Match 31, 2016. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50Cm.

Nine months ago, I started to learn oil painting people portrait. It had been very difficult for me. But it was very challenging and a lot of fun.

Part of the fun was I got the chance to meet many art models. They are normally young girls either studing or temporarily unemployed. I love to talk to them, know their background and character before I painted them. 

Although I was inexperienced, I still wanted to do a great painting, the best I could do. I did not just want to paint someone by her or his face, I wished to present their spirit, their thinking, their soul in my paintings.

Today, I met this girl coming to Hong Kong from Xi Suen for a few years. She still had her putonghua accent, making it easy to discover her origin. She was young, pretty, tall, slim, very polite, sincere and considerate. I think she had a great parent who raised her to be such an adorable young lady.

She was still studying her HR diploma course. She worried about her English, she worried about her future, she worried that it would be difficult for her to stand up on her own feet after graduation. 

Our young generation was not easy to survive and to succeed under the current economy. I felt very sorry for them. They had to double up their effort to be able to buy a house or lead a premium living. Therefore many young  people gave up hope and let loose. We couldn’t put all the blame on them. The institute had a responsibility. The established wealthy businessmen had a responsibility. But both of them denied it.  That was why our poor kids were very desperate and a minority of them were so angry.

Back to this anxious young girl. I can see she was very serious about her modelling job. Very professional. I admired and respected her. She was always very willing to go extra mile, being very supportive to our painting job. 

She had a great attitude which most young Hong Kong people lacked of. At the end of the modelling session she offered to introduce her 50 years old mother and 80 years old grandmother to be my alternate models so that I could paint portrait with varieties.

I really appreciated this initiative and looking forwards to painting her family. That would be an interesting thing painting 3 generations of a family. One face. Three stories. How memorable.

She could always surprise me. She was very inspiring. Not only a pretty face. I would remember this China girl for a long time.