Chinese art show at Sidmouth bistro

TALENTED Chinese artist Kaili Fu, who holds Chinese painting classes and workshops at Sidmouth s Kennaway House, is to hold an exhibition of her work at Brown s Bistro, Fore Street.

TALENTED Chinese artist Kaili Fu, who holds Chinese painting classes and workshops at Sidmouth's Kennaway House, is to hold an exhibition of her work at Brown's Bistro, Fore Street.

Kaili, who came to England and Exeter in 1988 when her husband Dr Li works in the language department at Exeter University, has been painting professionally for more than 30 years.

Born in Shanghai and brought up in Hefe, Eastern China, Kaili reflects her love of nature, flowers, plants, insects and animals in her work and often sketches outdoors, studying them to ensure she reproduces each detail.

As well as holding exhibitions across the South West, Kaili teaches the art of Chinese brush painting in colleges across the UK.

She is passionate about introducing people to this oriental skill.

At her recent Sidmouth workshop she showed how to hold the brushes, the materials used and, she said: "I really want to show the cultural background, getting people to know China and Chinese art as well."

Kaili, who was 39 when she came to England, will have 30 paintings on display at Brown's from Tuesday, June 15 to Friday, July 9.

Some, like a striking ink and paint landscape of Sidmouth's red Salcombe Cliffs, are on rice paper, while others, like a fan-shaped cherry blossom picture, and ducks on a pond, are painted on silk.

Most are based on her art trips to China and her travels around the South West of England.

She said: "For the Sidmouth exhibition I hope to have 30 pictures, some landscape, some flowers and birds.

"Some I did last year and some are on rice paper and some on silk."

Of the picture of Sidmouth's cliffs, she added: "I paint the details of the crevices in the rocks, but leave the paper white for the waves. There is no white paint in the painting.