Two internationally-recognized Lower Mainland artists are presenting their recent work at the Tsawwassen Longhouse Gallery beginning next Wednesday in a show titled Black, White and Colours.

Born half a world apart, Ladner's Margaret Elliot in England's fabled Lake District and Burnaby's Eileen Siu-Yue Fong in China, they met for the first time as members of the South Delta Artists' Guild, when each applied for exhibition space at the guild's longhouse gallery, and decided to present a joint show.

Both artists are influenced by their love of nature and the place of man in that world, and informed by their national backgrounds plus decades of Canadian experience.

Fong immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong in 1968, graduated from the B.C. Institute of Technology and subsequently had a career in medical technology.

In 1994 she began studying traditional brush painting with several Chinese masters, building on her natural talent, and since then has achieved an impressive history of exhibitions, awards, teaching experience and volunteer involvement. She is an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and is very involved in the arts community, serving on the Burnaby Arts Council, the Burnaby Artwalk Committee and the Artists Among Us project.

In 2005, she founded the Aurora Gallery Artists' Co-op in Vancouver and recently illustrated The Dream Jar children's book.

Her paintings, executed with the discipline, skill and imagination of traditional Chinese brush painting, take the viewer into a colourful world of gardens, birds and animals and landscapes of water and mountains.

Elliot's life began on a family farm and inn in Cumbria and that rural background has influenced much of her work.

She had early training in art at Durham University in the U.K. before switching to science. Like Fong, she also has had a career in medical technology, including eight years in California before moving to Vancouver in 1975.

Pursuing an art career at the same time, she joined the Federation of Canadian Artists and in 2007 achieved full signature status as a senior member. In a federation membership of approximately 2,000, about 60 have reached this standard and are entitled to put the initials SFCA after their names.

She has also met signature standards of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour and the Northwest Watercolour Society.

Her paintings included in this show are an intriguing mix of drawing, watercolour, gouache and ink techniques, which invite the viewer into worlds of mysterious ruins, quiet country scenes, mountain landscapes and ghostly ship images inspired by the 2002 Tall Ships visit to Steveston.

Black, White and Colours opens Wednesday, Feb. 9 at 11 a.m. at the Tsawwassen Longhouse Gallery, next to the South Delta Recreation Centre.

A reception will be held on Sunday, Feb. 13 from 1 to 4 p.m. Their show and sale of over 50 paintings runs Wednesdays to Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. until it closes at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 20.