Dancing Between Light and Shadows

Taiwanese artist Liu Wei Tsen creates nature-themed oil paintings that magically capture the ever-changing interplay of light and shadows. Liu’s meticulous rendering of shadows is particularly striking, evoking a profound connection to the outdoor world, inviting us to pause, reflect, and appreciate the wonders that surround us.

The artist’s brush elevates the mundane to the realm of art, imbuing forgotten ordinary moments with newfound grace and joy. Impressing audiences with the profound beauty of his art, Liu has held successful art exhibitions in countries such as Taiwan and Japan, and his works have been collected by various prestigious art institutions in Asia.

In this exclusive interview, Magnifissance is delighted to exhibit Liu’s selected nature paintings and share the philosophical meaning behind them.

The boundless possibilities of light and shadow

“Shadows are figures that seem to exist, but actually don’t. To me, observing and sketching the movement of shadows is a deeper exploration of light, an endless pursuit of hope and the imaginary world, and a haven for my soul that I’ve long been searching for,” Liu says.

The constant interplay between light and shadow in the natural world always stirs one’s imagination. In Liu’s painting Floating—Purple Flowers, we see shadows amid the rustling of leaves in the warm breeze on a sunny afternoon, casting intricate filigree-like patterns on the wall, as if engaging in a playful dance.

The mesmerizing display of shadows adds depth and poetry to the surrounding ambience, inviting the viewer to embrace the simple pleasure of basking in the sunlight. Subtle and ethereal, the shadows filtered through the leaves seem to float gently on the wall, evoking a sense of transcendence.

The creative reversal of the foreground and the background alters one’s perspective of light and shadow, making the viewer reevaluate the boundaries between subjective perception and realistic existence, leading to the eternal philosophical questions of what is reality and what is illusion. On that note, the drifting shadows in Liu’s work remind us to let go of fixed notions and cultivate a more enlightened approach to life.

When light embraces shadow

Shadow accompanies light as an often-overlooked partner. Yet it’s precisely due to the existence of shadows that everything in the world appears with a visual depth and dimension, revealing contours and enriching the view, presenting us with a moody atmosphere at times and dynamic energy at others.

The relationship between light and shadow resembles that of yin and yang—one can’t exist without the other; rather, they complement and heighten one another in their coexistence. Each has its own characteristics. For instance, shadow is the yin, the colour of the night, and the reflection on the water. Gentle and sentimental, it contains delicate but rich emotions with the ability to unlock an infinite space for imagination and an ambience of poetry.

Through his paintings, Liu constantly displays the rich world of shadows. “Painted with the radiant brush stroke of light, shadows reveal to us a mysterious world, a world that might otherwise go unnoticed. It’s a world full of colours, vitality and beauty—a world filled with hope, liveliness, and happiness,” he says.

In his painting Garlic Vine, we find layered and kaleidoscopic shadows behind the vibrant blooms, luring us into their embrace with an infinite promise for the imagination.

Impermanent reality

Liu’s series Mirrors and Shadows depicts the shadows with aluminium foil to constantly mirror the surrounding light, thus creating an ever-changing display of subtle light on canvas.

The fresh green branches of early spring, the fruit-laden boughs of autumn, and the flowers in full bloom are the main features of this series. These elements appear against the background of the simple yet mysteriously changing shadows, creatively capturing the fleeting beauty of life with its constant interplay of light and shadow.

“Light reflects off the metal foils and onto the shadows in the paintings to evoke poetic changes, similarly to the way life dances to the symphony of the ever-changing rhythms of time. In the tapestry of life’s shifting moments, we discover that beauty lies not only in what was but in what can be,” Liu says.