In this video, Charles talks about his creative thoughts, processes and what comes afterwards...

#1

When I returned to Canada three years ago, I was so blessed to find a place called Kelowna. I gave it the whimsical nick-name ‘Mount Flowering Fruit Haven’ , as in a famous Chinese work of fiction.

Kelowna itself is a renowned wine-producing region — birthplace of most of the wines produced in British Columbia — kind of Canada's equivalent of Napa Valley in the US.

The city’s elevation is 300m above sea level. Our home which was on the mid-hill was even higher, some 600m above sea level.

The altitude and topography there just makes me feel so much closer to ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’.

It’s really amazing!

Sitting outside on the terrace in the evenings, or strolling around the countryside — It feels as if I am so close to touching the sky, yet still firmly rooted to the ground.

Especially here in Canada, a place where I can feel intensely connected to that almost brazen naturalness.

Life is simple.

Simple, pure, yet feeling  solid every day with flowers and fruit everywhere.

It was in this haven that I started my new series of paintings.

#2

As always, when I first started, it was tentative, with a lot of musing needed. But almost without noticing, creativity just took off. I simply stopped thinking and just painted.

It was exceptional for me, as I tend to think 
a lot.

I don’t usually sketch before actually painting 
a big work.

A well-known painter once said, “If you do a small sketch for a large drawing, it may not be that much help because when you would later enlarge it, the distance and scale between the viewer and the painting is just so different.”

The experience and impact are all different as is the emotional punch. It’s not simply by enlarging a sketch that one can create such an impact. I fully agree with this saying.

So when I was painting, I set myself a directional principle — call it a theme or plan, if you wish with some guiding rules ... and then I started.

A good example of this is when I once painted a sub-series I called Infinity of Greens.

I was driving to Vancouver from Kelowna around late spring/early summer. Everything I saw on the road was so green! Rich and varied shades of green with a multitude of depths and layers .

So beautiful!

Green itself is a rich colour. It can be bluish, or reddish, or yellowish. It can also be dark or light. Plenty of layers…

My heart smiled as I was painting. It felt as if I could continue painting a thousand ‘greens’.

Monet painted several hundred of the same lily pond, didn’t he?

#3

Some say “Artists are like God's agents”.

I love this quote.

At times, I do have a strange feeling that it’s not me who is painting. I actually forget that I am painting. It is as if there is an invisible force working through my heart to my hand, enabling me to express my feelings through my hand and body.

A feeling that is truly amazing!

I recall someone once asking me, “Do you meditate before painting?” I smiled and replied, “I didn’t!” And I don’t even know how to meditate!

Modern techniques of meditation are becoming quite difficult. I am really not that type. Nor do I know much about it at all.

But when I paint, I do need to feel calm and relaxed. Maintaining a peaceful state of mind. And yes, there are surely times of excitement!

I would feel “high” as if euphoria had me in its grip!

An interesting thing about painting — in some ways it is much like Chinese calligraphy.

Painting is also like dance — interpretive — while in a sense calligraphy is harder because calligraphy does not allow ‘mistakes’.

One of the reasons why Chinese painting is hard is because one can’t cover up a wrong brushstroke! 

Some artists believe Art is living, a kind of lifestyle. I disagree! I would even push to say “Art is life itself” ! It records and holds safe and true of the existence of life itself! 

On many occasions it is as if the feelings and sensations of an artist have been frozen in time.  And that frozen period of sensations is not just fora moment only — but for posterity.

When I paint, I typically start for a first couple of weeks. Then pause. Pick it up again three to four weeks later. Pause. And paint again after another two or three months. Or sometimes a year after.

It’s those weeks, months and years of sensations and feelings that become settled, precipitated and got frozen on the canvases. That’s why I still love painting the most.

The feeling is direct and true to oneself and it’s very hard if not impossible to replicate.

#4

My feeling is that colour is itself a very direct form of sensation too.

Colours are less being filtered or interfered.

Let me draw on an example. Say when we are writing an essay or article which is typically a composition of ‘words.’ Words or letters are neutral symbols. But through the writers’ manipulation they perform together to become a sentence or a full essay/article.

It’s easier for them to be manipulated!

I mean, I suppose that I feel that words can be used with intended orchestration to incite or manipulate readers to think in a certain way.

The ‘manipulatability’ of words is easier.

Of course colour has a similar manipulative nature too.

For example, red relates to danger, the colour green is considered peaceful and represents ease, cadmium orange is shockingly exciting, or pink/purple is startlingly beautiful.

The feeling colours project is direct.

It’s instant and immediate.

Certainly one’s cultural background might be an influencing factor on how one will perceive and react to various colours — each of us will have different visual experiences etc.

