LA LEE

About the Artist

Lee Eng Khauv

Originally from the coast of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Lee Eng Khauv listens to her heart to tell her where to go. "It has never led me wrong". Lee Eng has captured the beauty of the coastline of Sihanoukville to Europe, the Caribbean Islands, Canada, and the Unitied States.

She studied and mastered many techniques of the masters, and learned her love for the impressionists painters-Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso. Her greatest influence was the famous Spanish painter Jesus Camargo. In his Mallorca studio, Camargo challenged Lee Eng how to apply colors with rhythm and harmony. Camargo nicknamed her La Lee, which later became her artist name.

Lee Eng's professional training includes studies with the American watercolor master Mel Stabin and in Florence, Italy, at the Charles H. Cecil Academy, and the Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Art School.

Lee Eng paints alla-prima, Italian for "at the first", in which each painting is completed in a single session. The idea is to capture the essence of the subject in a bold, intuitive way, using vigorous, expressive brushstrokes and miminal color mixing on the palettte.

"Painting generously and unhesitatingly, for it is better not to lose the first impression. Don't be timid in front of nature; one must be bold, at the risk of being deceived and making mistakes."-Camille Pissarro(1830-1903)

Lee Eng prefers to paint tranquil marine, landscapes and life scenes using her visual experience to see the world from within. She became famous for her boats and bougainvillea flowers which are collected worldwide.

Each painting starts from the love in her heart, and expressed with spontanenous brushstrokes. Her feelings and reactions to her subjects and the everyday world are transformed and the ordinary becomes the extraordinary in paintings, which capture the essence and glory of life.