Silvia Hartmann writes: Tonight and whilst travelling the strands of the www, I came across a wonderful site and a wonderful thing - original Chinese artwork like the beautiful sky dragon here by wonderfully creative Chinese artists, discovered and brokered by Gary, who is in love with and collects Chinese art and has travelled outside the normal trade routes extensively. What I particularly liked about this were the human stories about the artists involved.

These are no "factory conveyor belt" paintings produced by slaves but instead, we have individuals, like Ou-Yang Guo-De (he painted the Sky Dragon picture featured here), who lost both his legs and his right arm when he was only 11, got a job in an umbrella factory and there his talent was noticed and the owners sent him to art school.

Or Li Ying-Lai, who doesn't want to hang around with snobby artisans and prefers to sell his beautiful paintings in the market place, so that the "common people" too can have the magic of art and tradition of spirit in their homes.

This is an absolutely fascinating site with the most beautiful paintings and traditional Chinese art, including calligraphy and scrolls, well worth a visit for any dreamer, and if your heart is drawn to it as mine was, by all means order a painting directly from China to bring that energy into your home.

Here's the web site:

http://www.orientaloutpost.com/

And here's a larger image of Ou-Yang Guo-De's wonderful Sky Dragon.

Sky Dragon by Ou-Yang Guo-De

Featured at http://www.orientaloutpost.com