Painter's pilgrimage

Li Xiaoke's artworks of Tibetan temples and life in western China are on display in Beijing, Lin Qi reports.

Li Xiaoke, an artist from Beijing has spent the past three decades drawing inspiration from areas where members of the Tibetan community reside.

Li, 74, has captured the natural scenery and the people of the Tibet autonomous region, and the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan, in ink paintings he created during dozens of journeys he's taken since he first set out on foot in 1988. "A mysterious retreat that would haunt one's mind after you have left the place," is how he describes his visits.

Before that discovery, Li's main role was that of a student and an assistant to his late father and celebrated painter, Li Keran, whom he accompanied to social events and generally looked after.

But as Li Xiaoke began his trips to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, he also felt the pressure of his hailing from a prominent family easing. The areas helped him to develop an individual style of painting.

He likens painting to pilgrimage. "It is tough and yet simple."