Li Lian Kolster is a predominantly self taught artist from London.   After completing a BSc in Biochemistry and MSc in the History of Science, she followed a calling back to her a favourite pastime of drawing.

Combining her love for nature with a keen observatory eye from her science background, she created realistic drawings of birds seen on her widespread travels.

In 2008 she was awarded a bursary from the Society of Wildlife Artists, UK to travel to Colombia to draw endangered birds.

In 2013 Li Lian transitioned to painting with acrylics whilst studying indigenous plant curandismo in Peru.  After an initial guidance under Peruvian painter Luis Tamani she continued to self teach whilst immersed in isolation in the rainforest for 8 months.   For several years after her artistic path ran parallel to her work with plant medicine.  She regularly painted while living and studying with Shipibo shamans in Peru.    Her earlier paintings were often influenced by shamanism, medicinal and visionary plants and a deep healing of a life previously crippled by clinical depression.

Li Lian’s paintings combine her love for realism and natural forms with the fantastical and sometimes otherworldly.   She explores themes of our connection with nature and spirit, indigenous wisdom, alchemy and the transmutation of trauma.

She travels extensively and exhibits internationally including; the Mall Galleries London, with Dreams and Divinities in Paris and Colombia, Breaking Conventions London, