• Constance T. Fong descends from the Tang lineage of Pi’ling (now Changzhou) in Jiangsu Province—a family that upheld the scholarly...
    Cat by Poinsettia 花与猫
    Watercolor on paper
    24 3/4 x 17 3/4 in; 63 x 45 cm

    Constance T. Fong descends from the Tang lineage of Pi’ling (now Changzhou) in Jiangsu Province—a family that upheld the scholarly traditions of Jiangnan, the culturally rich region south of the Yangtze River known for its literati refinement and artistic heritage, while actively engaging in China’s early modernization. Born in Wuxi and raised in Shanghai, she later pursued her education in the United States, growing up at the confluence of two cultures. Her earliest artistic awakening began with crayons and sketches, through which she encountered the sensibility and discipline of Western art. Over the years, through the close companionship and support of her husband, Wen C. Fong (1930-2018), one of the most eminent Chinese art historians in the US, her appreciation for Chinese art and antiquities became an integral part of daily life. For Connie, Chinese art was not merely an object of study or admiration but, through continual immersion, a way of life. In studying the works of Bada Shanren (1626–1705) and Qi Baishi (1864–1957), she developed a refined sensitivity to the playfulness of brush and ink, its expressive vitality and resonant charm.

     

    Like those two classical masters, she focused not on grand themes but on the intimate details of everyday life—finding beauty in the delicate moments: the brightness of a single flower, the posture of a cat, the fine tracing of a leaf. In studying the old masters, she also learned to capture the vitality of living things with her brush. Drawn to diagonal compositions, she discovered in them a dynamic tension between disruption and renewal. In one of her paintings, beneath the blossoms, a black cat sits in stillness, its gaze both calm and alert; the red petals unfurl as if in quiet reply. In Connie’s vision, the world is supple and alive, all things share a silence that speaks beyond words.

  • To capture a creature without lightness, and to paint nature without tirade, what Connie learns from Qi Baishi is the way to paint one’s heart with a brush. The shrimps’ torsos are a dance of dense and light inks. She carves the shells with light ink, heads and legs with light blue, so that the shrimps’ dexterity unshells from a balance of ink and light. The tentacles are drawn like airflow, inferring the spatial directions of the composition and the movement of the water. These lines generate the image with a flowing tension across the picture plane. Her ink shrimps are translucent and agile, as if swimming on paper. 

     

    In portraying the dragonfly and lotuses, she levitates the insect above water. She traces the veins with dry, slim brush, and fills the void with light blue, rendering the wings a misty sense of transparency. The three lotus leaves lean into each other in crossing structure, forming a diagonal composition with the dragonfly. The layers of the lotus leaves are formulated through a combination of lines and dotted texture in darker tone, which gives a tactile quality for the plant. Waves of the water are indicated with soft lines flowing in rhythms. She leaves vast blanks with scarce strokes allowing the presence of water to be sensed but not described. 

  • In Evening on the Lake, Connie evokes a delicate state where nature’s movement meets the quiet resonance of emotion, capturing...
    Evening on the Lake 暮色映湖
    Ink and color on Paper
    11 3/4 x 15 3/4 in; 30 x 40 cm

    In Evening on the Lake, Connie evokes a delicate state where nature’s movement meets the quiet resonance of emotion, capturing the subtle threshold between day and night. She uses the curves of the water to anchor the composition, intertwining with areas of negative space to create a rhythm and breath that render nature’s pulse in a decorative way. On the right, dense pines painted in dark ink build the weight of the mountains, while distant peaks are veiled in cool blue-gray tones that echo with the hues of the water. An almost dissolving red sun gathers the mood of the painting into a single point; its reflection flickers across the cool water surface, stirring a quiet undercurrent beneath the calm.Through delicate gradations of ink and expressive washes, Connie captures the essence of traditional Chinese xieyi - the art of expressive suggestion - rather than descriptive precision. The scene becomes less a topographical view than a space of reflection, where mountain, mist, and sunset dissolve into one another, and the viewer is invited to linger within the quiet pulse of twilight.

