In the fading light

A quick oil sketch after supper when the light started to fade away.

Dark and snowy evening

A glimpse out of the window into the snow covered backyard with more snow coming on its way!

Painting from our back alley with three feet of snow under my feet

It is really not usual to paint with three feet of snow under my feet at this time of the year ! However the elevated position allows me to view this familiar view with a unique perspective.

Frigid sunny afternoon

It was still very cold today despite its sunny look this afternoon. A quick oil sketch before the sun light was gone.

Behind the snow bank

Cold , snowy and cloudy it is today! Stepping outside , am greeted by a cold gust of wind. Painted this view from our door step today.

Still a winter night

The street light was back on towards evening. Snow remained thick and deep. Everything outside still suggests a dark and cold winter.

A glimpse of Co-Op Gas station on 6th Street of Brandon

It is rather of a bleak view looking out of a window from a second floor of an apartment.However the two bare trees with dead leaves pointing tenaciously into the sky seems to have made the view a bit more interesting of   the distant Co-Op Gas station on the 6th street in Brandon.

Remain in the grip of winter

It started to snow in the afternoon dashing any illusion of tangible sign of spring. This is what it looks like around 4 p.m this afternoon looking out of our window.

Looking west on Balmoral Bay

Though snow still flanked both side of the street,  the  ambient light in the evening shows every sign of the turn of the season. Painted this view at 6 p.m on Balmoral Bay.

Sign of spring

Snow started to melt away in the warm sunlight in the afternoon. Standing on  the front door step , breathing in  the  moisture loaded fresh air, and catching a glimpse of a small patch of grass , I could finally feel the presence of spring.

In the receding sunlight

Another quick oil sketch of the window view when the light started to recede at about 6 :30 p.m.

The lone ash tree in the last light

a quick oil sketch of the lone ash tree standing in the last light on our front yard

The sunset moment

Sunset moment when serenity permeated the air. a quick oil sketch at the end of the day.

Before the crouching up shadow

It appears to be quite warm outside when in fact it is exceptionally cold today. A quick oil sketch by the window late in the afternoon.

Deep under the snow

Deep under the snow is our front yard. Can not believe that it will be April tomorrow.

Sign of spring?

It turned  a bit cloudy early in the afternoon. Trying to find any sign of spring when I set up my easel at the end of our driveway where the wet patches from the melting snow seemed to offer  a kind of consolation that spring is coming, even though slowly.

" Can spring be far behind?"

" If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" wrote Percy Byesshe Shelley in his Ode to the West Wind. Hope the optimistic poet will not be made pessimistic if he were alive to see the sight of snow piling up still so high in what should have been a warm snow-less spring morning! A quick early morning oil sketch from our driveway.

My beloved neighbourhood ----------- Balmoral Bay in the south of Brandon

It turned out to be another spectacular hoar frosty morning when I rushed outside with my French easel . The magic hoarfrost which formed overnight transfigured every  thing mundane  into something so ethereal! I decided to put a large piece of canvas , 19"x38" onto my easel to capture the panoramic view of my neighbourhood street of Balmoral Bay where I have lived since the summer of 1998. Of course it is Easter Friday the classical music from CBC Radio 2 reflected the spirit  of the special day. With Mozart's requiem in the air from my MP3, I started to paint while my thought starting  to drift into a kind of reverie going back to our early years  when we started to call this neighbourhood our home! I remember that particular sunny afternoon when my wife and I started to unload our stuff onto the patio when we heard the most welcome greeting from our  next door neighbour Betty and Roy whose beautiful radiating smile instantly confirmed our choice of a new home on Balmoral Bay! Soon after we moved to Balmoral Bay, I became a new Canadian citizen. I was working then for Green Acre school and the new citizen ceremony was held in City Hall and what made that ceremony so special and so unforgeable was all the grade five students from Green Acre school came to sing O Canada on that occasion. I will never forget that the very next day our neighbour across the street Carol knocked on our door and greeted with  a special cake decorated with Canadian maple leaf to congratulating me on becoming a new Canadian citizen. Now so many years have passed : right before  Roy passed away , we the whole family went over to say  final goodbye to him in hospital. I remember the radiating sunset outside mingled with sadness in us that day. I have painted for almost 10 years now on a daily basis and most of the time painting right in this neighbourhood. Maybe deep in me unconscionably I have been trying to capture a sense of sweet home in every piece of my works with my unreserved love and passion. The sight of Fengping, my wife,  coming  back from the Easter service jolted me out of my memory and made me realize that I had spent two hours on the painting already.

On a foggy night

While sitting on the sofa by the window, I noticed how it started to get foggy outside and the warm wash of the street light made  everything in its way so illuminating. I quick grabbed my pochade box and did this 15 minutes of oil sketch.

