When I first found this set of 15 watercolors in the Chen Lok Lee collection (only three featured here), I was very curious. I had never seen them, and wasn’t even sure they were made by my father. They’re so different from what I knew of him to create. The more I observed them, I found that they were just as beautiful as what he ended up prolifically creating later in his career.
Today, we photographed them, took measurements and entered them into the digital catalog. It takes me to a window in his life when I didn’t know him (Italy, 1968), and of course, I wish he were here to talk about them with me.
In 1967, Chen Lok Lee left everything behind in New York City and headed for Rome where he studied at the Rome Academy and later earned his MFA from Tyler School of Art in Rome. His life and career spanned three continents, and it is incredibly interesting to watch the influence of his surroundings on what he created, the styles he practiced and the way they influenced his future works of art on paper and principals of life.
