September 2004

Siew Mak: Painting Canada, Chinese Style

Energy is all around us. At times we feel it. At times we see it. This energy has rhythm, like music, and if we are in tune with this energy it can bring us great personal and spiritual satisfaction. Such is the case with Medicine Hat painter and Tai Chi master Siew Mak.

Siew Mak was born in China during times of political turmoil. Traveling hundreds of miles on foot during WWII, Siew Mak's family was forced to flee the Japanese invasion in the northern Guangdong region. After the war they moved to Beijing. In 1951, at 12 years old, the family was again forced to flee, this time to Hong Kong. And until political turmoil erupted again, when Siew Mak and his wife left for Canada in 1971, Hong Kong was to provide unsurpassed education. After graduating from Grantham College of Education, Siew Mak came under the guidance of Ho Chat-Yuen, a master of the pre-revolutionary Lingnan School, who taught art privately to carefully selected students. Master Ho's innovative approach to the Lingnan Style was the greatest of influences on Siew Mak. (information from The Direction of Energy by Joanne Marion)

Siew Mak's Chinese brush paintings are exquisite. They are delicate and beautiful, graceful, strong and full of life. They reflect the energy in nature and reveal the music that carries that energy to the soul. Joanne Marion, curator for the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery, remarks, "Chinese brush painting is very physical and spiritual. So it's very different than Western painting, in which the act of painting is not really seen as a spiritual act." In light of this, Siew Mak's paintings are unique. In his works, the spiritual integrity of Chinese brush painting becomes infused with Western characteristics.

Siew Mak spent time at the Cultural Centre just looking out through the window at the pond and listening to the various students practicing. Voice, piano, violin, mostly classical, his "cup of tea." Eventually he realized there was a connective rhythm between the waves of the pond and the music he was hearing from the students. So specifically for the Cultural Centre's anniversary, Siew Mak painted the pond fully reflective of natural rhythms, musical interludes, powerful energies, both serious and whimsical. In this painting, as in all his paintings, the attention to detail is superlative. Like Tai Chi, Chinese brush painting is a fluid rhythmatic movement of shifting directions with vivacious energy. Siew Mak has painted a number of Albertan scenes. All are detailed and rich with spiritual energy and life. These paintings capture His blessings of life.

There is Music in the Air by Siew Mak is currently exhibiting at the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery and runs until October 31, 2004. This exhibition is well worth visiting. For more information regarding the Lingnan style, Siew Mak will be speaking on this fascinating subject October 7, 2004 at 7pm, also at the museum.

Questions for me? Please e-mail BeKean@telusplanet.net.