Volunteers carry an idol of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, in a pond for its immersion during the ten-day-long Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India, September 18, 2015. During the festival, the idols will be taken through the streets in a procession accompanied by dancing and singing, and will be immersed in a river or the sea in accordance with the Hindu faith. (Photo by Shailesh Andrade/Reuters)

This photograph taken on June 20, 2021 and received courtesy of Radchadawan Peungprasopporn via her Facebook account on June 22, 2021 shows an elephant searching for food in the kitchen of her home in Pa La-U, Hua Hin. (Photo by Radchadawan Peungprasopporn/Facebook via AFP Photo)

An idol of elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesh is transported in a taxi in Kolkata, India, Wednesday, September 8, 2021. The idol is being taken home for worship ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi festival that celebrates the birth of Ganesha. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

A young girl is splashed as she takes an elephant bath at Rapti river in Chitwan, Nepal, 30 October 2021. Chitwan is one of the major tourist destinations in Nepal and popular zone for wild life sightseeing in Chitwan National Park. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA/EFE)

Inquisitive elephant seal pups venture towards a photographer on South Georgia, an uninhabited island near Antarctica early July 2022. The seals are not used to seeing humans and shuffled closer to Charlotte Rhodes rather than shying away. (Photo by Charlotte Rhodes/Media Drum Images)

Melanie Baier from the village Obergurig wearing a traditional Lusatian sorbian folk dress, paints an Easter egg in traditional Sorbian motives at the annual Easter egg market on March 24, 2012 in Schleife, near Hoyerswerda, Germany. Easter egg painting is a strong part of Sorbian tradition and visual elements within the painting are meant to ward off evil. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

Liu Yi, Chinese painter, was born in Shanghai in 1958. He was a Fine Arts graduate from the Hua Dong University for Education. He did his postgraduate study of watercolor painting at the China College of Fine Arts. He lectures at university for painting and design. He is a member of the Chinese Artists Association and is also a member of the Watercolor Painting Artists Association. He is the retired Deputy President of the Shanghai Watercolor Painting Society, and is currently the Deputy Principal of the Shanghai Arts and Technical College. He is a very accomplished watercolor painter in China.

Light is the sole reason why life exists. It provides us with warmth; it allows us to see; it nourishes all the living things on this planet. Many painters, especially the masters of Old Renaissance Period, have recognized the importance of light and its intimate connection with nature and life itself. In their paintings they gave tribute to light, giving the impression that their paintings had a light source hidden within them. Al Hogue, the artist who created the paintings that you see before you, has studied their techniques for many years. As time went by, light permeated not only his paintings by also his life, becoming his sole philosophy.