Chan's world, though formless, is filled with colour: blues, greens and oranges. "Blue has been a long-term colour in my creations, naturally associated with mountains and seas visually. I also used celadon, which comes from the concept of blue-green landscape paintings, and orange was a more interesting attempt." The blue, green and black inks used to create the landscapes of “Formless No.8” and “Formless No.9” have a calming effect.

As an artist who grew up in the city and chose nature as his subject matter, his understanding of mountains and water, artificial and natural, traditional and contemporary, has evolved over different stages. "I personally love traditional landscape paintings, and my creations started from tradition, that is, the sentiments of ancient people. However, we have no real connection with them – they lived amidst nature, closely resonating with the mountains and rivers, and our modern connection with nature is merely through travelling and hiking, just memories of trips,” he says. “Growing up in Hong Kong and then moving to Taipei and Beijing, I have always been living in big cities. If I continued to create traditional landscapes, it would feel a bit like building castles in the air, hence the shift to my current creative mode."