Hock-Aun Teh’s painting shows a marrying of the spontaneity and expressive freedom found in the most highly prized of T’ang calligraphic masters to the colours and high-tech materials of modern western art. Teh’s work is often classified in the West as abstract expressionism. But if it is, it’s abstract expressionism with a considerable difference. For though born in Malaysia and working in Glasgow, he is by background and upbringing essentially Chinese and was carefully schooled in calligraphy.

Teh’s main source of inspiration are the experiences of his native Scotland and his regular travels around the world, particularly to the Far East. He passes through life as an observer, absorbing different cultures, traditions and ideas, separating out ‘the good bits’ from ‘the bad’, then bringing together what he wants to keep. The result is a different way of looking at things, a combining of cultures, of the East and of the West. He throws all of this at us through his work.