About the artist

Li Lile'an (also known as Li Liyu'e), born in the 1960s , is from Huimin, Shandong (ancient Le'an, the hometown of Sun Tzu, the " Sage of War " ). With a medical background, she deeply understands the principle of " medicine and painting sharing the same origin , " excelling in traditional Chinese landscape and meticulous flower painting, and is particularly renowned for her acrylic landscape paintings that blend Chinese and Western techniques. Currently residing in Canada, she uses " painting as a bridge " to promote and develop Chinese painting art. Her works have received widespread acclaim in international cultural exchanges, earning her the title of " Painting Ambassador of Qilu Culture . "

During the Shaoxing era of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhou Xiu'er, the daughter of a seamstress family in Huimin County, Shandong Province, accidentally obtained an unfinished painting, "Clear and Distant Streams and Mountains," by the painter Cui Bai. She was captivated by its unique style, which incorporated military strategy. She commissioned the potter Li Laoqi to search for Cui Bai for three years, finally finding him in seclusion on Mount Tai. Li Laoqi presented the painter with an embroidered brocade pouch that Xiu'er had given him. Cui Bai discovered that Xiu'er's kesi (silk tapestry) technique perfectly captured the missing " needlework " in the painting , and subsequently took both of them as apprentices. Xiu'er transformed the kesi technique into the " one-line texture stroke " technique, and her works were selected for the imperial painting academy. In her later years, she instructed Li Laoqi to return to her hometown and establish the " Military Strategy Painting Academy , " passing down Cui Bai's concept of " incorporating military strategy into painting " through generations. Eight hundred years later, her successor, Li Lile'an... By blending traditional kesi (silk tapestry) with Western acrylic painting, this ancient technique has been revitalized on the international art scene, continuing this artistic dialogue that transcends time and space.   Li Lile'an, born in Huimin, Shandong, the hometown of the military strategist Li Bingsheng, created " paintings on cloth " with needles instead of pens at a sewing machine in her childhood. Her art is a fusion of two disciplines: twenty years in the operating room honed her anatomical-like precision in painting, and she studied under Li Xiaoming and Bai Chongran, receiving the true essence of meticulous brushwork and landscape painting. She innovated three methods for " acrylic boneless landscape painting " : ① controlling the flow of acrylic using a medical syringe; ② using the kesi (silk tapestry) needlework technique to achieve the texture of paper; ③ sketching in Yimeng during the lunar calendar to take advantage of the opportune time. Her representative work, the "Ancient Silk Restoration Series," utilizes surgical suturing techniques. Her "Twelve-Panel Landscape Screen of Celadon Pottery" won the Sun Wu Art Award and was praised for its " military strategy deployment ." She practices the concept of " using military tactics in painting, medicine and art sharing the same origin . " Her inscription on her paintings reads: " Forty years ago, I was an embroiderer; twenty years, I've mastered anatomy. Now, all is devoted to the green mountains, to see acrylic battling ink dragons , " fully expressing the artistic sublimation of her dual career as a doctor and an artist. The work blends the weaving techniques of Qilu kesi (silk tapestry) with the strategic thinking of Sun Tzu's Art of War, forming a unique " medical aesthetics " language system.