In loving memory of Ben Lau
(劉大成, Lau Tai-shing) — painter, printmaker, teacher, friend.
1948 — March 20, 2018
"Life is short — art is long.
A masterpiece composition is therefore timeless."
— Ben Lau, Artist's Statement, 2005
Ben's website was first built in 2005 by Lindagail of webtasiadesign.com.
It remained online, frozen in its original form, for more than two decades.
In 2026 it was preserved, modernized, and rebuilt as the static site you
are reading now — so that Ben's work and writing might continue to find
their viewer.
The hand that made these strokes is gone. The strokes remain, calling
us tenderly by our names — if we will only look.
His written legacy
Beyond painting, Ben was a passionate writer on art. Between 2006 and
2017 he published over eighty essays across two blogs — True Art Blog
(trueartblog.com) and The Alpha Seer (thealphaseer.com) — teaching
readers how to see the metaphor that separates real art from imitation,
championing de Kooning, Titian, and his own teacher Knox Martin, and
arguing unflinchingly that beauty has a structure that can be learned.
Both blogs were taken offline after Ben's death. They have been
recovered from their WordPress databases, cleaned, and republished here
as part of this memorial — so that Ben's voice in words might find its
readers, just as his voice in paint continues to find its viewers.
Read Ben's essays on art →
This page is a starting point. Bill — add your own words about
Ben here: how you knew him, what his work meant to you, stories
you want to share. Just edit this paragraph and the ones above.
A complete archive of Ben's original 2005 website is preserved
verbatim alongside this restoration, including every page and image
as he and Lindagail published them.