The final in an eight-part series.
Oftentimes, Rebecca Woo's paintings can look like little symphonies of movement through a variety of brush strokes and a dynamic colour palette.
Sometimes her strokes even follow the musical notes of the great classical composers from Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart.
"I love listening to music," said Woo. "When I turn on music, I can calm down and then I begin to paint."
Woo has donated several of her paintings to Gateway Theatre's For the Love of Art silent auction. They currently hang on the second and third floors.
The fundraiser runs until Monday, June 24 with an open house this Sunday between 2 and 5 p.m. Board members and staff will be present to assist with the bidding.
Woo's pieces depict landscapes, mostly of Richmond, with the thick strokes and colour play of an Expressionist. Her surroundings become her inspiration, as she often takes long walks through Finn Slough and returns home with a fresh idea for a painting.
Much of her work depicts the mountains looming in the background, but each time, a different colour scheme indicates the time of day from sunrise to sunset.
"I really like using colour, and painting scenes from Mother Nature and the mountains," said Woo. "There's beauty all over the place here."
Woo moved to the Lower Mainland from Taiwan in 1971. She wanted to start a new life with her two young children after her pilot husband died in a tragic accident.
Without knowing anybody in Canada, she decided to try the west coast, since it was closer to Taiwan. That way, she felt like she could always go back home. However, as soon as she saw her new house, the British Columbian landscape stole her heart.
"It was like out of a fairy tale," said the recent great-grandmother. "I just loved the place right away and I knew I was going to stay."
The decades that followed were a struggle as Woo took various jobs to support her young family. Any thoughts of being an artist she may have entertained as a child had to make way for more practical considerations.
It wasn't until after she retired in 1991 that she was able to seriously pick up the brush and pursue a post-retirement hobby as a visual artist.
Since then, she joined the Richmond Artist Guild and took classes at Emily Carr.
It was there that she had the chance to work with one of her favourite B.C. artists, landscape painter Michael O'Toole.
"I love the work of Michael O'Toole and the lose brushstrokes he uses when painting," she said.
Although still affected by the sudden loss of her husband, Woo allows art to become the spiritual connection with her soul, using it to get in touch with her feelings.
"Art feeds people spiritually," she said. "It allows them to build a sense of creativity. In nature, there's no life without light. That's what art is like, like light. It causes people to see and feel things they wouldn't otherwise."
For more information about Woo, visit richmondartistguild.com. For information on Gateway's fundraiser, visit www.gatewaytheatre. com.
