“Constancy and Change: Su-Chen Liao’s Research on Creative Ink-Painting” is a discourse discussing experimental creative works executed from 2010 to 2013 by the graduate student Su-Chen Liao. The study focused on the possibility of applying a set of special techniques found by her to the modern ink-painting. For a start, the influence of the combination of materials and the technique of decalcomania or splash-ink on the texture in painting was investigated. Then, under the guidance of the concept of the theme “Constancy and Change” and the random conversion of the thinking of Zen, along the “fortuitous drawing texture” of automatic techniques, in a silent atmosphere of hues of black and white, the author used various painting techniques with a “free-style” composition in her works to make ink paintings having concrete or abstract images. These novel ink-painting works are expected to show the Zen spirit through art creation and further to make the audience find themselves in an entirely new world when quietly appreciating. At length, four concrete works, twelve abstract works with an artistic conception of landscape and eleven abstract works without the artistic conception of landscape are created. The artistic style of these paintings has a flowing tendency shaking the constraint of traditional formality off.

This thesis contains 6 chapters. Chapter 1 is the preface making a description of the motive, purpose, content and method of the research. Chapter 2 is the basis of theories reviewing the development of 20th century Western painting, Chinese ink painting and Taiwanese ink painting and outlining viewpoints in esthetics of some abstract ink-painting great masters in Taiwan and the correlation between symbols, abstracts and ink-painting texture strokes. Chapter 3 is the creation concept respectively explaining the meaning of “Constancy and Change” from the philosophy of life, the theory of Chinese painting and the ink-painting techniques. Chapter 4 is the research process of creation specifically describing the research result of materials and techniques, the way to present the topic and composition of paintings and the course of creation. Chapter 5 is the interpretation of the author’s works comprising the meaning and content of each work as well as the expression techniques. Chapter 6 is the conclusion discussing what the author has learned from this creation research, the author’s reflective thinking and future prospects.