Treherne Bottle Houses, Weiming Zhao

Weiming Zhao
"Chasing Color & Light"
Oil Paintings

Biography: Growing up in the sixties in a remote northwestern part of China during the Cultural Revolution, Weiming Zhao used his passion for painting and drawing as an escape from the hard times. In the late seventies Weiming taught himself to read and speak English from a book on pronunciation. His studies led him to a ten-year career teaching English as a second language in China and eventually to Canada to pursue further studies at Brandon University in 1991. After five years’ separation from his wife and daughter, Weiming got reunited with his family here in Canada in 1995 and settled in Brandon ever since then. After a hiatus from painting and drawing of almost three decades, Weiming’s childhood passion for art was rekindled. It was in the summer of 2003 in Lake of Woods, Ontario where he once again picked up his brushes, paint and easel and has not stopped since. The result is a portfolio of over 6000 paintings and sketches created en plein air (in open air), and 18 solo exhibitions, and his painting was collected all across Canada , United State, Russian , England and China. 14 of his paintings are included in Manitoba Provincial Art Collection.