On a windy day near the shores of Clear Lake, a Brandon painter sets up his easel to capture a moment in time. The artist watches where light touches the ground as a reference point to craft his next work. “Look at the shadow, oh my goodness,” Weiming Zhao said as he looked up from the easel. “I am more excited about shadow because people don’t realize the shadow will tell you a lot of story. As the sun is getting lower, the colour is getting richer. The light is getting much more dramatic.” Zhao came to the Wheat City as an international student in 1991. He tells CTV News he left China to escape political repression and brought over his love of painting. When Zhao came to Brandon, he was separated from his wife and daughter for five years. He said back then, he could not even make a phone call to his family. “Art is a kind of escape,” he said. “It makes me forget about the negative aspect of the contemporary world and I just focus on what is most beautiful.” Landscapes in Riding Mountain National Park are a favourite for the 66-year-old, who has painted more than 7,000 works to date. “This area is a paradise for painting,” he said. “Especially if you do plein air painting. They have everything you need.” Zhao said he has painted more than 300 paintings this year alone. Sometimes he paints multiple works in a single day. “I never planned for this, but once I get this momentum, I can’t stop,” he said with a smile. “It is a very dynamic process. It’s very soothing, yet very stressful.” Ken Romaniuk, the executive director of Wasagaming Community Arts, said people will often walk up to Zhao as he is painting and they are in awe of his work. They sometimes offer to purchase his paintings right off the easel. Zhao was one of their featured artists this year, with a whole exhibition of art on display from May to early September. The gallery was called Chasing Light & Colour In The Park. “If you’ve been coming to Clear Lake regularly you could recognize the images,” Romaniuk said. “That’s down Highway 19, that’s of the ninth hole at the golf course.” Zhao was asked by the arts organization to teach beginner’s and master’s level art classes on site in the park. “It was very nostalgic for a lot of people in Clear Lake,” Romaniuk said. “People really feel a connection to his paintings. It’s realistic that it reminds them of a spot and a memory.” Next year, Wasagaming Community Arts plans to release a calendar of Zhao’s work to celebrate some of the many paintings he created this year. Zhao’s work embraced outside of Riding Mountain and across Westman On a quiet residential street in Brandon, Kaela Putaro and her dog Charlie stare out of the window, watching the rainfall. Inside the house, a painting of the first home she bought with her husband rests up above on the wall. The family wanted their house to be preserved on canvas. “You can see my little gnomes there that he included, and I have a wreath in the door that I always have for a summer wreath,” Putaro said with a smile as she looked at the painting Zhao created for them. Over on 18th Street, Dairy Queen owner Laird Lidster also hired the Brandon artist. Lidster said Zhao’s attention to detail is stunning. He wanted to ensure the business that’s been in his family since 1973 would never be forgotten. “He was very picky in wanting to make sure there were people there,” Lidster said with a smile. “He captured real customers in his art that were actually customers at Dairy Queen. Time changes fast so you want to make sure you capture that before time runs out.” One thing that hasn’t changed is Zhao. He’s still capturing special moments for people like Vaughn and Jacquie Sangster. He painted a picture of the Wishing Well in Riding Mountain National Park for the Brandon couple to commemorate the place where Vaughn proposed decades ago. While Zhao was painting a backdrop of Clear Lake with the two red Adirondack chairs watching over the shore, the Sangster family stopped by to watch the artist at work on the day of their anniversary. “He is the treasure of our area,” Jacquie said. “We’re very lucky to have him here in our community.” Zhao hopes he can keep painting for years to come. “People commission you for a painting, and they constantly say how much it means to them,” Zhao said. “It’s kind of a confirmation that you’ve been doing something wonderful.”
