As long as I live, I will paint; and the best is yet to come,” predicts Cindy Rhee. The Korean artist, whose aim it is to evolve her painting in an ever more semi-abstract direction, calls appreciation of her art a major spur and hopes that art will heal society’s woes.

Rhee says that her professional art journey dates from when she attended a life-drawing class run by Leona Apps at the HK Arts Centre. It was 1993, the same year she retired from a 17-year career as a Cathay Pacific air hostess.

But her interest in art had taken root decades prior. During her primary school years, she had taken extra curriculum art classes and won top place in a national painting competition, “drawing, collaging and painting chickens in their coop”, which had led to a photo session with the school principal and an interview on KBS [a national television broadcaster in Korea]. “It was a huge motivation for the 9-year old girl I was to continue making art,” she shares.

Then, during Rhee’s high school years, she was taught by well-known Korean artist, Hoon Kwak, at his home, which she refers to as one of the best parts of her youth.

These formative experiences led to what one might call, a forgone conclusion: to pursue art at university level. She did, in fact, do just that: four years at Hong Ik University, one of the best art colleges in South Korea; a time during which, the art department gave courses in western and occidental art, and, “I learned to paint and draw properly,” she says.

“Though, I never regretted flying for 15 yrs with CX, I had missed drawing and painting. So, as soon as I left them, I joined a drawing group,” says Rhee. According to her, the art group at the HK Arts Center featured a talented all-female group, who held group shows, and Rhee joined the ‘Artists Abroad’ group, which held yearly exhibitions too.

“I have traditionally used oil paints as they can be thickened and diluted; and I use lots of strong colours to paint human bodies and faces, for which oil is best,” says Rhee of her method. “But, recently, I have switched to acrylic. I like the fast-drying quality, and the colours can be even brighter than oil,” she continues.

Rhee’s paintings take their inspiration from everyday life, and “the difficulties and strong emotions people have little outlet for. Painting can express things you cannot describe in words,” she says, adding that people and their environment are her biggest influences. “Humans are very complicated. We may look alike, but, deep inside, each of us has different beliefs, and has had a different upbringing,” she says of the stories we carry within us.

Of herself, Rhee admits that her own life experiences have “changed her entire outlook”; and that being in the east-west melting pot of Hong Kong has allowed her Confucius upbringing in Korea to loosen its hold on her.

“After my retirement from CX, I got divorced and I had to be independent —financially and mentally. It has been a rough journey, but I have learned a lot, and appreciate things more. My divorce has pushed me to look deeper inside and I have painted all of my pains and sorrows. In Hong Kong’s cultural setting, I have been able to open up and be more expressive in my art.”