Dinner party at sunset moment on Clear Lake

Dinner party at Sunset Moment at Dr. Don Williamson's cabin on Clear Lake At this years charity event Push For Change , I offered myself to be auctioned off for my painting service. Dr. Don Williamson won the bid. So yesterday at his request, I set up my easel trying to capture the moment when he , his family and his friends were sitting at the dinner table chatting and watching the beautiful sunset over food and drink. One of the most memorable painting experiences ! Thank you Dr, Don Williamson!

Busy summer morning at Deep Bay of Clear Lake

A beautiful home from Brandon West on a sunny summer morning

The owner of this beautiful home commissioned me to paint this as a present to his wife as they are moving away from Brandon for BC and has put it on the market.

Gathering clouds over Clear Lake a view from the main beach of the lake

Visitor Centre of Riding Mountain National Park on a cloudy summer morning

The path after a summer shower of rain

The East Gate of Riding Mountain National Park

Brandon Research and Development Centre in the early morning sun--- landscape and memory

Of all the places in Brandon , this research station came into my memory the earliest Almost as soon as I moved to Brandon from China , I got to know there was a such a beautiful place called Brandon Research Station. Most because of a few research scientists who worked for the station and whose path I incidentally came across. Among them was Dr. Chow whom I met the very second day I came to Brandon on the occasion of a local Chinese picnic outing. Dr. Chow was retired then already and he got my attention right away because of his unique accident when he started to speak Mandarin which betrayed him as a native form the part of China that I had just came from! Through further introduction I realised that Dr. Chow was a native of a place very very close to the city where I had worked as a high school teacher for over a decade, and also I found out he moved to North Amercia from Taiwan directly after having left Mainland China prior to its fall to the communist rule in the 40s. On that occasion I met both he and his wife. At that time in early 90s , Mainland Chinese community was barely in existence in Brandon , and therefore, I was invited a few times by them to their home for dinner during the following days.It was not until almost a year later on one visit to their Brandon home, Mrs Chow showed me their family photo album before the dinner. As I leafed through this album of theirs, one particular photo in the album just totally caught me literally by surprise and disbelieve! There is this picture of somebody who has been a close friend to my family for 4 decades! Mr. Zhengwen Chow , a close friend to my Aunt in Shanghai, and my grandmother his god mother! I could not believe my eyes, and for an instant I thought I may have misidentified somebody who bears a close resemblance accidentally until I saw right on the wall of the photo of him was the indisputable oil painting by my own uncle which my aunt had given to him as a gift! I asked Mrs Chow how on earth they got a picture of Zhengwen! She was equally astonished asking me how could I possibly knew her husband Dr. Chow's only cousin in Mainland China! What a small world! Apparently Zhengwen had lost contact with them for long , and prior to the digital ages, communication oversea was not that easy! Now so many years have passed since that encounter , both Mr. and Mrs Chow have passed away , so has Zhengwen Chow , who was a novelist
playwright , and a poet in his life time who suffered a lot and was sent to labour camp for a few years during the communist years in mainland China. It was Zhengwen who opened my early eyes to the free and beautiful world of North America in the 70s in Shanghai. I will never ever forget how we listened together one night in my aunt's home in Shanghai on a worn out record the first time for me , the Beautiful Dreamer by Stephen Foster

Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;
Sounds of the rude world, heard in the day,
Lull'd by the moonlight have all passed away!
Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song,
List while I woo thee with soft melody;
Gone are the cares of life's busy throng,
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

That very moment from the dark age in China, I started to dream! I was 18 years old then.

Brandon University Original Building and Clark Hall in the early morning sunshine

The Dome Building on Keystone Grounds Brandon

The " Dome Building" --------Manitoba Provincial Exhibit Building on Keystone Grounds in early afternoon sunshine. Whenever I get bored , I pick up my paint brush, whenever I feel unhappy, I pick up my paint brush, whenever I get tired and sleepy, I pick up my paint brush. No exception today when I felt myself overcome with drowsiness at noon , I simply packed up my French easel ,loaded it into trunk of my car, and started to drive aimlessly until I spotted the dome building with its domes sparking in wintry sunlight. That is it. I set up to paint there and then against the cold, against the wind and even against the occasional sensation of hunger until what has been bugging me all dissipate and what is left in me is nothing but the pure bliss , the painter's bliss.

Brandon Court House in the early afternoon sunlight

Brandon Court House on Princess Avenue painted in sub -zero temperature today at 12 p.m. The greatest challenge painting outdoor faces at this time of the year is actually not so much the cold weather as the quick change of light which forces you to paint even more fast. Spent less than two hours painting today at the corner of 11th Street and Princess Avenue . Always enjoy the special kind of light at this time of the year which tends to imbue the landscape with a tinge of visual tenderness , and a wisp of light sorrow

Another window view in the morning

Sunny early morning , the same window view

Sunny again in the afternoon , the same window view

A window view a lady in red with baby trolley passing by

A window view early in the morning

A quick oil sketch this morning looking out of the window. Cold and gloomy with inevitable fall of snow. However, a flick of light from the window across the street outside , and Mozart's Piano Concerto N21 from CBC Radio 2 are enough to bring a touch of warm and a sense of jubilation to what should have been a bleak landscape in my sight.

When the full moon is rising last night

A study of a full moon lit sky

A glimpse of the Super Moon night sky

Brandon Rideau Park

A brief moment at 2 p.m today when the sun broke out of the clouds just when I set up my easel at Rideau Park ready to paint. A surge of joy through my heart trying to translate that sense of joy and awe into a visual statement on my canvas.

A glimpse over the hedges in the morning

Full moon night sky as viewed from our door way

Our neighbour across the street

In the noon hour sunlight

A house on 13th Street Brandon

Early in the morning a look at our backyard

When the full moon is rising in the evening sky

A Warm Novemember Day on Balmoral Bay

My tribute to the fallen on Rememberance Day

A quick oil sketch from Brandon Cemetery this morning to pay tribute to all the brave men and women past and present who scarified their lives so that we can live free.
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.”

Sunrise moment