It’s never too late to make a change – especially when you’re painting with oils. Bing Zhang, winner of the Painting Award at the Euphrat Museum’s De Anza Student Art Show, never imagined that she’d embark on a career in art, much less earn accolades for her talents.

“I graduated from a university in China with a degree in physics, and then spent the next ten years working in business and management,” Zhang said. “I didn’t even think about studying art. At that time, the economy was not so good in China, so if your parents allowed you to go to college, you wanted to take advantage of that opportunity and get a practical degree.”

Then, in 2001, something unexpected happened – Zhang met her husband and relocated to the United States. “After I arrived, I knew I wanted to try a new career. People in the U.S. have the chance to go to a university at any point in their lives, so I thought I’d make a change too,” she said.

When Zhang arrived in the U.S., she intended to pursue a degree in accounting, but on a whim enrolled in a few basic drawing classes. “I’d always doodled here and there, sketching figures and faces, but I was too busy working all the time to think about what other talents or interests I had that were worth exploring,” she said.

In 2003, Zhang started to paint with oils. She focused on portraits and domestic scenes evocative of Dutch genre painters like Vermeer, but with a modern twist. “I like to capture the spirit of a person in their expression, in the way they place their hands or the way they stand. But I also try to get across something deeper, a metaphor or a message,” she said.

That approach is clearly evident in her winning entry at the Student Art Show, Mirrors #3. In this painting, the latest in a series, Zhang cleverly redefined the standard portrait by presenting it as a bathroom scene, with the subject wiping off a foggy mirror in order to reveal her own face.

“Wiping away the fog is a metaphor for self discovery, some- thing that happens everyday, like a shower. I wanted to do a few of these paintings because I wanted to explore the concept that different people look at themselves in different ways,” she said.

Despite her success, Zhang said she knows she has room to grow as an artist. “I want to improve my concepts, to go deeper and say more meaningful things with my artwork. And of course, to better my technique in terms of color, structure and likeness.”

In addition to modesty, Zhang also possesses an optimism about the future and a determination to succeed. When asked if she has any fears regarding her chances in the ultra-competitive world of fine art, she said, “I never really thought about retreating. It just never occurred to me. I simply said to myself, ‘Well, I’m on my way, I guess I just better keep going.'”