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My art journey

…began near the end of the last century when I moved to Jackson, Mississippi. Here I enrolled in the Bob Pernnebaker School of Drawing, a place where artists got together to learn techniques and support each other, working with models under the tutelage of Bob.

I was one of the founding members of “The Figs,” a group that painted together in the southern countryside. Our group worked with master artists Richard Kelso and Sammy Britt, who taught the Henry Hensche colour theory. I did a lot of studies using his method, painting the changing light conditions on various coloured blocks set outdoors.


[Study by John Ebersberger]

Also, I set up a Saturday drop-in life drawing group at Millsaps College, which is still going today. It was a great opportunity for Jackson artists to get together and refine their drawing skills. The Millsaps art students also took part.

Seven years later we moved to China and Hong Kong, where I began work as an art teacher at an international school. It was a challenge creating a curriculum for the middle-school students, but fun and rewarding as well. I was amazed at the creativity these students displayed.

[Student work, Amy Sun]

During this time, I took art classes at the Hong Kong Art School, life drawing sessions with artist Celia Ko, a well-known HK artist, and also received a Master’s degree in Buddhist Art from the University of Hong Kong. Studying this kind of art and the philosophy behind it underpins and reinforces my practice of mindfulness and yoga to this day, as well as my process in doing art. This approach is best summed up in one of my favourite quotes, “The essence of all beautiful art…is gratitude.” (F. Nietzsche)

Eventually, our return to Victoria. BC, also meant returning to my love of plein air painting. I paint with the Alfresco group Friday mornings, a complete joy. Also, life drawing at the Metchosin Art Pod drop-in Tuesday mornings is a warm community of artists who love drawing the figure.

I show my work at the galleries of the Federation of Canadian Artists, the Goldfinch Gallery in Colwood, the Juan de Fuca Centre Gallery, as well as the Mechosin Art Gallery and in the Sooke gallery.

My wish as this journey continues is to keep being open to explore and learn, especially in the area of abstraction, to refine an intuitive and experimental approach to expression.