Ka-Yee Calligraphy

Who am I ? I am

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About Me

A Quick Bio

As a counselling therapist for over 10 years, I have witnessed the power of art and mindfulness in healing suffering. More so, the philosophical wisdom contained in ancient texts and zen practises holds relevance in today’s tumultuous society. It is my wholehearted wish to enable people to experience Chinese culture in enriching their mind, body and spirit in an accessible and enjoyable manner.

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My Story As a Chinese artist

I love exploring the philosophical and spiritual aspects of Chinese Calligraphy and Chinese characters. For me, my paintings are my inner voices when I am in my zone of inner calm stillness. Chinese characters have accumulated over 4000 years of evolutionary pictorial and philosophical wisdom. It is the only ancient language that is still actively used nowadays. With the introduction of simplified Chinese after 1949, traditional characters and Calligraphy have becoming a fading art even in my own country. I am endeavour to advocate for the preservation of this ancient language and its beauty. Chinese Calligraphy is a combination of visual art, technique, precision and mindful practice. Words can have powerful meaning for individuals. When combining both in a piece of calligraphic zen art, we let the artistic beauty and movement quiet our busy mind where stillness can resonate with the meaningful words and bring healing to our hearts and minds. Commission welcome. Paintings are for sale. Artist collaborations, corporate events, schools talks and classes…all would be my delight.

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What I Do

Vision and Mission

For almost 15 years of living in UK, I am always amazed by people’s delightful curiosity when I share about oriental wisdom, Chinese characters and oriental culture. Likewise, I am also fascinated by the profound richness in western art and culture. My vision is to serve as a bridge between eastern and western traditional and contemporary art, literature and culture. My mission is to see more curious audiences and participation! For me, I love using the "10 Cs" as my mission and vision:

To Cultivate, Consciousness in Creativity, Curiosity, Clarity, Confidence, Calmness, Compassion, Courage and Connectedness.

More about me

I am a diverse Chinese Calligrapher, poet, graphic designer, I paint, I sing, I drum, I dance… I run zen tea gatherings, Creativity and Spirituality Retreats, workshops and meditative qigong movement classes. I have been a psychotherapist for 10 years, and have witnessed how being in nature, being creative and curious can alleviate and heal people in mysterious way. I am passionate in collaboration between different cultural art forms and genres in celebrating diversity.

Studio at Westbury Arts Centre

Come for a zen tea in my mini zen studio in the Westbury Arts Centre, a beautiful 17th Century Farm House. I love sharing the beautiful oriental culture and promoting well-being through Chinese Stretches, zen tea, meditative breathing...

I love depicting our ancient Chinese proverbs and wise teachings through calligraphic zen paintings and am particularly interested in researching the original pictorial form and evolutionary wisdom behind each character.

Zen Calligraphy

Zen Calligraphy is a combination of visual art, technique, precision and mindful zen practice. When in a meditative writing “zone”, the total attention is focused at the tip of the brush that resonate with deep stillness within. Chinese Calligraphy and tea can be a beautiful mindful zen practice; as a Chinese artist, I love to advocate for its appreciation and preservation.

Classes

I offer classes for adults and young people. Calligraphy and Art class; Zen tea and mindful practice class; Chinese stretches class; and A Day of Mindfulness Retreat.

Come to my weekly
"Creative Wednesday"

Click here for details

This is a weekly session for the local community where participants range from young 40’s to 90’s enjoy a weekly social, artistic and creative space.

"The 12-weeks Artist Way" course

Click here for details

particularly aims to help people who like to restore and recover their creativity and self-leadership in life.

Exhibitions

"A Peek into an Oriental Heart" was a solo exhibition at the Milton Keynes Central Library for the whole of April and May in 2018. People had been able to see what interesting works could be done with philosophy, paints and Chinese Calligraphy. "The evolution of the Chinese Characters" was one of the highlights where people could learn about how the 12 words of zodiac animals looked like 3400 years ago in (Pictogram) Oracle Bone script... and how the way of writing evolved through different main script stages until the current forms. Other paintings that particularly received lots of very positive feedback (see feedback in Gallery) were the meditative works around various Chinese philosophical teachings.

