When, as a young woman in Hong Kong, Christine Leong saw a painting of a lotus blossom by Master Li Woon Ping, she knew she wanted to learn from him.

"It was so stunning to me, so beautiful, the color and the whole composition," Leong said. "His style is not like traditional Chinese; he uses color all over the painting."

Although she had been doing Western-style painting and taking Chinese watercolor classes, she hadn't found a teacher she really liked.

"I fell in love with Chinese painting," Leong said, "but I kept looking for better teachers. I kept switching teachers to find one I really admired."

She wasted no time in signing up for classes with Li.

"If he had two classes a week, I would go to both," she said. "He said I was the most hardworking of his students. That is how you have to do it: You have to keep giving your teacher something to correct," she said. She learned the techniques well.

Some people have said they can't tell his work from my work, and that is a compliment to me," she said.

Many of Leong's pieces are florals, petals bright against defined leaves. Others feature koi swimming in an abstract background of water. But two paintings she has on exhibit in the Thousand Oaks Community Gallery show a move to a more abstract style.

"It's a little more contemporary, but you can still see the birds and trees," she said.

Sometimes she crumples the rice paper and puts ink on the back so it gathers in the creases of the paper, making an interesting background. She uses many layers of paint.


She doesn't like to paint from photographs and only occasionally uses one loosely for reference.

"We didn't have cameras in China in the sixth century," she said. Nevertheless, she keeps a camera with her. "If I see a nice rose I would take a picture, but then when I paint the picture I would change something," she said.

Many of her paintings are from memory. Paintings of figures come from what she learned as a teenager drawing Greek statues in an art class.

"When I look at a peony it kind of stays in my head," she said.

She came to the United States three years ago and lives in Camarillo. She has been in numerous juried shows, including the Thousand Oaks and Ventura art walks, Camarillo Art Center, Thousand Oaks Art Association and Gardens of the World, and has won numerous awards.

She is president of the Camarillo Art Center and teaches classes in Camarillo for children and adults.

In addition to teaching her painting techniques, Li referred her to other masters to learn traditional Chinese mounting and matting and to another master to learn engraving to make the chop (engraved signature stone). She teaches those skills to her own students.

"I really enjoy teaching, and my students can bring Chinese culture to this community," she said.

Leong has paintings in the Thousand Oaks Art Association's Annual Juried Art Show, running through Sunday at the Thousand Oaks Community Gallery, and the Studio Channel Islands Art Center through March 18. She also is the featured artist on the mezzanine at Gallery 113 in Santa Barbara through Saturday.

More information is available on her Web site, http://www.asianartstrokes.com.