Jack Zhou has won many awards including the Juror’s Award “Impact 2007” at the Neilson Park Creative Centre in Toronto, The Golden Prize on China landscape Oil Painting Exhibition , First Prize “Landscape-The Lasting Inspiration” at the Praxis Gallery in Ontario and he is a member of the Beijing Society of Artists, China.

Zhou came to Canada in 2002 and has found much inspiration from his annual trips to Ontario’s great north, including Algonquin Park, Lake Superior, Georgian Bay, and Kilarney Park. His resulting oil paintings demonstrate great attention to detail while maintaining the emotion of his brush. Why landscapes? Mr. Zhou states “To me, nature not only possesses a mesmerizing power, but also restlessly changes itself and everything.”

Artist Statement

Painting landscapes on canvas is a creative process which allows me, first of all, to express my passionate love for nature; secondly, to reproduce my precise observation of its seasonal changes; and thirdly, to search for harmony between human beings and the natural world.
I paint solid rocks, vast prairies, tranquil lakes, gurgling streams, and so on. To me nature not only possesses a mesmerizing power, but also restlessly changes itself and everything.

In my composition, I depict nature in action and movement. By combining dot, line, and space carefully with black, white, and grey shades, I want to compose the organic shape and status of nature, so that my paintings can give the audience a profound visual experience.

When applying colour, I reinforce the absorbing capacity of the canvas by emphasizing my personal emotions. I contrast warm colour with cold and cool colour, and heavy brushes with light touches; sometimes, I pay meticulous attentions to the details. Overall, I hope to achieve a modern Eastern sensitivity on canvas, which includes a subjectively and decoratively created artistic momentum of landscape paintings.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2007 “Original Oil Landscapes”, ArtTrax, Port Credit, Mississauga
2004 “Blissful Weeds”, Art Beatus Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2002 “Wildness Landscape”, Deleon White Gallery, Toronto
1991-99 National and Professional Oil Painting Exhibition, Beijing, China

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2007 “Landscape-The Lasting Inspiration”, Praxis Gallery, Toronto
2007 “Canadian Artists Without Borders”, Varley Art Gallery of Markham
2006 The McMichael 16th Annual Autumn Art Sale, Kleinburg, Ontario
2005 “Summer Selections”, Gallery C, Raleigh, NC, U.S.A
2001 First Global Chinese Art Exhibition, Beijing, China

COLLECTIONS

The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada
CCTV Station, Beijing, China
Fine Art Museum, Beijing, China