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THE BRANDON SUN • WINTER FAIR • MARCH 2024
CAPTURING ELEGANCE & STRENGTH
A profile of Brandon painter Weiming Zhao
Brandon artist Weiming Zhao, seen here with a number of his En plein air style paintings of Brandon, was asked by the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba last year to paint scenes from the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair that now grace the 2024 fair poster. (File/The Brandon Sun)
BY GEENA MORTFIELD
to paint scenes of the happenings. “Events like [the] Royal Manitoba Winter Fair offer me such diversity and dynamics of visual spectacles of daily events which captivate me [and] entice me to translate what I see into a beautiful and exciting visu- al statement,” Zhao told the Sun. The Brandon artist creates painting using an en plein air technique, where artwork is created beyond studio walls to paint outside where dimension of a particular landscape at a specific mo- ment in time can be captured.
He said that he paints primarily in oil and generally paints landscapes but also enjoys painting live events like weddings and concerts. General manager of the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, Mark Hum- phries, told the Sun that the idea to feature Zhao’s work on this year’s posters came about rather selfishly, as Humphries has been a fan of the artist for some time.
The portraits that grace this year’s posters for the Royal Manitoba Win- ter Fair are more than just promo- tional images, they’re the work of a long-time Brandon artist who has been painting scenes of the Wheat City for two decades. Six paintings by Brandon-based artist Weiming Zhao are featured on the Fair’s posters this year. The paint- ings were created by Zhao at last year’s Fair when he was given a stall
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