Peacock Spirit

Cecilia Aisin-Gioro is a descendant of the Qing Dynasty royal family in China. She is of the Heng generation from the Aisin-Gioro family tree and has the given name Qin. She is the grandniece of the last Chinese Emperor Pu Yi Aisin-Gioro.

Cecilia studied painting since she was five years old. Her royal family background gave her access to the court tradition of training in royal meticulous and water color painting.

Cecilia’s parents both died during the latter part of the cultural revolution in China. She spent her early years with her grand-mother in a little village in the Changbai mountains in northeast China.

Cecilia Aisin-Gioro has an MBA degree received in China. She never thought to become a professional artist before immigrating to Canada because she successfully ran several businesses in China. But she never stopped to use her brush when she had the chance and time to practice or study.

The words of her grandmother still echo in her head “Paintings can tell people what you cannot say in words. When you feel weak, painting can make you stronger. When you are lost, painting will remind you who you are”.

Cecilia soon realized why her grandma had pressed so hard for her to learn to paint even when their life was so difficult when she was a child. She realized that was why her grand uncle Pujie Aisin-Gioro said that painting and calligraphy can make you rich in your hear and it is wealthy that will never leave you.

Cecilia Aisin-Gioro is the first and only oil painter in the Aisin-Gioro family and she was a student of the famous Chinese artist Mr. Yifei Chen.

The Aisin-Gioro family tradition was that of the Chinese calligraphy, meticulous in water colors. Cecilia’s oil color painting breaks with the family tradition and at the same time draws on that tradition.

”I hope I am not the last oil painter in my family. The world is changing and I cannot always stay with the old tradition. Art is about feelings and passions. It is without limit. It has no national boundaries. When you follow your passions you can find a beautiful colored world made by your own brush”.