日治時期台灣，作為殖民地畫家，在作品裡表現地方色彩是別無選擇的創作之道，但表達自己獨特的想法才是畫家創作道路上的原動力。在殖民政府嚴竣的規範下，如何為自己、為家人乃至於為台灣社會文化而發聲，無疑是一項艱鉅的工作。
本文實際分析三位畫家的自畫像與家族肖像作品，發現同樣認同「台灣」、同樣發揮地方色彩，其藝術詮釋的手法卻截然不同。熱情直率而短命的陳植棋留下堅毅勇敢的台灣婦人形象。李石樵則努力琢磨學院派的語言，嚴謹地表達他冷靜而隱密的殖民地畫家的抗議，以及對社會大眾深層的關懷。陳進身為唯一女性畫家，勇敢而認真地投入男性主導的殖民地畫壇，她選擇表現純潔盛裝的美女形像，如履薄冰般，走在贏取男性社會認同與表現女性自覺的邊界上。總之，他們對於日本帝國文化價值，或融入學習經驗或是折衷認同，亦或是有時抗議甚至表現相衝突的價值觀，正說明了在社會集體認同下的個別差異性，這樣的多元與差異性也正是台灣文化認同的重要成份。

During Taiwan's Japanese colonial period, Taiwan's artists had few creative options but to express “local color,” even though the expression of one's unique ways of thinking is what drives artists on the creative route. Under the strict rules of the colonial government, determining how to give voice to oneself, one's family, or Taiwan's society as a whole was a hugely difficult task.
This article, in analyzing the self-portraits and family portraits of three artists, finds that although they likewise identified with “Taiwan” and to showing its local color, their artistic and interpretive methods were completely different. The short-lived, straightforwardly passionate Chen Chih-Chi left images of strong, determined Taiwanese women. Li Shih-Chiao expressed cold, subtle protests over his status as a painter in a colonized land as well as his profound concern for society through his efforts to refine an academic style. Chen Chin, as the only female painter, threw herself boldly into the male-dominated colonial painting community. The beautiful, chaste, well-dressed women that she chose to depict appear to tread on thin ice, walking on the border between winning the acceptance of male society and expressing their feminine self-awareness. In sum, the fact that these artists either studied and absorbed the cultural values of the Japanese empire, or compromised them, or even at times protested against them or expressed opposing values bespeaks their individual differences within the context of their collective social identity, and this itself is an important part of Taiwanese cultural identity.