Lee Tae-Ho, Former Professor of Art History, Chonnam National University; Current Professor, Myongji University, "A Pure Devotion to Drawing Home"

Celebrating Yang Soon-Yeal’s First Solo Exhibition

When I stepped into Yang Soon-Yeal’s quiet studio in Andong, what immediately caught my attention were her landscapes. Cornfields, woods, meadows, and low hills — subjects that may seem ordinary, even resistant to being painted — filled her canvases. Yet she has pursued them with quiet persistence, layering delicate blue-green washes. As Yang herself explains, this devotion stems from a deep longing for the scenery of her childhood.

“Nature holds a very special meaning for me. To live, for me, is to live in harmony with nature. Whether life feels ‘successful’ or not depends on whether one can live without greed, simply as part of it. Perhaps this is an illusion, but it comes from the memories of my childhood — gathering mugwort roots along the ridges, playing with flowers — memories that shine as complete beauty. That perfect beauty now draws me not just as memory, but as an ideal place I long to reach. So even today, I breathe in nature’s scent and try to capture its breath and feeling on my canvas.”

Her paintings embody this sentiment: the pure charm of violets by the roadside, the drooping branches of forsythia, the mysterious bloom of wild irises hidden among lush leaves. She has patiently refined these impressions into her own artistic voice.

Although she studied in Daegu from a young age and lived much of her life in the city, Yang’s work still carries the sincerity of her rural roots in Uiseong, near Andong. That honesty shows most clearly in her depictions of pumpkins, blossoms, corn, and wildflowers. If her landscapes reveal persistence, her floral works reveal freshness and grace: violets, azaleas, wild roses, bindweed, morning glories, wild irises, pasqueflowers, and even her daughter asleep in a flowered meadow. Painted in gentle washes without excess, these works radiate a tender, unassuming beauty.

Other pieces feel more spontaneous and lively — camellias glimpsed during a trip to Seonun Temple, or pumpkin blossoms drawn with light, flowing brushwork. Her abstracted depictions of spring wildflowers capture both color and atmosphere with playful charm. Yet above all, Yang’s sense of home is most alive in her paintings of pumpkins and cornfields. The bold yellow of pumpkin blossoms, the ink-toned sweep of leaves, the rhythmic lines of corn rows, even the small delight of a grasshopper among the stalks — here, her hand moves most freely. These works not only reveal her skill but also signal the promise of her future growth as an artist.

Yang graduated from art school in Daegu, married, and settled in Andong. Only later did she return to painting through graduate study, balancing her roles as artist, wife, and mother. This balance has sometimes held back the polish of a full-time painter, but one senses a passion always ready to surge forward, tempered by the wisdom of daily life. This combination — earnestness, restraint, sincerity — gives her art a quiet power, even in its early stages.

Looking back on just a few short years of work, it is clear that Yang will continue to express both her nostalgia for her hometown and the realities of her present life. Just as her pumpkins and cornfields carry her deepest sense of place, so too will the subjects dearest to her heart and hand.

Her landscapes, meanwhile, may evolve in new directions. In her master’s thesis (The Influence of Gyeomjae’s True-View Landscapes on Contemporary Art, 1995), she traced the tradition of Korean landscape painting from Gyeomjae to modern masters such as Cheongjeon and Sojeong. The mountains and valleys around Andong, so well-suited to this tradition, will surely provide fertile ground for her future work.

If she continues in this way, Yang will create a calm yet distinctive artistic voice — one that reflects not only her steadfast character but also the pure devotion carried within her name, Soon-Yeal.