Book Cover

I am happy to announce that my 2009 painting "Wait Under the Tree" is now a book cover! "Parting Gifts" by Toronto author Anne Hines, is a journey into the nature of loss in life and, as the title suggests, the gifts that loss can surprisingly offer.



The cherry tree is the national tree of Japan and poets have been writing poems about cherry trees for over one thousand years. Once bloomed, the stunning cherry blossoms remain for only a brief time before they fall graciously. It is this beautiful loss that has often been compared with life, and I think it is a fitting visual representation for this book.



In Toronto, High Park has a path of cherry trees that were donated by Japan, and they usually bloom the last week of April or the first week of May. It is a spring time event that is not to be missed.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!


This is a late notice for the holiday season but my 2009 painting "Snowy" was selected to be one of eight designs of Greeting Cards organized by Cornerstone 52 foundation (http://www.cardshelpingkids.com/). The image was beautifully wrapped with a silver embossed frame and came with silver-lined envelopes. This is my second year to participate and all the artists involved have donated their artwork and 100% of Cornerstone's net proceeds go to support Canadian children's charities.

Sunflower Field

i

My search for sunflowers.

Before I came to Canada, I visited my sister in Tuscany, Italy. It was late July and there were so many sunflower fields around the village of Rapolano Terme where my sister lives. During my four-month stay, I painted several paintings of sunflower fields. Sometimes I feel paintings of sunflower fields can be so cheesy, however, when I actually stood in front of them, I couldn't resist it. They were simply beautiful. It has been almost a decade since then, but I wanted to look for a sunflower field near Toronto.

I searched "Ontario sunflower growers", but the results lead me nowhere. I did find several images of sunflower fields in Ontario on Flickr, and some kind photographers even linked a map of the location. The photos were shot by several people in 2006 and 2007 and the location was Innisfil, Ontario and Mississauga, Ontario. So I drove there the next morning. The weather forecast was expecting rain in the afternoon so I wanted to get there as early as I could. When I entered Innisfil, it started raining. I hurried to the exact location, and there it was... a corn field, probably due to crop rotation every few years. I drove around the area without any success and moved to Mississauga only to find... another corn field.

That was last week. I didn't give up and went back to Flickr. This time I found some images from this year. So out again I went.

Wow. I found it. The only thing is that all of the sunflowers were facing the sun, away from me and there was no access to the other side so I couldn't go around.

I got several decent photographs from which to paint but standing on the road I was thinking "Oh please turn around and just look at me!"

Cat Legacy - Part One

My cat paintings - including the picture above entitled "Legend"- were displayed at Butler's Pantry in Roncesvalles Village, a trendy spot in Toronto.

"Legend" was painted on sliced wood. I primed the wood with clear Gesso and painted in oil.
When I painted this particular cat, I was inspired by the wood itself and immediately thought of antique photographs of the 1940's - in an era when even the poor would scrape together some money and in their old and worn suits pose stoically for a photograph.

When I installed the Cat Show series at Butler's Pantry, the wall in the back room gave me the impression of an old cottage and I thought "Legend" would fit nicely.

Legend (Oil on Wood, 12x9", 2009)

Painting Process: Unity

I started this painting thinking I wanted to focus on light and shadow using indigo. I was actually painting over a painting of a cherry tree from last year. The red is Alizarian Crimson. I am still experimenting with this colour and I quite like the warm pink that Alizarian Crimson makes.

The image that I was working from is a photograph from last Spring. I chose to paint a large branch in the top right corner of the picture.

I liked the contrast of dark indigo and light pink. The indigo, used in the top right corner, gives me a feeling of a night sky. The sky at the bottom is brighter and gives contrast to the flowers.

As I painted, I realized that the whole composition was overwhelming. I had to erase the tree branch (indigo) and some of the flowers in the top area. By doing so, the focus of the painting turned to the larger flowers and the painting as a whole felt simpler yet stronger. The openness of the blossoms was, I felt, overpowered by the blue sky. To correct this I put a more neutral colour -gray.

After working on the details and the light, here is the final result...

Unity, Oil on Canvas, 30x24, 2009

Lastly, the title "Unity" was inspired by my recent reading of an essay on Buddhism by Ryotaro Shiba which discussed the history of different sects of Buddhism. From reading this, I got the impression (after all Buddhism is impossible to explain) of people uniting with nature=the universe= emptiness= nirvana... Without getting too complicated, this was on my mind while I was painting.