries, artists have made pilgrimages to camp and sketch in these mountainous regions to capture the poetry and spirit of the landscape.

The vertical format of these two paintings are ideally suited to the subject matter as well as to the scrolls onto which the delicate paper painting was mounted. Framed in silk brocade and hung between two rods, these paintings are frequently displayed without the protected of glass, and are otherwise kept rolled up for storage and protection.

Morning Glory and Cricket

Kumquats and Poetry

The Lotus flower has a mythical quality much admired in Chinese culture. Each pristine, creamy blossom rises on a single stalk up to a height of six or seven feet, unstained by the muddy waters from where they are rooted. It has become a metaphor for the virtuous life, untainted by the mores and vices of the society that surround it. In this painting of the Red Lotus, Edwin Chau has used the two main methods in Chinese brush painting -- the Contour method for delineating the petals of the lotus blossom, and the contrasting Mo-ku (form-giving) strokes for the rest of the plant. A hovering dragonfly adds to the dynamic composition.

During the last decade of his career, the rose paintings by Edwin Chau were most sought after. The Single White Rose depicted here is most representative of the poetic and ethereal quality he rendered in this popular floral subject.