Chef Jessie Rockwell Club presents “Oriental Brushstrokes,” a one-man exhibit by  Caesar Cheng, July 1 to 31, at Chef Jessie Rockwell Club, Amorsolo Square, Rockwell Center, Makati City.

 

Realistic with fluid, bold expressions; elegant and dynamic—the brushstrokes of Cheng echo the essence of the Lingnan School of Chinese painting.

 

A Lingnan School painting is more realistic than traditional Chinese painting, which sometimes looks flat and two-dimensional, nonliving, not true to nature, cartoonish, too simplified and even awkward.

 

The opposing diagonal lines in animal drawings highly suggest life, strength and movement. Birds appear alert, shifty, moving, about to fly. With their open beaks, you can almost hear them.

 

The Lingnan style dramatically depicts silence, serenity and stillness through such images as lotus pond, moonlit scenes, early spring mornings and misty mountains.

 

Cheng started painting in the late 1960s when he was in high school. He enrolled in Chinese painting classes at the Liberty Hall in Chinatown during summer breaks for four consecutive years.

 

His teachers were all from Taiwan—Masters Liang Chung Ming, Liang Siu Chung and Wen Bi Ing, who taught him traditional Chinese painting.

 

In the early ’70s, he studied the Lingnan tradition of Chinese painting under Master Hau Chiok. His painting started as a hobby; he did not expect that he would become an art teacher. Painting was his passion, but he ended up taking Commerce at the University of Santo Tomas.

 

In the early ’90s, before he started teaching Chinese painting, Cheng had a pet store business. He also worked at a pet-related company as a senior aquarist from mid 2003 to 2005. It is, therefore, no wonder why his animal and fish paintings look so real.

 

Cheng is a founding member of the International Studies for Chinese Art, Inc. He is currently teaching Chinese Painting at the Confucius Institute of the Ateneo de Manila University, and conducts workshops at Fully Booked in Bonifacio Global City,

 

For more information, call Chef Jessie Rockwell Club, 8906543 or 8907630.