Biography

Originally from the Malaysian state of Sabah on North Borneo Island, En-Chuen Soo was raised on a farm where creativity and appreciation for natural beauty were developed at a young age.  Most of the utensils were hand-made in those days, including her paper dolls.  The discovery of how to make things with her hands and enjoy them became her amusement, and the start of a life-long journey of learning. 

Since late 2005, she has resided in Phoenix, Arizona and concentrated full-time on producing visual art.  Nature remains the primary inspiration of her creations, and her passion for life can be seen in her vivid paintings of landscapes, flora, people, wildlife and abstracts.  Her paper or canvas becomes a stage, with colors in various mediums as her tools; what she paints is like a tale…to be read, experienced and appreciated.  Her artworks depict not just objects or people from places she visited in about 22 countries around the globe, but how she sees them and what she see in them, which is a very personal way of sharing with others part of who she is. Through her art, she hopes to express the importance of caring for our fragile environment and wildlife.

Although gifted in art since young, she never had formal training and did not seriously devote herself to painting until after settling in Arizona in 2005.  She learned from books, workshops, and through trial and error in various techniques and mediums.  Each medium she uses contributes uniquely to the final appearance, but the process itself is what she finds most enjoyable.  Over the years, she has been privileged to participate in juried exhibitions of The Arizona Watercolor Association, and displayed her work in many exhibitions by the Arizona Art Alliance, the Glendale Art Council and the 19th annual Celebration Fine Art 2009 in Scottsdale.  She has collected several awards.

To her, art is a journey of self-discovery and self-revelation.  A deep longing for the freedom which only can be quenched by true love set her soaring in the creative field.  She constantly drinks from the beauty of God’s works, the Creator and the Chief Artist, some of which is captured in her own art.  “To draw or to paint or doing anything creative is to trace the Creator’s finger prints, to express my devotion by putting colors together in forms and shapes only leads me to discover more of Him who made it first.”

She usually reminds herself that life on earth is very short, and the beauty in life is ablaze in a moment only - so short lived, and remaining eternally only in the memory.  So, to live life to the fullest is her ultimate goal.