Kwan Mei Leung was born and raised in Hong Kong, where she studied Chinese painting, stone-carving, and the Chinese piano (guqin) for over 10 years. She immigrated to Canada in 1990 with her family and began studying oil painting under Dillon Huang, a renowned Calgary artist.

Oil painting has become her lifelong passion because of the inherent mystery in the color relations: every mixed color is unique for that moment and can’t be reproduced. She paints portraits, still life, and landscapes, finding particular inspiration from the Rockies. For her, painting goes beyond mimicry of surface perceptions, and the expression of the artist’s feelings can reveal the true essence of the subject.