Esteemed artist celebrates a career in education

Li Xiaoke, a son of prominent artist Li Keran and an industrious painter in his own right, also developed a career in education by taking in students and helping them hone the techniques of making classic Chinese ink landscapes.

For the past 15 years, Li Xiaoke has taught more than 200 artists from across the nation, offering them regular courses at his studio in Beijing and traveling with them to different provinces to sketch.

An Emotional Attachment to the Motherland, an exhibition now on at the Li Keran Art Foundation's gallery in Beijing, marks the 15th anniversary of Li Xiaoke's devotion to nurturing emerging ink painters.

The exhibition, on through March 15, shows a selection of paintings by Li Xiaoke and some of the artists he once taught.

The show points to the core of the creation of Chinese ink landscapes stressed by Li Keran - that an artist should often return to nature and be embraced by it, by which one is touched and empowered.