“ A day without fun is a day without sunshine.” My love of painting was inspired by my mother. She began learning traditional Chinese painting in her sixties, after retirement, and continued painting into her eighties. Whenever I went back to my hometown to visit my parents, she would show me her latest paintings and invite me to paint with her. That was how I began. I gradually fell in love with watercolor. I never took formal art lessons. I simply learned by copying flowers and other subjects I found in books. The watercolors you see here are mostly from my own practice. I know little about drawing techniques or watercolor methods, but the colors always cheer me up and bring me endless joy. For me, painting is simply fun. My sister was inspired by our mother too. Unlike me, she went straight into the much more challenging world of oil portrait painting. She painted several portraits of our family. She passed away last year at the age of 65 after living with breast cancer. Whenever I miss her, I look through our family photographs and her paintings. To me, her loving spirit still shines through every one of them. So this little gallery brings together three members of our family: my mother's traditional Chinese paintings, my sister's oil paintings, and my watercolors. They are more than paintings to me. They are memories of love, family, and the simple joy of creating.