If it hadn't been for the rain, I would probably never have found Atelier Sun Ho. I noticed a small…read moreprinted sign advertising fine art materials in a dark stairwell at the bottom of a tiny building on Aberdeen Street whilst sheltering from the weather and made a note to come back and explore, which I did. The address is actually on Wellington Street, but as mentioned above, the entrance is at the bottom of Aberdeen Street. Just follow the signs up and you'll arrive at a quaint door with a sign rather appropriately painted on an artist's paint palette. When I visited a small class was taking place with the students all working on individual projects. The level of ability in the class seemed relatively undeveloped so it seems that beginner's are very welcome at Atelier Sun Ho. I was hoping to find an art store closer to home than my usual shop of choice, Artland, but was a little disappointed by the tiny range of materials available. I also did not recognise any of the brands but was assured that they were of top quality despite being made in China. The small range of metallics paints (acrylic) caught my eye but I couldn't think of anything to use them for so resisted the urge to buy. There were a number of pre-stretched canvases available but no sketch books or watercolour pads. Individual pages of watercolour paper was on sale for $15/pc which works out marginally cheaper per page than the Daeler Rowney pads I usually purchase. I ended up only buying two rather charming pots of various charcoal sticks which were packaged in cardboard and decorated with a Chinese ink painting design. At only $22 a set, they are considerably cheaper than the Daeler Rowney sets I've used in the past and just as effective to use. All in all, Atelier Sun Ho is a cute little art shop for basic staples but is lacking in supply. The cash only policy is inconvenient given the nearest HSBC is on Queens Road Central but the goods are generally inexpensive compared to more prominent art supply stores.

At night it's always easier to spot shops located in high rises around Hong Kong. Whether it's the…read morelights or the quietness that makes you look up, it's a cool way to discover places that you wouldn't have noticed at day time. I had walked past this area of Queen's Road East possibly every single day and never checked out this place. Last night I finally did. I came into the building (and had to wait for the lift for about 15 minutes...) and got up to the second floor. It was late and the place was about to close, but a very friendly guy welcomed me in. I had picked up a leaflet downstairs and knew they were about art classes but I wasn't sure they also run classes for adults as well as kids (8 months to 5 years) and juniors (6 to 10 years). The studio is ample enough to accommodate for big groups (maybe ten people on one side and 10 other on the other) and it doesn't lack decoration. Indeed, the pieces of art by the students made for a great deco. There are also nice small fish pictures made by one of the teachers who later showed me some of his works and he's a real artist. What a talent. He explained to me how classes work: you go for a trial lesson (normally they last for two hours) and pay half the normal price (360HKD) and you pick the canvas, use their materials and apron and get all the guidance from them (there's another teacher). They would help you with painting techniques, perspectives and so on...They have only been operating in this studio since January but the place already got that character that makes artisty spaces so authentic. If you are planning on develop your creative skills or you simply want to let loose your imagination you may want to try them!

I visited What Cheer Studio with a few of my friends for a pottery class after seeing a deal on…read moreGroupon for it. There was a total of eight of us, so we were a pretty big group. I've done pottery in art class at school before, and I really enjoyed it. However, our teacher never had us finish the job - after forming the shape of our containers, we moved on to a different unit - sketching - and never got to paint our creations. My friends and I joked how doing this would be some form of 'closure' for not being able to finish what we started back in art class a few years ago. I made an appointment with them to come at 6pm. We all met up at the station at around 5:50, but we took some time to find the place. It actually is not that far from exit B of Jordan MTR station, but we walked right past it and had to turn back so we took a while. We were about ten minutes late coming up, and it was clear that the teachers at the studio weren't very happy about it. I mean, yes it's our fault that we were late, and we're fine with having our time cut short, but they kept bringing up the fact that we weren't on time. Anyway, the teachers did do a pretty good job of explaining everything and it was more complicated than I thought it would be. We had a little less than two hours to complete it and towards the end, we were all rushing. A few weeks later, we came back to paint our pots. Not all of us did as some of my friends were going back to the UK to study, so in total, 2 of the pots didn't need to be painted and could be fired right away. When the remaining six of us returned, we found that they had accidentally fired one of my friend's pots. They apologized and told him that he could still paint over the fired surface, but since the surface was now glazed, the paint that went on was very watery and light. It was a shame - he had done a very good job creating a cute little seaside habitat with turtles running across it on his pot, and now it wouldn't turn out as nice after being painted because of that. Overall, I thought the studio was quite professional and clean. We all had a good time working on our little project and I was glad that I had seen this on Groupon and bought the deal. I would knock a star off though because of their mistake in firing my friend's pot though!

Contemporary urban art may not be everybody's cup of tea. Most of the time, it goes right over my…read morehead but every now and then, I would get an inkling of the artist's message. What I find interesting about Oi! is that it is not your conventional art gallery. Oi! is not big. It sits on the corner of Oil Street and Electric Road in Fortress Hill on the island. A century ago, the waterfront was right outside this property. It was logical for the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club to set up base here and operate until the government took over thirty years later in the 1930s. The historic brick buildings are specimens of the post-Victorian Arts and Crafts Architectural Movement. On the day of my visit, the theme was to stimulate our audio, visual, and tactile senses. The artists encouraged people to actually touch their creations. I like when art can be approached from more than one dimension. There was one exhibition room that was stark empty except for a porthole in the floor; and another one in which I had to duck my head because a block TV set was hanging from the ceiling. I also got to interact with other eclectic and obscure art pieces. Unexpectedly, the co-op kitchen was offering visitors complimentary miso soup on site. I guess if wine and hors d'oeuvres are served at the traditional art openings, why not offer hot soup at Oi! The idea was "they cook, you clean" so people had to do the little chore of washing the bowls they had used. I thought that was pretty neat. Everything was cool. Before heading out, I decided to use the restroom. I really wish I hadn't. They were either understaffed or negligent to have left the facility in a ghastly state. It might have been the visitors. What a shame to end my visit this way. For me, Oi! was an experience. I enjoyed the history aspect. I didn't have a full grasp of the pieces I saw but art is subjective. New exhibits rotate in periodically. Maybe next time I'll make a connection with one of them. 3.5

As we were simply walking by, I knew that this was clearly an old set of buildings that had been…read morerestored, but I was not sure what this space was exactly. With the kind staff at the customer service booth that went the extra mile to show me key parts of the facility and pointed out the specifics of the art installation spaces and the Social Gastronomy experiment space, I think I am a bit of a fan of this place. Once an old boat yard and covered mostly by water, this is a perfect example of Hong Kong recycling, reusing and re-purposing public building space. Part museum (with two installations currently: North Point Dream Properties Limited and 7-Paperholic), part social experiment on food with XCHANGE (turning leftovers and seasonal ingredients from participants and neighborhood markets into mouthwatering dishes), part community service/social hub (with talks, lectures, workshops, etc), part historical venue (Oi! is a Grade 2 Historic Building and they provide daily tours at 2:30pm, 4:45pm and 6:30pm daily). Art is really the driving factor for me with Oi!, but clearly their aim is really to connect with the community on a socially conscious level much greater than just art. But if you are not driven by social matters, note that admission to Oi! is free. The space is not large, but there is intellectually a lot going on to absorb at Oi! Although I did not have time to really understand all pieces of this space, I took a Oi! newspaper to go and have visited their website to sign up for news and events going on here. I will absolutely return to discover a bit more.