Cai Xiaoli was born in Fujian Province into a family of painters. While working for the Shanxi Provincial Song and Dance Theater, she learned Western painting under Wu Zhide and traditional Chinese portrait painting under Wang Ziwu. Later on she entered the Traditional Chinese Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Art in China, where she taught brush painting. After arriving in England in 1989, the artist sought to harmonise her own independent style with traditional methods such as in 'Orchids', the present lot. She has utilized minerals to imitate the natural textures and colours of the subject matter. This technique of using hand-ground minerals in pestle and mortar developed in China during the 10th Century. Even to this day, the paper on which these minerals are painted is handmade, and resembles a mesh of flimsy tissue that is both difficult to paint on and to mount.
Cai Xiaoli won several prizes for her paintings. In 1984, she won the Excellent Painting Prize in the Sixth National Fine Arts Exhibition of China and three years later the same Prize from the National Gallery of China, Bejing. Her exhibitions include the Contemporary Chinese Painting Exhibition, Royal Festival Hall, London 1988; One-woman show at Art in Action, Oxford 1990; Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 1991; British Art Fair, Royal Academy of Art, London 1991.