Candise Pong Wa Wai

Candise Pong Wa Wai | The Blooming Heart Of Light

You have a background in data analytics and an international career outside the art world. How has this analytical experience influenced the way you approach abstraction and emotion in your paintings?

I have an extensive global career in market research and data analytics, helping businesses translate vast amounts of data into meaningful insights and strategic actions. In many ways, this work is an art form in itself requiring curiosity, creativity, and the ability to uncover patterns, consumer behaviour and emotions hidden beneath numbers.

While analytics and art may seem worlds apart, both rely on observation, intuition, and the courage to find meaning in complexity. My analytical career trained me to look beneath the surface: to identify connections and narratives that are not immediately visible. Collaborating with diverse colleagues and clients in international companies has fostered an open-mindedness that deepens my identity and my abstract work’s emotional resonance, inspiring vibrant colours that reflect shared human connections.

My early self-taught exploration of multidisciplinary art forms across various media built a strong technical foundation. These skills, paired with my analytical ability to distil patterns, empower my abstract work. I transform intricate emotions through fluid forms and colours, creating a universal emotional landscape that transcends language, culture, and time.

Candise Pong Wa Wai | Where Fire Finds Peace

Colour seems to be at the core of your artistic language. How do you decide which colours to combine, and what emotions do they carry for you personally?

When I begin a piece, it usually starts with an emotional or spiritual state of mind.  Certain colour themes emerge instinctively into my mind, each signalling the feeling I want to express. I’ve experienced moments of light and darkness, calm and tension, and these experiences naturally guide my palette – vibrant yellows for joy, deep blues for introspection, and a mixture of colours for the interaction of my colour choices.

As I paint, the process becomes intuitive, almost as if an inner force takes over. I become deeply absorbed in that emotion; it’s a meditative experience. I respond to how the colours interact on the canvas, adjusting and layering until a sense of balance emerges. At that moment, I’ve captured my intended expression.

For me, colour is both language and emotion. It speaks what words cannot and conveys the invisible states of mind that shape our human experience.

Candise Pong Wa Wai | Harmony In Turmoil

Many of your works balance intense energy and calmness at once. How do you find this harmony in your creative process?

My mind naturally holds both intense energy and calmness. At times, one prevails over the other.  In every stage of life, we encounter challenges, self-doubt, uncertainty, and stress, but also moments of joy, clarity, and peace.

Perhaps because of my personality, I tend to seek and find balance between these contrasts. Often, I only recognise that harmony after the painting is complete, when I look at it as a viewer rather than a creator. It’s in that moment that I understand myself a little better.

This natural inclination to find equilibrium helps me navigate life’s ups and downs. I hope that through my work, viewers can also sense a quiet strength, a reminder that calmness and intensity can coexist, and that beauty often lies in their balance.

Growing up in Hong Kong and now living in Oxfordshire, how have these very different environments shaped your sense of visual rhythm and composition?

Growing up in Hong Kong, a vibrant fusion of Eastern and Western cultures, shaped my openness to diverse artistic influences. Working in international research there, I was immersed in a dynamic, fast-paced city that taught me to see beauty and depth in both Chinese and Western art, informing my sense of visual rhythm and composition. Since moving to Oxfordshire, I’ve embraced a slower, more reflective lifestyle in a historic, culturally rich town. Surrounded by a blend of ancient and modern art, as well as the serene countryside, I’ve found new inspiration. These contrasting environments, Hong Kong’s energy and Oxford’s tranquillity, act as vital ingredients, continually evolving my artistic style and enriching my canvas with layered perspectives.

Candise Pong Wa Wai | Passion Of Life And Infinity

You describe creating art as a process of releasing the inner self. Could you share what this moment of release feels like for you?

I often get an urge to paint whenever I’m feeling something, joy, boredom, sadness, stress, peace, and more, driven by personal experience and the world around me. Life’s demands can steal my time, but when I finally get to my canvas, it’s like therapy. Finishing a piece, I’m amazed at what the colours, patterns, and mood reveal about me. It’s like uncovering hidden parts of myself, and that brings such deep satisfaction and joy. Painting lets me pour out my inner world, and I hope it invites others to connect with their own emotions in a personal way.

Abstract expressionism allows vast freedom of interpretation. How do you feel when viewers perceive meanings that differ from your original intent?

I always begin a piece from a personal state of mind, but I have no expectation that a viewer will feel exactly what I felt. In fact, my own journey with art has shown me that resonance is deeply personal and changes over time. When I was much younger, I didn’t connect with darker, more subtle emotions, but as my life experience accumulates, my relationship with those works has transformed. I even see my own past work in a new light.

So, I am more than thrilled when viewers find meanings beyond my original intent. If my work can act as a catalyst for someone else’s interpretation and imagination, then it has fulfilled its purpose. That generative dialogue is the true beauty of the abstract form. Therefore, when a viewer perceives a meaning that differs from my original intent, I see it as a testament to the painting’s depth. It confirms that the work has become a mirror for the viewer’s own experiences, which is a far more powerful outcome than simply transmitting my own. That endless potential for reinterpretation is the beautiful, open-ended nature of abstraction.

Candise Pong Wa Wai | Path Of Renewal

What does balance mean to you today — between art, work, and inner peace?

Balance, to me, is the dynamic connection between art, work, and inner peace.

Art gives me the strength to be truly myself. It is a genuine self-expression that heals me and can move others.

Work is what I do to make a living. I must love it to succeed, but its challenges and struggles are natural training to become more resilient.

Inner peace is the ultimate power that allows me to navigate life’s ups and downs with confidence. For me, this peace grows from the wisdom I gain through both my art and my work.

So, my sense of balance comes from their connection: Art provides the channel to heal, work trains my resilience, and together, they generate the inner peace that allows me to face whatever comes next.