Interview with the Artist
September 2025, Koyman Galleries
Hi, my name is Zhou Jie. I’m from Beijing, China. I came to Canada in 2002. Before that, I was living in Beijing as well, working as a painter. After coming here, I continued working as a freelance artist, focusing on painting.
Thinking back now, I feel like I’ve always had a love for painting ever since I was young, I had a deep passion for it. I’m not even sure where it came from maybe it was a gift given to me by God. My parents were both ordinary office workers. No one in my family was involved in the arts. But since I was a child, from just a few years old, I was deeply drawn to painting and I’ve never stopped. I’m sixty now, and I’ve been painting for nearly fifty years.
I remember starting my first oil painting when I was about seventeen or eighteen. For me, painting isn’t just a job it’s a personal choice, a way of life. And I truly believe this choice is the right one for me. There’s nothing I love more than painting.
Before I came to Canada, when I was in China, I also worked as a university instructor, teaching painting and art. At the same time, I focused on landscape painting. Many of my works were exhibited and sold in Canada and the U.S. When I came here, it was through Canada’s special talent immigration program that I came here because of my skills as a painter.
The biggest difference I’ve noticed [in terms of] what I love most is the light and colour of Canada. They have a huge influence on my painting, [and are] completely different from China. Every ray of light here feels alive. Every landscape here still moves me deeply.
In daily life, I often go out to sketch or take walks. Everywhere around me is filled with beautiful scenery. The landscapes here are completely different from those in China. In China, the scenery tends to be softer; the sky, the plants, everything, it all has a greyer tone. After coming to Canada, I felt that the light and colour here had a powerful impact on my art. Everything felt new and fresh, and so different from China. That’s what inspired my love for Canadian landscapes and my drive to paint them.
When I was in China, my art was influenced early on by the American painter Andrew Wyeth. He was probably the first Western artist many Chinese painters came to know. He introduced us to a whole new world of painting. I’ve always admired Andrew Wyeth his nostalgic, rural atmosphere and emotional depth. His work influenced me for many years. But after moving to Canada, my perspective changed. I found myself drawn even more strongly to the light, the people, and the landscapes of Canada. The diverse geography here made a huge impression on me. The Group of Seven and the Impressionists have both had a profound influence on my work. Later in my career, artists like Klimt and others - their vibrant styles and ideas, their way of painting, their concepts, and artistic forms - all deeply influenced me. Their creativity inspired me greatly.
As for my own work now the content I explore is the places I travel to and what moves me most I’m always asking myself what truly inspires me and what I want to express. It’s not that others can’t see it but it’s something I feel deeply within. That inner drive keeps me creating. It’s what guides me. That’s how it’s always been, even back in China. There’s also a kind of journey or reflection that comes with it. Everything connects in some way. It all belongs together.
Here in Canada, what I love most about creating art is that I have so much freedom. The biggest difference from China is that I can express myself freely here. In China, there were often limitations social expectations or external pressures. Here, I can explore more openly. There’s more room to create freely.
Over the years, I’ve often gone on trips to paint outdoors every year, I travel across Canada many times for inspiration. During those trips, I sketch quickly on site and take lots of beautiful photos. I observe carefully, studying the scenery and feeling nature. From another perspective, it’s about understanding what it means to live within nature. We often take it for granted thinking nature is just ordinary, something we see every day. We stop noticing its beauty. It feels common and familiar. But when you spend long stretches of time deeply immersed in nature, you begin to feel the true beauty of it the harmony and serenity it gives you. That beauty, that peaceful state of mind you can only sense it then.
So often, after finishing my sketches and taking photos, I return to my studio. Back in my workspace, I start bringing my own ideas to life. An idea forms a feeling that connects with the landscape. In all my work, especially in my large scale paintings, I’m drawn to big canvases, vast landscapes. Large works let people feel as if they can merge completely with nature. In certain moments, you feel like you can step right into the scene. Whenever I paint the ocean, I get that sensation that feeling of total immersion. It’s as if I’m standing within it all, in conversation with the landscape itself. That’s why I feel that my connection to painting is like a relationship almost like being in love: two sides that depend on one another. It’s mutual, inseparable. We need each other. That’s the feeling.
As for me when it comes to my process and techniques, what matters most to me is the light and colour in painting. Throughout my creative process, that’s what I’m always searching for a point of entry, or the heart of the work. What fascinates me most is how light passes through whether it’s sunlight filtering through clouds, or shining between the leaves and branches of trees and how that light changes colour, creating these dazzling, delicate, mysterious effects. Those moments move me the most they hit me right in the heart. That’s why I often use a layered approach in my painting. It helps me build up the image gradually. I also believe this world is made up of countless points each one alive in its own way. They interact, depend on, and balance one another, forming a perfect whole. That’s how I see both art and life everything connected.
In the painting process, the first layer is always an exploration. I usually start with acrylics, using water based materials. That lets me quickly block in the first layer. Then I move on to the oil painting stage adding layer upon layer in oil. I love the richness and depth of oil paint its texture, its weight, its luminous colour. That thickness, that physical presence it speaks to me. It conveys a kind of strength the power that painting should have. A kind of energy, or even warmth. To me, painting has its own temperature, its own life. So in the end, when I paint, I often use a palette knife to complete the final layers. That texture that force is what moves both the viewer and myself.
For me, painting itself is a deeply beautiful process. It’s something I do alone a personal journey. Starting with a blank canvas, I weave it into the image I’ve envisioned something full of hope and beauty. It’s incredibly fulfilling.
As for me personally, when it comes to colour, I have a strong preference. In my landscapes, I love painting autumn the most. If you look at my work, you’ll see many of my pieces capture the feeling of autumn. For me, autumn represents maturity both in life and in colour. It’s a season of richness and reflection. The colours are vivid, diverse, and full of harmony. Autumn brings them to life completely. With its crisp air and warm sunlight, the light over autumn landscapes offers endless inspiration. There’s so much creative potential in it that’s why I love it.
For me personally, painting is a choice almost like a kind of faith or devotion. I simply want to keep painting, always. Through painting, especially through landscapes, I hope to express the beauty of God’s creation nature itself as perfectly as I can. So for me, painting a landscape well is also an act of reverence and gratitude toward nature. It’s my way of giving thanks. That’s the state of mind I paint from. It’s part of everyday life as you said earlier, like a line of poetry, simple yet profound.
Every piece, every face, every moment feels essential. Even across cultures art connects us all.
