Pan Li-Shui

TAIWAN, Tainan

Pan Li-Shui, also known as Yunshan, was a painter and the son of famed artist Pan Chun-Yuan. In 1931, Pan’s artwork was selected along with his father’s at the 5th Annual Taiwan Art Exhibition, and in 1993, he became the first artist to receive the Folk Art Heritage Award issued by the Ministry of Education.
The simple color palate Pan uses takes after the Northern school, whereas other works, such as Door Guardians, are painted in the style of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220). Graceful and natural, the piece shows Pan’s attention to the composition as a whole. The places where the brush makes contact with the canvas, as well as the lines and color combinations, all possess their own uniqueness. Common in Taiwan’s famous temples, Pan’s artworks includes murals, oil paintings, clay statues, carvings, gold plating, color painting, and decorations on beams.
His temple paintings can be seen all over Taiwan and abroad. He is responsible for over two-thirds of the temple paintings in Tainan alone. His works include Illustration of the Great Compassion Dharani Sutra, located behind the Buddha niche in the Great Hero Hall of Daxian Temple in Tainan. This mural is colored with gold highlights, and the flowing lines demonstrate Pan’s fine and detailed craftsmanship. In 1974, Pan completed a colored drawing for Qingshui Temple in Tainan, and in 1977 he painted the landscape murals, Return of the Monk from the Wild and Vajrapanibalin for the rear hall of Fahua Temple in Tainan. Later generations published a compilation of Pan’s works entitled Collection of Pan Li-Shui’s Works and Research of Tainan’s Traditional Artist Pan Li-Shui’s Works.