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This website is a tribute to the love of painting that characterizes Edwin Chau's life. On July 6th, 2009, we will celebrate the 80th anniversary of his birth. The artwork that appears in this website is but a small sampling of the vast collection of paintings that he produced in over four decades.

Edwin Chau started sketching as a youth with a group of artists under the tutelage of Lee Byng. Unable to pursue formal education in art due to the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, Edwin worked as a clerk to support his family and studied accounting. It was during the weekend excursions to the countryside that he allowed his artistic side to develop.

In 1951, he married Anita Tang, a school teacher who later became school principal, and over the next decade they had three daughters. By the mid 1960's, he had captured the many moods of a historic Hong Kong that was already quickly vanishing under relentless development and real estate demands. His impressionistic sketches of the New Territories (rural Hong Kong) still retain a freshness and vitality after more than thirty years.

During the late 1960's, Edwin decided to follow the discipline of traditional Chinese watercolor methods as taught by the famous Yeung Sin-Sum of the Ling Nam School. Known as one of the 20th century Chinese master painters, Mr. Yeung instilled in his disciples the ability to express the spiritual side of their art. Not only do they paint the surface of their subjects, but their essence-- the strength of the bamboo stalk, the fragility of a rose, the tenacity of a gnarled pine.

In 1973, he immigrated to Canada to seek a better future for his family. In Toronto, Edwin and Anita had to re-establish their respective career, taking evening courses to qualify for jobs they had held decades back in Hong Kong. The cultural adjustment and hardwork gradually took their toll on their health. Finally, as the youngest of their children entered university, Edwin gave up his accounting/managerial day job and started painting full-time. Those would be his happiest and most productive years. Dividing his time between painting and teaching, he gained a loyal following of students and art collectors with his talent and enthusiasm.

In the early 1980's, he consolidated his understanding of Chinese landscape painting by taking a tour of the scenic region in southern China - Guilin, where many Chinese painters through the ages were inspired by the craggy peaks and mirror-like river. He also revisited his old painting master, Mr Yeung and participated in their group shows - as part of the 'Chun Fung', meaning Spring Breeze, Art Club. Back in Canada, Edwin found the streetscapes of Toronto just as inspiring as the country landscape of Muskoka/Haliburton, which he painted with virtuosity. He was able to combine the two great artistic traditions into his own personal language in painting.

Unfortunately, just as he was reaching artistic maturity, and gaining public appreciation for his work, Edwin Chau was struck with kidney failure. After years of gruelling dialysis, he was given a new lease on life with a kidney transplant. His health restored, he painted with renewed vigor for nearly two years until complications from earlier transfusions made his health deteriorate rapidly. Suffering from blindness and other debilitating symptoms, he passed away just a month short of his 60th birthday, on June 10, 1988. He left behind a legacy in art and gave many of his students a taste and appreciation of an ancient artform, adapted to express the spirit of the 20th century.