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Katherine Forestier

Hong Kong does not produce many people today like the unassumingly gentle man who works on his canvasses at Pokfulam.

 Few have the chance to combine talent for mathematics with a passion for art and classical literature. Joseph Lee had such an opportunity, paving the way for a 25-year career as a maths teacher and school principal followed by a second life as an artist and poet.

 'I don't think there is a conflict between the two. I enjoy liking both,' Lee says.

 'People say they are two extremes, but they complement each other. Good artists should sometimes be interested in science. Good scientists should be interested in art. Take Einstein, he was so interested in art and music.

 'My maths trained my mind very much. This led me to discover that even if there is truth in the world you cannot describe it or prove it.'  Today's students have to be more practical, he says.

 'They study what leads to a bright future. But that is not education. To be a complete person you have to have a broad view of everything.

 'In Hong Kong, people are not trained that way. That is the most serious education problem here.'  Lee's creative talents are now on show in the book Joseph Lee - The First Ten Years (paperback, from University of Hong Kong Museum and Art Gallery, $200; hardback from Galerie Klee, $250). This is a beautiful collection of 120 colour reproductions of his paintings, and 60 poems to accompany them.

 The poems appear in Chinese and English, having been translated by fellow Hong Kong poet Agnes Lam.

 Lee's art will also be on display in the University Museum and Art Gallery at the University of Hong Kong from Wednesday to April 25.

 'My original idea was to take ancient Chinese poems and make paintings to illustrate them.' But, he said, the 'mood and atmosphere' he was striving for would be impossible to create in such a way. 'Later I developed the idea for having my paintings as the basis, and writing poems for them,' Lee says.

 'The poems complement the paintings in different ways. Sometimes there is a hint, sometimes an explanation, sometimes they carry thoughts outside the paintings.'  It proves successful in the book, making the two art forms all the more satisfying.

 Lee, 57, has been painting and writing poetry since he was a secondary school student. In his painting style, he says he has been strongly influenced by the Impressionists, in particular Monet, and, more recently, the expressionism of Matisse.

 'But it is the classical Chinese mood which I love to express in poetry and paintings. The spirit is there, but the medium is very Western,' he says. Viewers regard the reflective perspective of the universe and self in his work as oriental, says Lee, who is also deeply interested in philosophy. 'I don't know what I am reflecting. It changes all the time. I am trying to discover what is inside.'  Lee said he did not want to dwell on differences between East and West. 'I just want to describe what is in my mind. The two are the same to me.'  His paintings, mainly oils and acrylics, are too warm and serene to be called modern art. Nature and humanity's place in it feature prominently, though Lee rarely paints recognisable places or people, painting what he feels rather than what he sees.

 His home in Pokfulam overlooks Lamma Island, but his interpretation of the view excludes the three Lamma power station chimneys.

 The accompanying poem reads:   Don't ask me where  did those three hideous columns go?  I see only  a clear sky and waters  of midnight blue,  flickers of light where houses are,  half awake, half asleep.

 Has not the power plant  stopped its generation?    Lee also suggests inspiration from feelings of helplessness yet contentment, of worldlessness, a quest for dreams and colour.

 Lee left his teaching post at Wah Yan (Hong Kong) College 10 years ago, to work full-time as an artist. He spent five years in rural Vancouver before returning to Hong Kong for his wife, Katherine, to take up a post in the finance department at the University of Hong Kong.

 He dislikes the crowded city, where buildings have blotted out nature, and says he is not inspired by the dramatic scenes of skyscrapers dwarfing mountains.

 Rather, in many of his paintings people are dwarfed by trees and wider landscapes.

 Katherine Lee opened Galerie Klee in Caine Road as an outlet for her husband's work and that of other local artists.

 Her husband, though, prefers to work alone at home, looking out across sea and islands.

 The exhibition will feature 80 paintings, including many large canvasses, completed in just two years.

 The prints in the book have been selected from more than 1,000.

 The exhibition theme is that of 'flow', which, he says, 'starts from a Chinese poem about flowing water, which conveys a certain meaning, about loving nature and how time passes'.

 It also reflects the happiness a person feels when totally absorbed in their work to the point that they can forget themselves, an experience Lee enjoys each day he spends at his easel.



Seeking answers in his art