Draft:Teng Ming-Tun

Teng Ming-Tun (Chinese: 鄧明墩; pinyin: Dèng míngdūn, pronounced, born 1962) is a Taiwanese painter.

Early life and education
Born in Taichung City in 1962, he is a descendant of the 16th generation of Taiwanese ancestor Teng Yanba-Tun. He has been fond of painting since he was a child and began to teach himself painting at the age of six.

Teng became interested in art after his grandfather, Teng Kung-hsien (famous name Hui Fu), took over as director of Guanshan Temple in Taichung City. The abbot made great efforts to renovate the temple, hired carvers to make Buddha statues, and painters to paint paintings. Teng Mingdun saw the production process with his own eyes and became very interested in it. He also began borrowing his grandfather's calligraphy tools and teaching himself calligraphy. Beginning in second grade of elementary school, Teng began participating in sketching competitions. In fifth grade, he won first place in a sketching competition in Zhongshan Park, Taichung.

He studied in Juren Junior High School in Taichung. Teacher Li Yuande studied painting for three years and sketched in various places in Taichung City. During high school, he studied in the art department of Taichung Mingdao Middle School to learn more art-related skills. He studied bamboo carving and three-dimensional arts and crafts with bamboo sculptor Chen Chunming.

Career
After completing his military service, he worked in advertising, art design, and real estate agency sales planning. In 1992, he began to research art in-depth, and began to create art of his own, with oil painting as the main creative direction.

From 1992 to 2008, he mainly studied landscapes, either realistic or freehand. Influenced by French Impressionism, and particularly by Monet, he learned to express light and color. In addition to depicting landscapes, he also tried to use impressionist brushwork and colors to express oriental characters such as Guanshiyin, Zhijingang, Mingwang, Zhongkui, etc. The painting style is quite innovative in the fusion of Chinese and Western styles; later, it was integrated into Fauvism style works to present a semi-abstract style, similar to Liao Jichun's style. One famous work from this period is "Jiufen Spring," which was painted in 1995, inspired by Teng's visit to Jiufen, Ruifang District, New Taipei City that same year.

The following year (1996), he participated in the IMA International Modern Art Exhibition in Japan and won the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education Award (Gold Medal). He was invited to hold his first solo exhibition at the Fanshi Art Center in Taichung the following year. He continued to create and publish works at his home studio in Dali.

In 2006, he established a studio in the southern district of Taichung City, created paintings and taught students, and began to use videos Recording the creative process and publishing it on an online platform for appreciation and research, the (Misty Series) works were completed during this period.

From 2009 to 2018, he began to create the misty series. The paintings were completely completed with a single purple-blue painting, using layers of misty fog to express It emits a cold light atmosphere, making the visual images of the characters appear vague. The inner expression of the painting symbolizes history, concepts, doctrines, habits, memories, etc., which gradually change and disappear with the passage of time. Influences on this period include Dutch post-impressionist painter Van Gogh, ink painter Zhang Daqian, Taiwanese senior painter Li Meishu, Tamsui Guanyinshan (King of Kinmen, Li Binghui).

In 2017, Teng moved his studio moved back to Dali, Taichung. In 2019, he started to create in abstract style. The series he has created in this style are "Ink and wash cursive", "One is everything," and "Qi and molecules",‧

Teng Mingdun's creative style is unique. Based on figurative and impressionistic techniques, he combines the moist and transparent nature of ink and the thick and opaque characteristics of oil painting to present stunning abstract paintings. Using Chinese cursive strokes as elements, he successfully integrated dry oil painting and ink wet rendering, creating a new realm of ink cursive abstract painting and showing new thinking in abstract creation of oil painting. The launch of this series has opened up a new field for contemporary abstract art in Taiwan. Famous works include: Taixu.

Charity activities
Teng participated in the 921 Earthquake Tzu Chi Great Love Hope Project donation activity, and was one of 921 Earthquake Taichung artists to donate paintings to help victims. The Xinhua Charitable Foundation donated paintings to help the poor, and the Zhou Daguan Foundation donated paintings to raise funds to help children with cancer, and participated enthusiastically Charitable activities.