S.C. Yuan, is considered one of the finest painters to come out of the Monterey Peninsula. A "painter's painter", he did work which was favored by contemporary painters who marvel at his effortless technique. "Yuan's strength as an artist was his ability to communicate a wealth of visual information with swift and concise markings," says Kathleen Moodie, Curator at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz. "Yuan fused an Eastern elegance of economic line with the robust energy of Western abstraction," she added in the catalogue for an upcoming show of Yuan's works.

Yuan said that "Color is like pouring Tabasco sauce over one's dinner. Color ruins painting." A friend explained how Yuan tamed colors...