Calligraphy Videos

Life-changing Words

Six Steps to Enlightenment

click here to watch calming videos

Confucius (551-479BC) taught us six steps to awaken full awareness, ie enlightenment. It brings us back and centres us to our true self.

click here to watch calming videos

Chinese Calligraphy is a combination of visual art, technique, precision and mindful practice. Words can have powerful meaning for individuals. When combining both in a piece of calligraphic zen art, the artistic beauty and movement can quiet our busy mind while the stillness can resonate with the meaningful words and bring healing to our hearts and minds.

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Evolution of Chinese characters

Chinese Zodiac Animals

click here to watch each animal character

Chinese characters have a history of over 3,400 years from oracle bone script to bronzeware script until the First Emperor (~200BC) unified all characters to seal script which developed to clerical, regular, then cursive scripts. It's the only ancient written language that is still currently used.

click here to watch each animal character

I have based on the 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac and researched the evolution of each characters from Oracle Bone Script to the current way of traditional writing form.

Classes

Creative Wednesday

at Westbury Arts Centre is a community hobby club aiming to provide a space to create fun, encourage curiosity, get active and healthy. Each session will start with a Chinese stretch that hopefully can relax us a bit.... a round of Chinese tea then creative activities to follow. £5 per session - basic material included.

(I am running this club because it is always my wish to pull community together across different age and culture. I hope people can have a regular place to meet new friends, trying out new activities and playful games… keeping our mind and body active, balanced and happy!!)

Block 1 – 16January-3April every Wednesday 10am - noon
Block 2 – 24April-10July, every Wednesday 10am – noon

Please contact to enquire

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Restoring Self-leadership in The Artist Way

is a committed 12-week course at Westbury Arts Centre. It is personal development journey within a fantastic structure of the book written by Julian Cameron aiming to restore self-leadership in discovering and recovering our creative self!! Each week we will discuss specific topics from the book as well as explore new creative exercises that use a mixture of artistic ideas and materials… all aiming to provide opportunities to follow our curiosity.

At home, we read one chapter weekly and complete the inspirational tasks suggested by the chapter. The book also introduced the use of daily morning pages and a date with the artist within you weekly. This is a journey that can be as light-hearted or as serious as you like to invest… it is extremely helpful when going onto this journey with a group of “comrades” on the same journey exploring individual goals.

(I am running this course because 3 years ago, I was very lost, confused and hollowed… despite a very good stable family life and a profession as a trauma counselling therapist. I took onto “The Artist Way” journey… and had never imagined the powerful impact of the book that gradually awakened my dormant artist and restored creative energy back to most aspects of my life!! My special bonus was a group of friends (comrades) who have had similar aspiration. We have since been supporting and encouraging each other throughout the whole journey and beyond!)

Cost: £120 for the whole course (all art materials included)

Cohort 1 – 16January - 3April every Wednesday 1:30-3:30pm)
Cohort 2 – 26April – 12July, every Friday 10am – noon)

Please contact to enquire

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Wonders of Chinese Brush Painting and Calligraphy

Interactive workshop for 8+. Come and discover the interesting evolution of Chinese characters. Try the calligraphy brushes and bring home a painting each one-hour sesson.

£50 per block of 4 sessions. 1 hour/session. All material included.

Please contact to enquire

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Discover joy in Chinese Calligraphy

Workshop for Adults. Come and find out the mindfulness joy and historic wisdom behind Chinese Calligraphy and Characters. Each session we will explore one different script style: Oracle Bone Script, Stonedrum Script, Clerical Script, and semi-cursive Script. Come and find out how to use brushes and ink and create opportunity to take up a graceful hobby that has over 4000 years of deep history.

£60 per block of 4 sessions. 1.5 hour/session. All material included.

Please contact to enquire

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Chinese and Cultural Studies for Beginners

Workshop for Adults. Come and learn to speak basic Chinese Mandarin through the appreciation of Chinese ancient poems, Chinese culture, festivals, folk art and music. Come and enjoy a light-hearted hobby while finding out the depth of 4000years of Chinese culture

£60 per block of 4 sessions. 1.5 hour/session. All material included.

Please contact to enquire

Contact Me