Honduras and Taiwan - Bridging the World Through Art

June 9 – 10, 2009, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York

Leontina Pineda Lupiac, a realist painter of Spanish, Indian and French descent, was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, in 1943.

Leontina discovered her artistic talent in 1999, after a fatal car accident. She was driving home at 2 am after an evening of drinking. She lost control of her car and drove off a cliff.  Nobody could explain how she survived, but she did.

She admitted to her alcoholism, quit her substance abuse cold, and joined Alcoholics Anonymous. Soon after taking control of her addiction, Leontina suffered a new setback. She was diagnosed with breast cancer.

During this time,  She took drawing classes to battle depression. Her art began as a distraction and evolved into a passion. Art became her refuge. Art was therapeutic. It was the beginning of her recovery.

 When she returned to Honduras, Leontina joined the Asociación de Pintores de Honduras (Honduran Painters Association). She studied under two prominent artists, Fernando and Alba Benegas. In 2001, she joined a group of watercolorists and studied under Mirtha Lamas, Enrique Escher, and Ramiro Rodriguez, all celebrated artists.

During a medical stay in Brazil, Leontina joined the “Sociedade Paulista de Belas Artes” (Paulist Society of Fine Arts), where she studied impressionism. Again, art became a source of therapy that helped her overcome life’s hardships.

Leontina conveys her love for life through the use of vibrant and lively colors. Whether capturing an emotion in the eyes of a human figure or depicting the transparency and reflective nature of water in a landscape, she prefers to present her subjects through realism and impressionism because these two particular styles make her feel closer to God and nature

Leontina is grateful for the role her paintings have played in her life. Art freed her from addiction, awakened her creative spirit and gave her hope.  Leontina founded a school in Nueva Tatumbla,  near Tegucigalpa, in 2000. She is involved with the school to make sure the 30 children who attend receive an appropriate education.  Leontina continues evolving as an artist. Her next project is to return to Brazil to visit her daughter Karina and make her greatest work of art yet —a portrait of her newest inspiration: her first grandson, Thomas Ting.

Lee Chin-Chu was born in 1953 in Yunlin, a county in central Taiwan.


She always enjoyed drawing but did not receive formal training in painting.  After marrying, she moved to Taipei.  Lee met Mr. CHANG Yi-Hsiung, at his solo exhibition in Taipei in 1988, the same year Mr. Chang was inducted as a member (le Societaire) of the Autumn Salon in Paris, the first Taiwanese to receive such honor.  Mr. Chang, born in Chiayi, Taiwan in 1914, was a student of the legendary Taiwanese master artist, CHEN Chenpo.  He studied art and painting at the Teikoku Art School (now Musashino Art University in Tokyo) at the age of 18.  In 1980, he decided to move to Paris to live and work permanently.   

After Mr. Chang had the opportunity to see Lee’s paintings, he broke his own rule and agreed to be her mentor and teacher.  At that time, Mr. Chang, at age 74, had long ago decided not to teach any new students in order to be fully dedicated to his own art.  Lee, though married and with two young sons at that time, made up her mind to follow Mr. Chang to Paris to study painting with him and to enroll at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, for the next two years.

In 1990, Lee received an award by the Spring Salon in Paris.  In 1991, Lee also received an award by the Autumn Salon in Paris.  In 1992, she had a joint exhibition with Mr. Chang at the Contemporary Gallery in Taipei.  That year, Lee’s new work again received an award from the Autumn Salon in Paris.

 

She is now a well recognized and collected artist in Taiwan and China.  She also contributes herself to community services through art and education.  Lee is also the Founder and President of the “Black & White Artists Association”, an advisor to the Yunlin County Art Council, and a member of the “French-Salon Taiwan Artists Association” and a trustee of the “Yuanshan Artists Association”.