About Me

Until her foray into the art world, May enjoyed a successful career with an international bank at their overseas branch in Malaysia and later in Toronto for over 15 years. She has never looked back since.

Her husband, also a banker, took up a posting in Taipei, and this was where May first tried her hand at Chinese Brush Painting under the tutelage of well-respected 90-year-old Chinese painter, Master Huang. She absolutely loved it!

Another job transfer brought the family to Hong Kong. Eager to pursue her love of painting, May joined Mrs Rosemary Oh’s porcelain painting classes and soon turned into a passion - she found porcelain painting a most forgiving art, with a multitude of exciting new techniques to explore. May also discovered that it allowed her many different creative canvases for her painting - plates, tiles, vases, porcelain boxes, cake trays – in fact, any suitable surface.

Inspired by the invaluable knowledge imparted by Mrs Rosemary Oh, May’s enthusiasm drove her to improve her skills by leaps and bounds.

As a certified porcelain teacher with Australian Porcelain Artists and Teachers (APAT) and International Porcelain Artists and Teachers (IPAT), she started her own classes since 1999.

She regularly attends APAT’s exhibitions and conventions held in New Zealand and different parts of Australia where she also exhibited and sold out her art pieces. Click here for May's visits to international conventions.

May constantly enhances her knowledge and painting skills by attending courses and workshops with renowned international artists namely, Josephine Robinson and Di Curtin of Australia, Camille Mueller of Canada, Birthe Hattel of Denmark, Yumiko Okumura, Rumi Agawa and Keiko Shimizu of Japan, Filipe Pereira of Portugal, David Bailey and Francoise Groves-de-Milleret of UK, Andrew Orr and San Do of USA and Peter Faust of Switzerland. Click here for a list of training May completed.

May is a founding member of the Hong Kong Porcelain Painting Club, and has since then, served the Club in various capacities including President leading the executive committee to organize numerous successful charity exhibitions in Hong Kong. Click here for May's exhibition works.

 

New Direction For Porcelain Painting

May has always been interested in art and has recently rekindled her Chinese brush painting with a teacher in Hong Kong. She has also started doing pottery and intends to incorporate multi-media into the art of porcelain painting.

For the exhibition in 2005, May was toying with an idea to incorporate porcelain painting with other forms of art and with this idea, she decided to place a painted tile on a canvas and worked with molding clay to bring the art into a 3-dimensional effect, through the assistance of her friend and fellow painter, Yvonne Yau, who had done clay modeling work before, she completed the work in time for the exhibition.(see photo)

The fishes were painted on a round porcelain tile which was glued on to a canvas. Some of the fishes which were partially painted on the porcelain tile were completed using molding clay right into the canvas along with floating seaweed and other fauna of the sea.

She incorporates other forms into the art of porcelain painting wishing it would create an awareness to more people that porcelain painting, although traditional, is an art that can be displayed alongside and with other art forms.

She inspires her students to step out from traditional frames. This is to dispel a lot of people's thinking that a painted porcelain piece is “old fashioned”.

 

Artwork by May

May has over the years painted many commission pieces as gifts and house warming presents. She also made birthday plates for babies and wedding and anniversary gifts.

A special request was to paint bright red lobsters to a full set of 12 serving plates and also a Che Guevara cigar tray.

 

Here are some of May's other works. Please click on a thumbnail for a larger picture.

More of May's works can be found at the Gallery.