The World Beneath His Feet
Artist Stephen Wong conquers Hong Kong’s most famous hiking trail, the Maclehose, in action—and art, as he captures all 100km in more than 40 paintings
Completing all ten sections of the 100km Maclehose Trail is no easy feat, let alone afterwards capturing them in acrylic paint on canvas and drawings. Starting in September last year, Hong Kong artist Stephen Wong Chun-hei painted scenes from the city’s most famous trail while hiking it in its entirety. His series of more than 40 paintings was shown in an interactive online exhibition by Bonhams Hong Kong in March.
“The Maclehose Trail has always been on my bucket list,” says Wong, who specialises in natural landscape painting and is an avid hiker. “I had wanted to challenge myself for so many years. The pandemic made me feel that I had to fulfil this dream because you never know if you will be able to go out tomorrow.” With that, Wong quit his job as an art teacher and hit the country parks with his pencils and sketchbook.
Here, he shares what daily life was like during his six-month journey of hiking and painting.
07.00
I would wake up early because I didn’t just need a lot of time to hike the trail; I would also stop from time to time to sketch when I saw something interesting. Before I set off, I planned my journey. The length and difficulty level of each section is different; for example, sections two and eight are tricky to reach because of the terrain.
I used to hike twice every week, but for this project, I’d go out with a group of friends who are seasoned hikers and are way faster than me. While they decided how much water and food to bring, I would decide how many sketch books I’d need. I had one sketchbook, which contains around 20 pages, for each section. But there are times when I’d run out of paper, and had to memorise what I saw, then paint from my memory and imagination when I returned.
09.00
Time to set off. I sketched in pencil while on the trail, and applied acrylic paint in my studio afterwards.
It’s interesting how my friends changed their perspective on hiking after going on sketching trips with an artist. They finally took the time to slow down and appreciate the landscape. Now, they treasure these moments.
It’s a very memorable experience when you’re up on the trail. I noticed that the Maclehose trail covers quite a lot of Hong Kong’s famous mountains. Now that I’m done with the project, I’m very familiar with the landscapes and different parts of Hong Kong.
12.00
Lunch is simple: just bread, considering that I must carry my tools to the trail.
17.00
When I returned to my studio in Fo Tan, I liked having teatime—with some cookies—before colouring my sketches.
Based on the atmosphere, the weather, the time of day and my experience during the hike, I would form the idea of the colour tones and composition I wanted for each section of the trail.
I particularly like section eight that leads up to Tai Mo Shan. I went up during the day, but I wanted to imagine how dark it would be at night. So I recreated the scene with a dark blue starry night. I also like section four, so I captured its scenery at sunset; I started with the base colours of orange and red, then explored pink tones.
19.00
I would paint for a few hours; I try to have a sustainable work life. As much as I would have loved to present my work to viewers in a live exhibition, Covid-19 was making it difficult. Marcello Kwan, Bonhams’s head of modern and contemporary art Asia, and I came up with the idea of a “digital hike”, where the paintings were revealed one by one through March, as if viewers were going on a hike with me.
23.00
Watching movies is my favourite way to wind down at night. I love movies with good visuals, such as those by Wes Anderson, to inspire my art.
Another hobby: I love collecting mini toy cars from the old toy shops. I don’t have a driving licence, so I love imagining myself driving in one of these toy cars in my landscape paintings.
This is an ongoing series, which delves into the lives of tastemakers in Hong Kong’s arts scene.