In the last glow of the day

A quick oil sketch of the view from our door step before the last glow of the day gave way to the shadow of the evening at eight.

A glimpse from the side of our house late in the afternoon

The hedges are bending low with heavy load of snow which has started to melt away in the warm afternoon sun.

Our house on Balmoral Bay with front yard covered with snow

Our house on Balmoral Bay  still with snow thick and deep blanketed the front yard at the end of March!

The moment of sunshine and the moment of music

What could be more exciting than continuously listening to the most beautiful music on the air from CBC while painting non-stop looking right into the dazzling morning light. How could any one not be touched deeply by Beethoven's 5th piano concerto which I can listen to again and again, and I always feel like choked up  with tear whenever the second moment starts. I finished this painting when Beethoven's 5th piano concerto was followed by Beethoven's violin concerto! I would never forget the first time I heard Beethoven's violin's concerto decades ago back in China. It was  Menuhin's performance! Back in those days, the opportunity to listen to European classic music was so rare in China, that  I remember I would  not hesitate to spend a week's earning as a high school teacher  just to buy a music cassette. I remember that I got myself into trouble one Christmas  I played from tape cassette recorder Handle's Messiah for my students instead of  cramming them   with lessons in the classroom on a Sunday. The party boss and principal gave me a warming not to contaminate our youngsters with poisonous Western cultures again! Maybe deep in me from that day on  there had been  a yearning to leave China! When I finally found myself in Canada a few years down the road, and when I discovered CBC Radio which I filled my five years of  my lonely  hours listening to day after day without the presence of my wife and daughter, there arose  in me a silent resolve and  heart broken determination to stay on in Canada and never move back to China again !

In the early morning light with fog and hoarfrost

What could be more conducive to the flow of my oil paint than what was no on the air from Tempo , the CBC Radio 2 , morning program showcasing one hour of beautiful adagio ! Adagios from  Samuel Barber, Rachmaninov , Grieg  and Mozart, one after another ! So intoxicating !

At different time of the day --- another window view

It was getting warmer early in the afternoon when I looked out of the window and started to paint  the window view again. Noticed how the snow started to melt away in the warm afternoon sun.

Waking up to a beautiful sunny morning

It was around 8 this morning. The slumber look of the sky  was turning into radiating  deluge of warm wash pouring down in a unstoppable torrent, greeting my eyes with such a dazzle that I had to close my eyes briefly to face it. The joy of my painting was pushed into almost dream like ecstasy when Beethoven's 6th symphony came to the air on CBC Radio 2! A young lady in red walking her dog suddenly stepped into my view ! Has spring finally sprung?!

Full moon night

Colin came over to discuss his project with me after supper. We have known Colin for well over 17 years now. We first met him in early 1996 when as a staff photographer for Brandon Sun , he was dispatched to our place on 15th street to take picture of me reunited with my wife and daughter after almost 5 years separation. His picture was used for a follow up story on me by the then Brandon Sun journalist Stephen Nelson who is now based in Jasper National Park. Colin is a great photographer as well as a great writer and  intrepid  traveller who often ventured into obscure and isolated places under the sun bringing back with him amazing pictures with amazing stories. We share so much in our unquenchable thirst for light and colour. As I was saying to goodnight to him at the door at 9:00 p.m , I saw the full moon in the sky  dramatically echoed by the warm wash of the street light in our neighbourhood. I rushed inside the house  grabbed my flash light , and set up my easel in a hurry in our snow-covered front yard splashing my oil paint onto whatever piece of canvas that happened to be within my reach.

Standing in the last light

After the supper at 6, I moved my easel to the backyard to paint there. The hedges remained loaded up with snow. However, looking over the hedges and feeling the warm sunlight beating down, I could feel spring was edging closer.

Balmoral Bay lingering in the winter slumber

It was around 10 a.m , and the intense sunlight was so irresistible to me that I had to take my easel outside to brave the cold  in order to embrace the light and colour first-hand. Even though everything seems to remain in the grip of the old man winter, the   wintry view of my neighbourhood on Balmoral Bay is still so captivating !  I took my old MP3 player with me, for I dd not want miss CBC raido 2 for its morning program the Temple. What made me even more emotionally tuned in to the beauty of the nature  with my brush and oil colours was Dvorak's symphony number 9 aired on CBC radio 2 the moment I start the painting.

On this foggy and hoarfrost morning

At 9 a.m the sun was shining brightly in the sky. However it was still 15 below outside. Looking out of the window , and watching the radiating sunlight illuminating the trees  laced with  hoarfrost, I could not help but set up my easel by the bedroom window painting to my heart content.