Grey and Cozy Days with Joe Fan

By Brynn Gordon

The works of Aberdeen-based painter Joe Fan speak of naivety, and melancholy. Simultaneously embodying the simplicity of a children’s book illustration and the encoded meaning of a symbolist artwork, we can examine the way that Fan blurs technical and conceptual boundaries in his work.

Contemporary oil-painter Jo Fan was born in Hong Kong in 1962 and came to Scotland in the late 1970s as a student. Initially enrolled to study graphic design at the Aberdeen College of Commerce, Fan later joined the Gray’s School of Art to study fine art under Gordon Bryce. Splitting time between creating his muted, kaleidoscope visual world and lecturing at Gray’s’ in drawing and painting, Fan also travelled to Paris’ Cité Internationale des Arts from 1989–1990 after winning the Miller Homes Young Scottish Artist of the Year, and to Cypress as a visiting lecturer at Cyprus College of Art, Paphos in 1994.

While Fan retired from teaching in 1997 to focus on creating full-time, the near-20 years he spent in art education as a student and lecturer undoubtedly had a significant impact on his practice. In the indistinct, shifting forms of his backgrounds, and the conscious attention drawn to the painterliness of his work points to the influence of his teacher Gordon Bryce.

Gordon Bryce, Contlaw, Milltimber, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 20.5x30.5cm, Royal Scottish Academy 

Following the tradition of the Scottish Colourists, Bryce’s depictions of the land and waterscapes surrounding Aberdeen are boldly coloured and feel as if they were executed with force, the flick of a pallet-knife or wide brush dynamically imparting colour and texture over wide swathes of canvas. This embrace of the capabilities of paint are echoes in Fan’s work, such as 23 Miles to Sea (2014) or Sainsbury’s Grape 500g (2023).

Joe Fan, 23 Miles to the Sea, 2014, Oil on Canvas, 16.5x89cm, The Scottish Gallery

Joe Fan, Sainsbury's Grapes 500G, 2023, Oil on Canvas, Artist’s Instagram

While keeping with Bryce’s rejection of naturalism, Fan’s lines are indistinct and flowing, like an blurred photograph, whereas Bryce’s are sharp and hard. The neutral, cohesive colour pallet furthers the impression of fading or blending, as if the paint is still wet and one could smudge the border between sky and land, or foreground and background. The confusion between planes and depth lends to even Fan’s wides vistas a sense of calm and cozy enclosure. Both Bryce and Fan capture the scenery around Aberdeen but, but Bryce’s vision speaks to a clear summer’s day by the river Dee, while Fan embraces the greyness that Aberdeen town in known for, refracting it into many shades of blue, brown, olive, and mauve.

Joe Fan, Maisy’s First Pair of Shoes, 2021, Oil on Canvas, Artist’s Instagram

This blurring of physical boundaries within his painting further relates to Fan’s thematic blurring of the observed world and his inner imagined world. Take Sainsbury Grape again, or more explicitly in Maisy’s First Shoes (2021). What would normally be observed in a domestic kitchen or at Sainsbury’s, or in the case of Maisy’s, as she is not dressed for outside weather, in the living room, are instead placed in a landscape swirling, lush and dark. This thematic parallel is made explicit in The Interior (2024). These moments exist simultaneously in Fan’s surroundings and his imagination – the personal takes place out in the open, and the audience is allowed to wander through the intricate, indistinct forms and planes of Fan’s embellished life. It is this blending, of styles (his spare and jagged drawings contrast his soft oil-paintings), of paint, of worlds, that makes Fan’s work interesting.

On the dreamy quality of his work, Fan had to say:

‘I work mostly from my imagination and my landscapes are not based on any particular place. Perhaps that is why my paintings have this other-worldly, dream-like, surreal ambiance about them.

Painting is a solitary pursuit and you often spend days on your own in your studio. My work is sometimes about one’s journey through life and its narrative. This reflects the melancholy mood which appears naturally in my work. The different aspects of genre painting, such as landscape, still-life and portraiture have always been of interest to me.

I particularly admire artists who have their own personal take on their subject, for example Cezanne’s apples, Van Gogh’s chair and Picasso’s portrait. In my work, I am trying to do the same and to create something of my own.’

 As a final note, it is interesting to explore the effect living in Scotland for the past 50 years has had on fan’s work. The dark hills and overcast days are clearly an inspiration to him, as well as the Scottish Art Academy’s tradition in the Glasgow Boys, the Scottish Colorists and Baronial Architecture. However, small peeks of Fan’s Hong Kong childhood and cultural heritage peek through in signing his Cantonese name here, celebrating the year of the tiger there. In this way, Fan could be perceived as part of the tradition of Chinese and Cantonese artists studying and working overseas, among the company of Lin Feng Mian, and, most appropriately I think, San Yu, who went to Paris in the 1920s and never truly left.

San Yu, Cat Curled Up on a Chair, 1930, Oil on Canvas, 73 x 50 cm, Artist’s Website

Joe Fan, Sleeping Prey, 2024, Oil on Canvas, 26x20cm, The Scottish Gallery

Fan’s structured compositions, his strong design sensibility that he likely picked up during his first degree, when paired with impressionistic brush work, simplistic form, and individual voice fit with these trends of the work of Chinese artists abroad. His artwork provides a contemporary Scottish counterpoint to San Yu’s modernist French sensibility – rather than the high-flying Parisian art works and lonely leopards, Fan’s art speaks to the kitchen table, to housecats, to grapes from Sainsburys, and new shoes under grey skies.

 To see more of Fan’s work, please visit his Instagram, where he updates regularly: https://www.instagram.com/joefan219/

Bibliography

Kit Kemp Design Studio. “Meet the Maker: Joe Fan,” July 17, 2020. https://kitkemp.com/meet-the-maker/2020/07/meet-the-maker-joe-fan/.

Royal Scottish Academy. “Gordon Bryce RSA - Overview,” 2024. https://www.royalscottishacademy.org/artists/376-gordon-bryce-rsa/overview/.

Royal Scottish Academy. “Joe Fan RSA - Biography,” n.d. https://www.royalscottishacademy.org/artists/481-joe-fan-rsa/biography/.

Scottish Gallery. “The Scottish Gallery,” February 8, 2023. https://scottish-gallery.co.uk/artists/joe-fan/overview/.