| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Born Kwai Shin Yue in Hong Kong in 1925, Esther How learned the Chinese calligraphy which formed the basic brush stroke technique for her early landscape paintings. She excelled in her high school art classes. After training to become a teacher, she briefly taught physical education to elementary and high school students before working as an administrator for the Ministry of Health.
Upon marrying Canadian tourist Roy How (1950), she moved to her husband’s home town of Taber, Alberta although the two continued to travel the world. As her children became independent, How expanded her fine arts education of basic design, copper tooling, and ceramics. After the couple moved to Lethbridge in the late 1970’s, How studied Chinese watercolour painting at Lethbridge Community College (1977 – 1981), the Karwah Private Art School and Gallery in Toronto (1981), and the Woo May Private Art School in Edmonton (1982). She then returned to Lethbridge Community College (1983) to study oil painting, flower arrangement, paper tole, soft sculpture, English calligraphy, and photography.
How mounted the exhibition Cathay Reflections (1984) at the Lethbridge Public Library Theatre Gallery and participated in the juried group exhibitions Southern Alberta Creates (1984) at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery and Art About Lethbridge (1985) at the former Bowman Arts Centre, and Lethbridge Sketch Club Selected Artists TV Exhibition (1985) held at the CFAC TV (Lethbridge television station) studios. Her work endures in private collections in Alberta, British Columbia, and the United States, as well as in the collections of the Lethbridge Regional Hospital and Edmonton’s Cross Cancer Institute. The Alberta Foundation for the Arts holds How’s “Cloud Shrouded Mountains” (1984), an understated 64 cm x 105 cm watercolour with Chinese ink.
How died on January 16, 2016. |