HONG KONG (SE): The work of two Catholic artists from Hong Kong was featured along with 70 portraits of the Chinese Martyrs put together by Jackie Lau Yuen-ting at the parish of the Chinese Martyrs in Toronto, Canada, from July 8 to 16.
 
Displayed together with artwork by religious and lay people to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the parish, over 200 exhibits, including paintings, calligraphy and sculptures, as well as religious architectural images were presented.
 
Lau told FairChild TV that she did 70 of the 120 Chinese martyrs for her collection because the number seven symbolises perfection.
 
She explained that she hopes that she can complete the remaining 50 sometime in the future, as the number fifty symbolises the Holy Spirit coming on Pentecost Sunday, or 50 days after Easter.
 
An educational practitioner, Lau held similar exhibitions in Hong Kong a few years ago.
 
Chinese paintings by Father Joseph Tham, the dean of the School of Bioethics at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum in Rome, were on display at the exhibition.
 
Father Tham was born in Hong Kong, but left with his family to live in Canada at the age of 15.
 
For some time he was the chairperson of the UNESCO Bio-Ethics Committee, which has been sponsoring an art competition on various ethical themes and inviting people from around the world to present some aspect of ethics in art form since 2010.
 
He told the Sunday Examiner that since ethics is a living reality, it can have its own beauty and the competition is to encourage its expression in an imaginative and challenging manner through art.
 
In a different vein, the work of Cindy Ng King-ping, a painter of icons who had donated her portrait of St. John Maximovitch to a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church in Taipei on July 1, was also on display.
 
A simple blessing was held at the church that night and a grand blessing ceremony the next day.
 
Ng said she decided to do the portrait of the archbishop in November last year, with the production cost being supported by donors.
 
She started to read about his life and then began an outline sketch in December, coloured the painting in February and finishing it in June.
 
She said that during the seven months, she had been praying for the people and the clergy, as well as ailing family members, as she believes the painting process is in itself a prayer, a meditation and a dialogue with God.
 
Ng said painting for the Orthodox Church was also a good ecumenical experience in which she and the Orthodox Christians were able to support each other.