Tropical Sun

In the middle of the yellow painting stands a tall pine. On the slope beside it, a horse shimmers into view. Far off on the horizon, a small boat floats.

Someone once called this yellow a regional color. Because he painted Jeju, they called it regional. But this color is more than the familiar hue of one place.

A color faded by sunlight and long dried by wind. Not a freshly painted color, but one that has lived a long time. Like the backs of the hands of someone who has worked in the fields all summer, or a threshold weathered by the sea wind.

It is the yellow of a narrow island, yet what burns within it is not local color but the time spent enduring. Before it is the color of a landscape, Byun Shi-Ji's yellow is a color worn into being by life.

So before this color, one may find oneself remembering the time one has endured. Even those who do not know Jeju find themselves standing a long time before this yellow.