Wintry sky

A Change of an Icon

Balmoral Bay on a winter afternoon

Looking out of kitchen window

Looking out of the dining room window

Another bone chill day with temperature plummeted to minus 40 with windchill. Sitting at the dinner table before supper was ready I did a quick window view when the sunlight was receding quickly.

Silhouette of a house

Silhouetted against the bright sunlight at noon is this impressive house with a crown like top on Victorian Avenue. I stopped my car on an intersection before a stop sign and painted this quick oil sketch facing the strong glare of the sun.

Fond memories from the past

Dr. Corrigan has lived in this house standing on Lorne Avenue for many years until he is ill and in hospital. The house has already changed ownership and is now on market. Whenever I pass this house there is always the fond memory of so many visits with Dr. Corrigan over the past years. His generosity and his kindness will always live in us together with his sense of humour and his talk full of witticism. Just wish that his stay in hospital will be a short one and he will be back to himself again. Today after the Chinese community party to mark their Luna new year I drove my car to the side of the street and saw how the new owner has repainted this Queen Ann style house and did quite a bit of renovations already. However the memory from the past remain in me as I painted away sitting in my car on one of the coldest days of the year.

Another view out of the bedroom window

I think I am almost obsessed with the window view now. Well with it is so cold outside painting from window seems to be the only remedy now.

Looking out of the bedroom window

It was cold and windy with blowing snow. Yet looking out of the window in the afternoon the sun looks so bright and warm.

A light in the darkness

News of my brother's physical conditions hangs heavily on my mind just like the thick darkness outside on a cold and snowy winter night. Yet, the lights from street and the house across the street manage to penetrate the darkness providing such a visual as well as an emotional relief. We all try to seek light in our life when we are weathering through a dark passage in our journey of life.

A cosy corner

Another beautiful day after work. Hid myself in the quiet corner between our hedges and neighbor's fence I did this quick oil sketch standing there with snow up to my knees.

A jubilant moment of nature in winter

A day of jubilation in the United State as they celebrate the inauguration of their new president. A sense of the time and sense of history in the making permeate the crowd of millions of people who gather there to watch the historical moment. Whenever I paint a view of nature I always try to personify the mood of a fleeting moment, maybe trying to imbue into it a particular emotion that arises in me. As I walked past the grove of trees on Balmoral Bay on my way home from work, the brilliant afternoon sunlight splashed over the trees lighting up their profiles ,and making their shadows dance over the bright patch of snow. Is this nature's moment of jubilation?

Standing in the sunlight of late afternoon

Although I painted this view numerous times before, the color and light at the moment seemed to have a such a compelling quality with it that I found it so hard to dismiss it without getting out to paint it right way after coming home from work in the afternoon.

A glimpse of our front yard

It was cloudy but not so cold when I stepped out in the afternoon. Painting outdoor in winter, cold as it always is, serves as an antidote to the dull and drill of the monotonous routines of my daily life in the season. The silence that surrounds me is always so mesmerizing and so tangible!

In the full sunlight across the street

The sunlight was so brilliant in the afternoon that I could almost feel the warmness of the light on my back while painting from our driveway.

Brandon University Original Building

17 years ago in the summer of 1991 when I woke up to my first morning in Brandon after arriving from China this was the very first view I saw. Painting this quick oil sketch from my car the distant memory suddenly flashed back!

At dawn from our window

Came back from work early in the morning, instead of going straight to bed, I sat by the window watching the dawn breaking out suddenly transfiguring everything outside. I took my brushes and easel and painted right away.

Hedges and shed

Light started to break out of the clouds and suddenly there appeared a blush of color across the dreary wintry sky.

View from the window at night

It is one of the coldest days today when the temperature plummets to minus 40 ! There is no possibility to paint outdoor even from the car. Sitting by the window in the evening, I have to do with a quick oil sketch through the window.

A glimpse of our backyard

The view was deceptively warm when in fact it was such a cold afternoon when I painted this view sitting in the car.

Dark, cold and snowy

It was dark, cold and snowy when I started this quick oil sketch sitting in my car this afternoon after work.

Snow-covered hedges

Again drawn by the light and color of the snow in the late afternoon sunlight, I painted this 9"x12" oil sketch before supper. It was sunny but still too cold to paint outdoor.

Snowing again

Using garbage bin as a support for my sketching box, I painted outdoor for half an hour before it was getting too cold to continue.

A view from Becky's verandah

Today is the international day of Sketchcrawl when artist all over the world will gather in small group to sketch until they crawl ! Becky is hosting this event at her home and invited a few of us to go over at her place to mark the event by sketching as much as we could. It is so wonderful to be at her place when she put James Ehnes's violin music on for us to listen and baked some delicious snack for us to eat ! I picked a spot from her verandah and did this oil sketch when I was struck by the view in front of me.

A lone tree on the roadside

Drove my car to the front parking lot of Crocus Plain High School and painted from my car the view of lone tree standing on the roadside of the first street south.

A view over the fence

Another quick oil sketch painted from our patio showing the faint warm light lighting up part of the sky and the snow over the roof and fence.

Snow-covered junipers

Standing on our patio I painted a 9"x12" quick oil sketch of our junipers covered with fresh snow on a cloudy and snowy late afternoon.

On a snowy afternoon

It was cold and snowy making me feel so sleepy. Looking out of the window I tried to capture such a wintry moment.

Fresh snow on the hedge

The brilliant sunlight on the fresh snow on the hedge always casts such a spell on me that I just could not put down my brush.

First painting of the year

Sitting in my car on our driveway, I quickly sketched my first view in oils for the new year 2009. Will I be able to keep up with one painting a day I am not so sure now as my energy is ebbing away. Hoping my passion will remain.

In the last sunset of the year 2008 ?

Time to say goodbye to the year 2008! There is always a bit of sadness to see a year gone by. As I am getting older, I feel more and more the swiftness of the passage of a year. Looking out of the window and seeing the snow-covered flowerbed gradually taken over by the shadow of the night I had to say goodbye to a year full of wonderful memories.