Maple Forest (Lot 1161) narrates not the typical red autumn maple but a golden forest set off nicely by the bluish green mountain and the pale blue-and-purple sky which retreats silently to the background. Unlike traditional paintings, colors come to be the nucleus of the work as the artist, rather than leaving empty space to visualize the stream, the mists and the sky, coats the picture with white powder and opaque pigments, creating a sense of layer much more profound. A closer observation, however, reveals the artist's manipulation of traditional technique: the foliage on the left edge of the forest is splashed with a brighter hue than those in the other parts, implying a source of light from the left. While Lin extends the use of colors in ink-wash painting, the traditional practice of reproducing lighted surface by virtue of thick coloring or inking remains intact in his work. The Chinese aesthetics on landscape is thus syncretized with the Western Impressionist principle of chiaroscuro and coloring. This novel artistic language as showcased in Maple Forest symbolizes the very new space opened up by the integration of Chinese and Western artistic judgment.
Still Life - Pears (Lot 1162), on many levels, concludes all characteristics featured in his early still-life-an outline of shapes with succinct, candid brushstroke that carries over C?zannesque geometric shapes, and contrastive colouring. The white fruit plate and black desktop bring forth a striking visual impact in the center, and also single out the vibrant yellowish green pears. While depicting these objects, Lin exploited reductive dimensionality and low contrast of light and shadows. This way, he flattens the pictorial depths and creates an immaculate composition through dissecting the canvas with the arch-shape plate against the square background. The details of the leafy patterns and green-black trips strengthen the decorative aspect of this work.
In the 1940's Lin resigned from the post as Principal of Hangzhou Art College, and fled to Chongqing during the war. Recounting this episode, Shiy Dejinn once said: "roaming over the coasts of Yangtze River and Jialing River for such a long time and having climbed up so many mountains, the majestic panorama of nature has been imprinted into his mind. Every time he comes back from Chongqing, he would observe the boats and the ever-changing mountain views along the riverbank." Lin's Landscape, 1940s (Lot 1163) is a representative work for this period. With ink washes, the artist renders the magnificent viridian-green mountain in the background which takes up nearly two-third of the canvas, leaving a scarce proportion in space for the brick-red boats in the foreground and middle ground. The contrast between the two spaces is strikingly conspicuous given the varying distance, sizes and color tones. Between the background and foreground where the bottommost right of the mountain meets the river, Lin intentionally leaves a white slit, evoking the lapping waves and wreaths of mist. In search of reform, Lin renounces the "tsun", textural brushstrokes commonly used and seen in literati painting, and he roots his work based on real-world observation and fuses the work with an abstract gist from traditional aesthetics.