Yong Chen hails from Taishan, a town in the Guang Dong province of China. Yong began drawing and painting at the age of four. He began sharing and teaching watercolor painting techniques with friends when he was 13, and had continued while studying at college in China.

Before Yong came to the United States, he was a high school art teacher for five years. After immigrating to the United States in 1989, Yong studied graphic design at Bunker Hill Community College and illustration at the Massachusetts College of Art. This is where he decided to use watercolor as his illustrating medium. Since 1995 he has illustrated many children's books and children's magazines. Publishers of his work include: Little, Brown and Company, HarperCollins, Boyds Mills Press, Spider, Cricket, and AppleSeeds.

Yong has taught Watercolor Painting and Watercolor Portraiture classes and workshops at the Massachusetts College of Art (Boston, Massachusetts) and Rivier College (Nashua, NH). He has been featured in solo watercolor painting exhibits in galleries in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Yong constantly strives to improve his personal style and watercolor painting skills.

"A Gift" is Yong's latest children's book which he authored and illustrated with watercolor paintings. This new picture book is being published by Boyds Mills Press and will be available in bookstores this Fall. Furthermore, Yong is a graduate student of MFA in Illustration at the University of Hartford, CT. He is expected to complete his study in July 2009.

"Painting is my life-long passion. Painting is a means for me to express the emotions I find in the relationships of people and nature."