There are almost no traces of human existence in Liu Xiuming's paintings. They contain mainly clouds and landscapes that appear at once expansive, mysterious, desolate and tender.

But if you are a lover of sentimental landscape pictures, Liu's works are not for you.

The clouds, which often occupy almost the entire paintings and are realistic in shape, are surreal in color -- they are red, blue and gray, sometimes with a touch of orange.

In fact, the shape and texture of these clouds also challenge the senses. They can be thick and heavy, energetic and turbulent. Yet their colors and their shapes emit human feelings. It seems as if the clouds themselves are melancholy souls, whether wishing for light, meditative or agonized, about to burst into a storm of tears.

But their moods are transitory. They change, condense, flow and spread outwards, like those frequently evoked in a Proust or James Joyce novel.

"These clouds are truly reflections of my feelings about life -- you don't know where they come from, where they are going. They are boundless, shapeless. They are life," said Liu, who will hold a solo exhibition at Tsinghua University's School of Arts and Design from December 9 to 14. She will also give lectures at the university.

It is not difficult to imagine the moods that often surround a Chinese artist who spent 16 years in Vienna pursuing her artistic dreams.

Liu, 46, was trained in traditional Chinese-style painting at the Hebei Normal University in North China from 1977 to 1982.

After working as a graphic artist for five years, she went to Austria to study a different style of art -- Western oil painting.

Life in the beginning was difficult. She often felt lonely and depressed and admits to sometimes still feeling this way today.

"Maybe loneliness is a inevitable result of being an artist. We have to explore an unknown path," Liu said.

"But I have developed an ability to cope with it and I am just so happy when I am in my studio painting."

Liu's hard work and perseverance have paid off. She completed her study at the Vienna College for Applied Arts, and then obtained a master's degree at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. She was lucky to have as her mentor Arik Brauer, a key figure of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, a style that combines surrealism with elements from late medieval fantastic art and 19th-century academicism.

"I learned so much from my professors. More importantly, I developed my own way to create and to express," Liu said.

After using abstract human figures as vehicles for expression for some time, she moved onto landscapes and, lately, to clouds.

"Clouds are a wonderful vehicle to express one's feelings about life. They look both real and unreal; they are mutable and can easily disappear," said Liu.

For many Western critics, it is these clouds that give Liu's paintings an oriental atmosphere.

"I don't have to draw any real Chinese things like Chinese characters or antiques to be Chinese. The Chinese culture is in my blood. It blends with my Western training and forms the foundation of my style,” she said.

Though her typical cloud paintings are grand in scale, she has started to experiment with a new format, by painting small cloud pictures in panes of a window-like canvas.

This appears to be a better way to depict the range of clouds and full complement of human feelings.

Clouds are at the center of all but a few of Liu's recent paintings. The exceptions include "Eternal Tango," in which a line of dancing couples strut against blue clouds.

(China Daily December 3, 2003)