The kite

I have found my drawings are lack of lively element. Hence, I am try to add some.

Kind of my feeling, I want to fly~~~

好表現到我而家既心情 ，好想飛出去。

Fred Varley Drive, Unionville

This place is so beautiful with lots of scene for sketching. And it's very close to where we live. The leaves are in green and red colours are very distinctive.

There were brides and grooms for photo taking. It was only about 13C and we can see the brides were shaking.




我們又來到Unionville,這個有二百年歷史的小鎮風景很美，是寫生的好地方。在這個建築物前面有幾棵樹，葉子的顏色很特別，紅葉綠葉。

附近有幾對新人在拍照，只有13C的下午，我也感受到穿上婚紗的新娘在風中抖震著。

Starbucks, Unionville

It was raining today, we went to Starbucks in Unionville to have coffee and chat. The shop is in a village house with 2 storeys. There are beautiful trees with different colours of the leaves.

Too Good Pond, Markham

Today I went to the artificial lake in Unionville. It was about 9C. As a person from Hong Kong, I feel it's winter now. Sun was shining and I feel warm under the sun. 2 weeks ago, I was in Lau Fau Shan, Hong Kong for sketching. Today, I am in Toronto and doing the same thing. The difference is no mosquitos here. Sitting on the grass, I could not find any insect. Some people jog here.

Owing to the low humidity, the watercolous dries fast, I need to draw faster. The maple leaves around the lakes are in red, so beautiful. There are some geese and ducks swimming. When I was drawing, there was a duck comes. Maybe she wanted to take a sun bath. Sometimes the flock swims towards  me, I feel so countryside.

And I think I cannot go outside soon as the weather is too cold to me.

今天去了Unionville 的人工湖寫生，氣溫只有攝氏9度，對於一個剛從香港來的人，我已覺冬天來了。陽光很猛，但感覺溫暖。兩星期前還在流浮山寫生，今天已到了Toronto寫生。這裡沒有蚊釘，坐在草地上，好像也沒有昆蟲。不時有些人在跑步。

由於濕度低，水彩好快乾，要快手上色。湖邊楓葉轉紅，很美，加上湖上有很多鴨鵝，好有詩意。寫畫時，有隻鴨子上了岸，可能是晒太陽，之後有一群游過來，真是很郊外。


可是天氣對我來說很寒，能出外寫生的日子不多，要等天氣回暖才可以到外寫生。

Gulianyu, Xiamen

I have spent few days in Gulianyu, Xiamen. It is a small island with lots of historical buildings from 19th century. Some famous houses were the embassies from other countries. To visit the island, only about 30 minutes from the Xiamen pier to the Gulianyu pier by ferry. For the reason of the environmental protection, there are only 4 small motor cars, around 22 electrical vehicles which can carry about 11 peoples. The islanders travel around by foot.
We walked around from the hotel after we arrived and found a cafe owned by a family. Their house is in old style and was built 80 years ago. We ordered some snacks and drinks and sketched a building in the opposite.

The scene is so beautiful and we found we were in another times. One thing I must said that the drinks we had were not good, tastes were very "chemical". The fried pumpkins had no taste at all.

It was about 6 pm when we got the sketch done. We walked around and reached the centre. There were lots of shops, cafe and restaurant.  We tried to get to the electrical car stop to take it. However, it was closed when we got there. We needed to walk to the hotel in another side of the island, it takes about 30 minutes. We were extremely exhausted.

We woke up early next morning and headed to our targeted area for sketching, around Jishan Road. I found a nice old house in flat share. It was a cloudy day and rained in the early morning. The path was wet. A girl left her home and walked on the path. Suddenly, she slipped in front of me. I passed her a tissue paper and checked with her if she got hurt. 

4 Jishan Road

We had a fish ball noodle in soup as our lunch and then I went to Sanqiudian Pier to draw the coast. I was very tired of drawing the buildings. Sitting on the bench near the seaside and watching to the sea is really really relaxing.

There was a girl wanted me to draw a portrait for her when I was drawing the pier.

We then headed back to the hotel. This time we could catch up the electrical car. 

The last day, I did some line drawings on streets. 

The hawker was selling the souvenirs. Looking to the opposite coast of Xiamen with skyscrapers, this small island is really calm and peace, like a garden behind a city.

