Different strokes

Katherine Rose McLeod, from New Zealand, painted in Hangzhou with a local broom, which is very different from the brushes she would normally use.

She watched how the cleaners move with the traditional broom, usually made of bamboo filaments, thatches or sorghum stalk, and applied that method to her creation.

For her, the 10-day trip to Hangzhou was highlighted by Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-ki's works, which are on show at the art museum, titled The Way is Infinite: Centennial Retrospective Exhibition of Zao Wou-Ki.

Zao (1921-2013) studied and taught at the precursor of the academy before settling in France in the late 1940s.

McLeod said: "Visually I could read all that language (of Zao's works), the Chinese roots, and then the breaking free, and the Western references, like that of Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne and J.M.W. Turner."

She was so moved by Zao's work, Homage to Francoise-23.10.2003, that she burst into tears in front of it.

"They have an energy. You have to go and see them in person," McLeod said, adding that the progression of Zao's painting style and career led her to reflect on that of her own.