Artwork copyright Lucy Liu. Photo courtesy of the artist.

A Sunny Day, 1995

Lucy Liu
American (born 1926, died 2024)

Location: Loon Lake Elementary, Loon Lake

About the Artwork

A Sunny Day is part of artist Lucy Liu's body of paintings composed using traditional Chinese ink-painting techniques, and depict the flowers and birds Liu observed in her garden. She noted, "One gloomy day the sun suddenly appeared from behind a cloud and I noticed two small black birds chirping under some sunflowers. They flew away when they became aware of my presence and I felt as an intruder. Yet in the bright sunlight the sunflower seemed brighter than ever and I knew it was going to be a creative day."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Loon Lake School District.

About the Artist

Artist Lucy Liu (1926-2024) created traditional Chinese brush paintings and calligraphic works.
Lucy Liu grew up in northeastern China, where she learned artistic calligraphy as a child. After 1949 she lived in Taiwan, where she studied traditional Chinese landscape and bird and flowers painting. Working as a researcher for an American expert on Chinese folklore brought her to Berkeley, California in 1973. Liu earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree in art education from Eastern Washington University in Cheney. She taught art at Seattle-area community colleges. In 1983, she founded the Northwest Chinese Art Society to promote Asian art in the U.S.
In 1989, Lucy Liu was honored with a Washington State Governor's Heritage Award as a "Washington State Living Treasure" for her work as an artist, an art teacher, and a promoter of Chinese art, both within and outside of the Chinese-American community.