For those who can’t get to spring soon enough, Christine (Yia-Shun) Yen’s exhibit “The Spirit of Chinese Brush” at the University of Michigan Health System will warm you in the meantime.

Yen, a medical interpreter at the U-M Hospital, and an instructor of Chinese painting and calligraphy at Washtenaw Community College, has crafted a 20-work Gifts of Art exhibit that points directly at this luxuriant time of the calendar through its use of traditional Chinese inks and color inks on rice paper.

This ink-on-rice-paper technique has been used in Far Eastern art for two millennia. It requires tremendous patience, as the artist’s initial approach requires an undercharged ink base supplemented with carefully applied foreground pigment.

Loosely speaking, it’s akin to a painting a fingerprint, because the artist’s paint stroke crafts a sense of identity on a medium that’s so delicate, the slightest inconsistency will mar the work.

“Almost anyone can learn the technique,” says Yen in her UMHS Gifts of Art statement, “but a successful artist must learn to identify with the feeling about the subject and to transfer that to the paper.”

And this is precisely the motive behind “The Spirit of the Chinese Brush.” Yen illustrates differing approaches to her limited subjects through her emotion and expertise. Working from a circumscribed iconography — chicks; budding and blooming flowers; fans; and landscapes — she finds an unbounded versatility that’s quite amazing.

Her bird and flower paintings tacitly follow the historic scholar-artist style of Chinese painting to illustrate spiritual renewal. But in Yen’s hands, the accent is not only on renewal as such; but also a specific renewal: namely, the renewal of the calendar, because ultimately the promise of spring is the focus of her exhibit.

This promise is fulfilled in her four floral arrangements.

Yen’s “Snow Drop” fan and “Song of Spring” chick and budding flower composition—as well as “Before Night Flower’s Bud of Queen of the Night” and “Wisteria” paintings—illustrate a sense of anticipation showing the change of seasons through the use of strategic line and touch. There’s no superfluous motion in these handsome floral artworks.

Flowers are the dominant theme in Yen’s display. And these works—“Roses,” "Peony,” “Bamboo,” Chrysanthemum,” “Eastern Orchid,” “Plum Blossom,” “Forsythia,” “Purple Morning Glory,” and “Orchid”—all draw their inspiration from her fleeting application of wash. The works seemingly glide over their working surface with just enough variegated definition to give each work a personality.

Ultimately, Yen’s oversized “Chicks and Morning Glory” painting illustrates her work at its most animated and optimistic. One unified composition has both balance and scale as Yen’s paint stroke is delicate enough to evoke the season while the chicks themselves suggest joyful new life. Deftly modulating her inks to give each bird a hint of character, Yen’s flourish manifests itself most brightly in the flower’s blue and violet ink combination. Spring’s potential has never seemed more beckoning or serene.

“The Spirit of Chinese Brush: Christine (Yia-Shun) Yen” continues through February 7 at the University of Michigan Health System Gifts of Art Gallery—University Hospital Main Corridor, Floor 2, 1500 East Medical Center Drive. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., daily. For information, call (734) 936-ARTS.