About
Caroline Young
Caroline Young was born in Hong Kong on February 23, 1952. She attended Diocesan Girls' School until the 11th grade and graduated from Hong Kong International School. At age 15, Caroline began taking brush painting lessons at her mother's request. Her teacher was Alice Chen, an old and renowned Chinese brush painting artist that lived near the Young family home. From 1967-70, Caroline learned and practiced the traditional style of brush painting with birds, flowers, and rural landscapes as themes. But her passion for painting had not yet developed.
After graduation, Caroline headed to Hawaii, the birthplace of her parents and grandparents, to continue her education at the University of Hawaii. Under the watchful eyes of many aunts and uncles, she majored in French, ignoring art completely for the first two years. In 1973, Caroline decided to Study watercolor painting and enrolled in a class through the University of Hawaii College of Continuing Education. The instructor, noted artist Lam Oi Char, changed Caroline's life. She switched her major to art and continued weekly lessons with Lam Oi Char until 1977. Under Lam Oi Char's tutelage, Caroline gained confidence in her ability to succeed as an artist.
Incorporating the techniques she learned from Lain Oi Char, Caroline began a series of portraits, painted on silk, of Japanese women in kimonos. In 1983, this series was exhibited in a two-artist show at the Kahala Mall and was enthusiastically received. A representative of Images International saw the exhibition and four months and one show later, decided to take her on board.
Several events had a major influence on Caroline's maturing work: attending a Honolulu performance of the Beijing Dance Troupe, Seeing the film the Last Emperor, the 1989 bicentennial celebration of the Chinese in Hawaii and seeing the Ching Dynasty paintings at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Caroline decided then to concentrate her efforts on portraits based on Chinese historical and legendary subjects.
Caroline uses vibrant watercolors and acrylics, accented with iridescent paint and silk screeners' gold to create her intricate designs on sheet, raw silk. Emperors, legends, and ancient symbols are just some of the subjects she explores in her artwork. In this way, she is able to honor her great- grandparents, who immigrated to Hawaii from China and also discover for herself the essence of Chinese Culture and what it means to be Chinese.
Caroline's work is in the permanent collections of the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California, and the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, California, as well as in many other galleries and corporatecollections.
