The Bucket Men arrive at Watford Museum in time for Easter

4:27pm Thursday 20th March 2008

SPRING colours and religious icons are among the themes running through a new exhibition of vibrant, provocative paintings which opens at Watford Museum this month.

Jui-Pin Chang's exhibition The Bucket Men will go on display at the museum from this week with a collection of her other work on display at the Customer Service Centre at the Town Hall.

Jui-Pin, born in Taiwan, took a degree in art, mastering traditional Chinese calligraphy, brush drawing and many western techniques. After teaching art all over the world, she arrived in the UK, where the simple gift of a sketchbook was the stimulus that changed her whole outlook. Jui-Pin says: "There seemed to be an expectation that I should fill the book. So I began, and somehow ideas flooded into my mind." In a matter of months, she began to produce an extraordinary body of paintings: "I became inspired to explore ideas relating to my own life as both a woman and a mother."

A steady stream of ideas emerged, seemingly un-summoned, from within. She worked in an entirely new way, developing her natural ability, responding to the vivid inspiration of both dreams and the newly illuminated world around her.

Jui-Pin continues: "Initially, I felt that I wanted to impress others. However, slowly I realised what I actually wanted to do was to impress myself. Originally, I had ability but nothing to say, now I use my talent to explore who and what I am. I'm not sure where my ideas will take me next, perhaps to explore the relationship between my original background and my present life, through the imagery and the techniques which are a part of both."

This exhibition provides the opportunity to view and be touched by Jui-Pin's vision.

The exhibition runs until May 17 in the Space2 galleries at Watford Museum.

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