Ning Hou

I was born and raised in Shanghai, China. I grew up studying the old and current Chinese masters as well as internationally known current and past masters. I paint and draw at the highest level in ANY style dating back to A.D. 900, from any notable period in art history. I have taken the position at a very young age that I would put in the work needed to become the best that I can be. I teach private lessons to a few select students. I specifically train them in the realities of being a good artist; one must practice like Rembrandt for starters and work your way into your own style with no shortcuts. I start them out in the techniques from the renaissance. There is much complaining, but in the end when they realize what they are capable of with the skills they're learning, and start getting compliments from the schoolteachers and winning contests, then the complaining stops. Some of my students under the age of 10 are competing against professional adult artists in open competitions and winning with traditional pencil cross hatch sketches. Some of the work they are doing is world class. I have lived in the United States since 1987, and am married to an Irish American lady for the past 25 years. Our permanent home is in San Francisc...

My education began as the son of two Doctors in Shanghai, China. After private education as a child I received my BA degree from the Shanghai Art Institute. I was instructed by noted Chinese artists Chang Show Wu, principal of Fine Arts Institute, Chinese Painting College and Director of Shanghai Artists Association; Yan Wan Leong, a silver medal winner of Paris, France, in the 1930's; and Liu Hai Su. I have also learned from numerous other contemporary artists as well. I arrived in the United States in 1983 to pursue a career in art at the Academy of Art College where I graduated with an MFA from the Academy of Art College, June 1986, some years later I taught at that college for a time.