Straight from the heart

Never too late to start

Those who knew him were probably less surprised by Chan's mid-career switch from telecommunications engineering to art.

"He always had an interest in art but did not have the means to pursue it while he was young, being from a humble background," explains Wong. Later, in 1968, when his first wife was battling cancer, Chan signed up for a three-year degree at the University of Hong Kong's (HKU's) Extra-Mural Studies Department, "hoping art can be an emotional outlet".

His teachers on the program included architect and designer Tao Ho and British painter Martin Bradley. Ho was a student of the German-American architect Walter Gropius, founder of the influential Bauhaus school of design. Chan was exposed to modernist cultural concepts through his teachers and went on to formulate his own visual grammar, combining a rational, European approach with certain Chinese quirks in his works.

"He painted what he felt from his heart! His artworks are straightforward and honest," says Chan's widow, artist Josephine Chow. Her comment echoes a 1991 essay by Ho, in which he pays a glorious tribute to his student: "Each painting represents a spontaneous beat from his heart. He paints what he feels. ... He lets his heart guide his hand."