Landscape in Clouds

Born into a family of serious art collecting, Li Huayi was exposed to the paintings of the Shanghai school from his earliest days. At the age of six, Li began to study traditional Chinese painting with a renowned Shanghai artist. As a teenager, he studied Western painting and drawing and later continued that study, coming to San Francisco in 1982. He received an MFA degree from San Francisco Art Institute in 1984. This painting integrates elements from the classical landscape tradition of the Song dynasty (960–1279) with Li’s own interest in Western modernist movements. It is densely painted with multiple layers of wash and fine brush strokes to create a wide range of ink tonalities, suggesting the mysterious, ethereal effect of isolated mountain peaks hidden in the mist.