Two women, one 78, one 34, are holding solo shows. Chinyee had a long UN career in the States and paints Rothko-like pulsing shapes. Li Yirong escaped from a glitzy life as a TV news reader and now paints big brilliantly colored exotics, writes Wang Jie.At the age of 18, Chinyee left China for the United States with her family. At the age of 78, she has returned with a solo exhibition.Dressed in a long batik dress, wearing heavy blue eye shadow, Chinyee at first appears 10 years younger than her chronological age."Perhaps I put so much of myself in art," she says, suggesting that it keeps her young.A retrospective show featuring 92 of her oil paintings and watercolors created over different periods is running at the Shanghai Art Museum."It is the first time that I have had an exhibition on the Chinese mainland, though I have come here frequently since the 1970s," she says.Born in Nanjing, Chinyee was awarded a scholarship to study in the US in 1947. After four years' study, she graduated from the Mount Saint Vincent College. She worked at the UN as a simultaneous interpreter, Chinese and English, for almost 20 years.But she never gave up painting."I paint spontaneously, it's something that I don't have to force myself to do. Whenever I am facing a new canvas, I get very excited and feel the immediate urge to work," she says. "I don't ask myself whether my paintings are Chinese or Western."Some of her canvases evoke the famous color field artist Mark Rothko, distinguished for his vibrating stacked rectangles.Inspired by his treatment of space and color, Chinyee adds her own lyrical brushstrokes. The scatterings of pencil-point-thin knots and clouds of curving lines, brashly jagged and thick smears and delicate rows of loosely parallel lines all demonstrate strong Chinese calligraphic influence.Sometimes the brush-written Chinese characters are part of a collage in Chinyee's paintings, yet they were not written by the artist herself, but her father."My father was a mathematics professor who loved Chinese calligraphy," she says. "He would feel proud that these characters one day would become timeless in my artworks."Like many female artists, Chinyee also experienced a loss in her first marriage. "I don't think this only happens to female artists, although they are vulnerable," she retorts. Unlike those who resent taking a look at their past pain, Chinyee takes an elegant perspective on her past love."Please take a look at this painting titled 'Blue Moon,' which I have never discussed with media before," she says. "I painted this one immediately after I encountered him, a renowned artist (she declines to name him)."You know, 'Blue Moon' represents something impossible in the West, which fully expressed my mood at that moment."Perhaps due to her attainments in writing Chinese poetry, Chinyee is adept at finding titles that become extensions of her images. For example, "Kites and Fish" or "The Kite is Gone" are already lyrical enough to leave space for the viewer's imagination about those abstract shapes and vibrant hues."In my eyes, kite is a symbol of freedom," she explains. "They are elsewhere invisible in my paintings."After her retirement from the UN, she engages herself in art and spends much of her time in a rented studio."My studio is not very big, so I am not able to paint large pieces," she adds. "But that's okay, at least I find a world that is shared by me and my art."First solo exhibition at Mi Chou Gallery in New York in 1965.Participated in two-year traveling exhibition "Asian Traditions/Modern Expressions" with other US and Asian artists in 1997.Ex-anchorwoman paints flowers for therapy Shanghai - glamorous, sophisticated, demanding - once daunted Li Yirong, until she picked up her paintbrush.Her solo exhibition featuring of 92 oil paintings at Liu Haisu Art Museum demonstrates the artistic ability of the young woman who had a brilliant career as a TV anchorwoman and now works in the Shanghai Documentary Channel.Her brightly colored flowers with large petals reveal the subtlety and fragility of what she calls "a sensitive heart.""Without my palette and brush, I wouldn't have had the strength to convince myself to start a different life in an alien city," says telegenic Li.Born in Kunming in 1974, Li is a versatile, playing piano, violin and some Chinese traditional musical instruments. She went on to become a highly successful, nationally recognized anchorwoman in her hometown."But I never expected that one day painting would become a 'soothing pill' in my darkest days," Li says.In 2003, the former winner of the "Golden Mike" (2001), the top award for TV personalities in China, left the flashy industry behind and headed for Shanghai alone."I was totally bored with my old life," Li says. "At the bottom of my heart, I knew this was not the life that I wanted to end up with."Yet a strange cosmopolitan city where she had few friends almost quenched her enthusiasm at first."Shanghai is a unique city, and there are many 'rules of thumb' in social gatherings," she explains. "But as an outsider, one could easily get lost in these rules. The city itself is also like a woman - one feels 'her softness' as time passes."Now sitting in her newly purchased apartment, Li finally finds her "second home," even though it's not big enough for her artworks and costumes."Many people ask me why I paint flowers," she says, "One reason is that I was born in Kunming, the so-called 'Flowery City.' "Also in my eyes, flowers are very staunch. The moment of its blossoming is so daring and splendid, it symbolizes a kind of spirit. Since they always blossom or fade together, flowers are never forlorn. They are unlike human beings - we are all alone."Now an anchorwoman at the Shanghai Documentary Channel, Li spends most of her time in her studio, or her studios. Besides her own apartment, she has rented another two studios to creates large pieces and store her paintings."I plan to have solo exhibitions every two years," she says. "I usually take a long vacation on the road during the first year, and then record all my experiences on canvas in the next year."She hasn't yet found her Mr Right."I still have faith in love, I and my flowers are waiting patiently for him," she smiles.