I’ve always known my dad Le Shi as a quiet man with bold brushstrokes. Growing up in China in the 1960s, his journey as an artist didn’t have any grand aspirations or formal training–it started purely as a way to survive back then, a practical skill he picked up as a teenager studying from a set painter at a local theatre. It then quickly grew into a passion for my dad. Through layering colours, shaping compositions, and carving out light, my dad discovered a way to express all the feelings and ideas he couldn’t put into words.
Painting opened the world up to my dad. It brought him to Canada in the 1990s, where he studied at The University of Waterloo and got his MFA in Fine Arts. After moving here, my dad immediately fell in love with the natural landscapes of our new home. The vivid colours, the ever-changing seasons–he’d never seen anything like it before, and it inspired him to try and capture the scenery on canvas.
His creative process involves taking hikes through nature like Algonquin Provincial Park, sketching, photographing, reflecting, and gathering inspiration for his next paintings. He then brings all the materials back to his studio, the basement of our family home in Scarborough, where he mulls over dozens of sketches before finally settling on an idea. Then, paint hits palette. Brush hits canvas. And the magical process of seeing him bring his vision to life begins.
For my dad, painting is meditative. I always marvelled at how focused yet intuitive his process is, spending weeks on a painting, only to scrap it because it just ‘didn’t feel right’. He wants to capture the tranquillity and beauty of nature in his paintings, to offer a respite for himself and viewers from an often noisy world. At 70, he’s still painting with the same passion that first drew him to art. His work gives viewers a sense of peace and jolt of vitality, expressive yet subtle. Quiet yet bold. Just like him.
-Written by Shi Le’s daughter, Domee
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Which neighbourhood are you in?
I live in Scarborough with my wife, and I paint in my basement studio.
What do you do?
I’m a landscape artist. Using acrylic paint on canvas, I try to capture the bold colours, lighting and tranquillity of the Canadian landscape.
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on a series of paintings centred on my hikes through the Haliburton forest. The shapes of the rock formations and reflections on the lakes gave me a sense of serenity that I’m eager to capture in my paintings.
Where can we find your work?
You can find my work at the Bau-Xi Gallery in Toronto, the Wallace Gallery in Calgary, the West End Gallery in Edmonton, and Mayberry Fine Arts in Winnipeg.
I’m not the most tech-savvy, but I also have an Instagram that my daughter helps me run and occasionally updates.