  • Two Birchs 双桦
    Watercolor on paper
    14 5/8 x 19 1/4 in
    37 x 49 cm

  • She often painted in the literati spirit of jixie: reconstructing scenery from memory rather than drawing directly from life. The nature in her paintings is less a record of what is seen than a reflection of her inner state. Thus the heart moves freely beyond the body, tracing its own path and place to return to in such an artistic process. 


    Connie brings the same mindset to watercolor, in which despite the medium wanders across culture, she preserves her truthful perspective towards nature. She favors Windsor & Newton watercolors for their richness and purity, which provide a stable and vital foundation for her palette. Connie’s art does not seek the avant-garde; it grows quietly out of honesty and reflection. The strength of her work lies in this sincerity, in her unwavering attentiveness to the world within.

  • Connie once remarked that the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York reminded her of Chinese landscape—as though the rocks had...
    Fishing on a Lone Boat 孤舟独钓
    Watercolor on paper
    11 3/8 x 15 in; 29 x 38 cm

    Connie once remarked that the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York reminded her of Chinese landscape—as though the rocks had crossed from one dream into another, their forms echoing those in classical painting. In Fishing on a Lone Boat, Connie paints an almost still moment with clarity and transparency. The image is structured in three layers: In the foreground, the meadow and rocks are in fine strokes and lighter hue; In the middle ground, the soft blue and green pave the surface of water with gentle light. A lone fisherman drifts in the middle of the water, subtly breaking the silence with tilted torso and curvy rod. In the far distance, the depth of the jungle is illustrated with dark green and brown, where trees grow above the edge of the mountains, at once softening the linear structure and reserving the clouds and mist in blank, cradling the land in the light. The space of the image is not built by linear perspectives, but through the gradual progression of tonal layers, and the transparency of the colors allows the water to mirror the sky. 

  • The Adirondacks in Summer is more lyrical. She constructs the depth of space with more saturated colors, where dark blue...
    Adirondack Summer 阿迪朗达克的夏日
    Watercolor on paper
    20 1/2 x 28 3/4 in; 52 x 73 cm

    The Adirondacks in Summer is more lyrical. She constructs the depth of space with more saturated colors, where  dark blue melts into violet in sky, unfolding in veils of color that ripple like dye through water that  conjure a rich emotional tension in the scene. The distant trees and two canoes are chiselled into the spectrum of color with minimality, almost melting the contours in warmth. As the sky light dissolves, the tone substitutes the boundaries of shape, fusing everything into violet, making nature an extension of emotion. 

  • Two Birchs 双桦
    Watercolor on paper
    14 5/8 x 19 1/4 in; 37 x 49 cm

  • Connie paints with purity and persistence, transforming the rhythm of daily life into color and form. The flowers, mountains, and animals in her work embody a childlike curiosity toward life itself—at once vast and intimate, expansive and delicate. In an age of noise and haste, her art offers a personal way of seeing, a return to the innate way of looking. It carries within it a humble understanding of the world and a gentle response to it.

  • Connie T. Fong

  • "I intend my painting to celebrate nature in all her glory.  My heart is full of gladness whenever I paint."

    —Connie Fong

    Constance T. Fong (b. 1933) was born in Wuxi to a prominent family and raised in Shanghai. Her early years were shaped both by the era’s drive toward modernization and by a deep literati tradition. She later pursued her education in the United States, placing her life and work at the confluence of cultures. Over the years, with the close companionship and support of her husband, eminent Chinese art historian Wen C. Fong (1930–2018), she came to regard Chinese art as a way of living. Her work reveals a concord between Chinese ink and Western watercolor. Her brushwork is refined yet playful, reflecting her studies of Bada Shanren (1626–1705) and Qi Baishi (1864–1957), from whom she draws a resonant natural charm. Capturing intimate details of everyday life, she imbues a felt vitality into color and form. Letting her spirit wander in nature, her landscapes convey not only what she saw but also what she sensed and felt along the way, extending her attention to the elements within the frame. Through purity and persistence, she brings a childlike curiosity to her subjects, mirroring the joy behind the brush.