Victoria has been interested in drawing and painting since her childhood. She started studying art formally in her early teens and received a diploma in fine arts from the Hong Kong Art Academy. She also studied Chinese brush painting with several teachers before coming to the U.S. for higher education. She received her degrees in English Literature and Education. Victoria was a Professor of Education at California State University, Sacramento for over 20 years. With retirement, she is able to devote her time to painting.
As an adult, it is impossible to capture the same sense of wonderment and enchantment that a child regularly experiences in daily life. For Victoria, painting in a water medium allows her to relive that experience. She views painting as a conspiracy orchestrated by the painter with the subject, the paint, the water, the brush and the paper to create an image. The painter might think of the others as unwitting partners in this venture. Ultimately, it is the painter who is surprised by the outcome. In modern life, one is saturated with images of all kinds that have to be overlooked in order not to be overwhelmed. It is that moment of attention to what has been seen (outwardly or inwardly) and then rendered on paper with brush, paint and water that allows a painter to recapture the wonderment and enchantment of seeing something new like a child. Hopeful, that image will allow others to experience the same.
Recently, Victoria paints mainly in Acrylics in a watercolor manner on Yupo. The nature of Yupo interacts amazingly with liquid acrylic paints, allowing her to produce paintings that are true collaborations between artist, material and process.
