Over the last four decades Yim Maukun has also made the world his subject, traveling extensively throughout Europe, North America, and Asia.  This has resulted in a wealth of portraits as well as a series of plein air landscape paintings for which he has gained renown.  More travels and continents await, as Yim explores new places and meets new people, his paint-box and brushes always in hand.

A major turning point in Yim’s career came in 1987 with a plein air portrait demonstration at the Apollo Gallery in Taipei. This received substantial media coverage and wide acclaim, drawing the attention (and quickly soon after the patronage) of many prominent figures of Taiwanese society, including then Vice President Lee Teng Hui and the writer/historian Li Ao, one of Taiwan’s foremost public intellectuals and political commentators. The success that followed the Apollo demonstration opened doors for Yim not just as a painter but also as an author and art educator, both as a teacher at his own studio and in visiting instructor positions at universities in Taiwan and mainland China. Accordingly, Yim’s portrait of Sun Yat-sen hangs in Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, a rare national honor and perhaps the highest distinction a Taiwanese artist could receive.

Now a grandfather, Yim has entered his sunset years with uncommon vigor and creative energy, actively producing new paintings and drawings, books, video lessons, and more, while continuing to impact the lives of students and art lovers everywhere. His memoir, Yim Mau-Kun, The Art and The Life, will be published by Guangxi Fine Arts Press in 2017.