Meet Pamela
Get to know the artist behind the work. Explore the experiences, ideas and creative practice that shape my paintings.
My story
I’m Pamela Ong, a Filipina-Chinese artist based in Toronto, Canada.
My relationship with art began long before I formally considered myself an artist. I grew up in a family deeply connected to the arts, where creativity was always part of my world. My grandfather owned an art gallery in the Philippines and the practice of painting has spanned across generations of my family. Even at home in Canada, I grew up surrounded by the work of acclaimed Filipino painter Cesar Buenaventura, which shaped my early understanding of how colour, texture and storytelling could exist within a painting.
I first exhibited publicly as a teenager, when my work was selected for the Images Student Art Exhibition in 2013 and 2015. I later studied Cognitive Science and spent several years working in technology as a user experience researcher and service designer. Although my career took me away from painting for a while, I never really stopped being creative. My background in understanding people, behaviour and how we experience the world continues to influence how I approach art today.
Now, I’m returning to painting as a central part of my creative life, reconnecting with a part of myself that has always been there.
My practice
I make paintings that explore movement, line, colour and emotion, moving between abstraction and representation.
Some works begin with a recognizable subject or image, while others develop more intuitively through experimentation and response. I’m interested in the space between what is observed and what is felt: how a painting can capture a person, place or moment while still leaving room for interpretation.
After years of building a career outside of the arts, I’m learning to trust curiosity, experiment without knowing exactly where something will go and make space for creativity simply because I want to. Through my paintings and content, I share this process openly - from the messy beginnings in the studio to the finished work. I'm excited for you to come along with me on this journey!