What each of us might see or read would be a subjective-deviation’ .

This is where the fun lies.

#5

Abstract Expressionism to me — I wouldn’t say whether it’s easy or difficult.  

To me the tough part is …

I often joke that Abstract Expressionism is like a ‘magic mirror’ that reflects the monster within the viewer.

First of all, to the painter himself — what one is thinking, or what one is like as a person, will all be revealed in one’s abstract expressionist painting. One is stripped naked in front of the magic mirror!

Others can see — seeing through what you are thinking, how you feel. Every tiny particle of your inner self is fully exposed without disguise!

To me, over the past several years, I have been really very pleased to be able to create faithfully and truthfully .

#6

What happens after the painting is done?

I would say, once the magic mirror was done with me, that my works have already been torn from me and taken on a life of their own.

There’s a literary theory on ‘The Death of the Author’ — that is to say, when an author is done with his work, the role of author no longer exists.

With the death of the author, it follows there is the birth of the reader. Readers will give new life to the works.

Thus in Abstract Expressionism, after the magic mirror has completed its work, a new perspective and dimension of life is gained from the readers.

That’s the interesting part.

I sometimes question if this ‘mirror’ would be considered beautiful or great?

Well, to me the answer much depends also on how ‘pure’ the mirror is. The purer it is, the prettier it is. 

Again, it will then be up to the new reader (laughing)…

Under what condition is he/she reading the works? What is his/her state of mind and the context — which will generate a whole new different viewers’ experience?

It’s certainly very enjoyable to contemplate.

#7

I remember once we had to go out everyday, not to shopping malls, but to the countryside. In fact the whole of Canada is a big countryside (laughing)… 

Strolling along, we looked at the trees, the lake…

Everything was just so beautiful!

Suddenly, with an evocative “whump” sound, there’s a flock of birds flying over me!

Immediately, I couldn't wait to get home.

Rushing in, turned to the wood panel paintings I was working on. Added a twist with a small change. And there, a new painting How many birds are there in the tree?  was born.

It was so much fun!  

I would say, many a time it’s actually how we transform or capture that very pure thought or simple experience.

A very direct kind of pleasure using our own form of expression with colours, canvases or wood panels, and recording them.

A truly treasurable artist’s sensation and experience.

#8

How did I create? 

Well, take Smell of seasons, a sub-series that evolved naturally.  

To every artist, whether he’s a musician, painter or dancer, I would say artists of all kinds simply could not resist the temptation to express their appreciation towards the beauty of the four seasons.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. 

This time, it felt like what I needed was a big painting, a horizontal scenescape. So I decided on the dimensions.

I also laid out the four-colour thematic — Red, yellow, green, and blue — representing my emotional sensations of the seasonal changes, and started right away working on my canvases.

Such was when I have set out a general ‘direction’ (seasons) with some rough ‘rules’ (dimensions, thematic colours, etc.), there I go!

I barely think but paint…

Feelings are but simply my brush strokes.

I also like to develop my works concurrently —that is, working on multiple canvases.  Painting on one, then painting on another.

Typically, I would spend the first couple of weeks for the first layer. Stopping, standing back and then working on them again two or three weeks later.

The whole process typically takes months to complete.

The sub-series, Smell of Seasons, like many others, was thereby created under these almost esoteric conditions.

#9

My past three years in Kelowna has been a truly blessed and fruitful experience.

I have shared with my friends that living in Kelowna is, to me, like stepping into the evolving pages of a novel!

Everything seems larger than life. Just so wonderous and beautiful. So surreal — as if in a fairy-tale! Even any bad guys there seem nicer (laughing) …

I also completed a mural there in Kelowna’s downtown - the former Chinatown. It is a site currently ‘occupied’ by a few homeless, overseen by missionary aid in the once thriving neighbourhood.

What a rare opportunity and unique experience for me in terms of both creativity and community engagement!

The support from friends was hugh and blessful — including but not limited to Franklin Lau — who came all the way from Toronto several times who shot religiously a documentary for my mural project and helped me produce an artist interview video now on show in this exhibition.

I owe my indebtedness to many others too who helped me throughout my career.

I started my time in Kelowna barely knowing anyone. But by the time I left, I had found myself a lot of friends. To all of them, I remain sincerely grateful.

Back in the ‘real’ world, what now? While I have recently moved out of the ‘surreal’ Kelowna. I do go back quite often. And here it is my works — driven by my time there — as presented in this exhibition gallery space in Hong Kong.

Real and exist!

As for my next move, I do have some preliminary thoughts, but I won’t over-think.

Who knows I would have spent three fruitful years living and painting in a place called Kelowna which I hadn’t even heard of before?

We shall see where life’s leading me.

One step at a time!