Luo Jianwu was born in 1944 in Taiwan. He studied Western styles of painting and drawing at the Guoli Yichuan,”National Art Institute,” and some of those procedures and attitudes lie at the foundation of his earlier work as well as the present painting. His frequent subjects, pines, junipers and cypress, live to great ages and are appropriate and effective symbols of longevity, their twisting and turnings giving evidence of strength and fortitude in the face of winds, storms and the travails of life. The title “Flying Dragon” recalls the inscription Wen Zhengming wrote on his painting ”Old Pine Tree” now in the Cleveland Museum of Art:
Constantly its form is changing;
chances are it will never be captured;
Its dragon whiskers bristle like lances,
rank after rank.