茶果嶺

茶果嶺是香港的舊區，我們在藍田港鐵站步行至茶果嶺村大概要15分鐘。


我們在附近走了一圈取景，天氣時晴時陰，村內到處是窄巷。太近的，對我們來說很困難，因為透視會較誇張。整條村的屋以鐵皮屋為主，很有特式，有些是磚屋，相信是原有的建築，由於鐵皮不善隔音，左鄰右里基本上是沒有秘密的。

我和朋友決定在有檐篷的地方坐下取景寫生。我選了一條通向馬路的巷景，兩旁有屋，沒有太豐富的色彩，但構圖頗佳。天陰晴不定，時有驟雨，但總算完成。畫的時候，心也在想，這些屋雖有冷氣，但外牆物料曅竟是鐵皮所造，尤其是下雨，一定很吵耳，可能還會漏水呢！

Cha Kwo Ling is one of the old districts in Hong Kong. We walked from Nam Tin MTR Station for about 15 mins to there.


We took a walk around the village, the weather was not fine, there was a hard shower. Lots of alleys in the village.  It is hard for us to sketch the scene where is too close to us because the perpective is hard to catch precisely. The houses in the village are mainly made of iron plates, very unique as a whole. Fews are made of bricks that could be the orginal houses built years ago. As the iron plate is not a good material for noise isolation, there is no secret between families.

We find a place with the canopy and sit down for the sketching. The scene I picked is an alley to the road, there are houses in both sides, not very colourful. However, I like the composition. There were sunshines and showers. During sketching, I was thinking even there is air condition in the house, but the material built is iron plate, it must be very noisy in raining days. Perhaps it leaks too.

心法

港台製作的功夫傳奇系列，除了令我對中國傳統功夫有進一步的認識外，還領悟到要追求更高的境界，是在內。在外是形，形是死的。情況有如繪畫一樣，要似要像，就是苦練，像是學功夫，勤練就學得像。但是去到提升、變通，就覺得前面一道牆，很高、很濶、看不到前面會是怎樣。就是很多基本的都學過了，如何突破自己是很難的事情。
如其中一集談及到少林的武功，著重的是「禪武」，是種修行，比試的時候不是想著如何勝利，反而冷靜，反而通！
凡谷的向日葵，是禮物而已。卻是現今最有價值的藝術品之一。剛看過的吳冠中先生的作品，亦是一些平常身旁的景物，生活簡樸，保持頭腦簡單，專注著自己的修為，似乎就像是功夫與藝術中要突破自己的心法。

向吳冠中先生致敬

吳冠中先生於上月逝世。五月，我看了趙少昂先生的畫展。這些都是近代中國畫的大師。看吳先生的作品特別感動。那種親切、執著、對藝術、對創作及不斷創作及突破的精神，很值得我們學習。他的成就，除了是本身的天賦外，亦是他的努力不斷對藝術的熱誠和投入而來，在展覽館外，正中對著門口的，是我從前一看就未忘的「雙燕」。那種像平面設計的構圖的水墨畫，很獨特，有寫生速寫的味道。平靜的構圖有雙燕子，靜中有動。一進場館，看到一篇吳先生的手稿，是「速寫與懷孕」，第一句已把我攝住了:「速寫寫形、寫神、寫情。捕捉素材、捕捉感受、捕捉構思構圖。」
就是這樣，就道出了畫是美了，為何還是欠了一點，只是形似、沒神、沒情，還是不夠。他亦寫得一手好文章，話題亦很吸引我。我坐著看了一連幾輯由香港電台製作的吳先生的專輯，很感動、很鼓舞，一生，對創作還是不斷創新，沒有太多對別人的批評，只求自身的突破。
沒有華麗的創作室，沒有奢華的生活，作品郤是一代的代表。從十多歲,本來要走工程師的道路，郤往藝術裡走去，近乎八十年的功力，都在作品當中，至少能讓我不斷反思,尋求突破!

維園及避風塘

今天一大清早，與畫友去了西灣河寫生。可惜大雨滂沱，走了整條海濱長廊，也找不到一處可避雨的地方。於是，我們便決定到中央圖書館藝術館看書，估不到那裡有些座位是靠近窗，我們都分別選了兩個座位。看到遠處維多利亞公園及避風塘，便畫了一圖畫。我把旁邊的高厦及天橋省掉，樹下郤加了兩個人拿著傘。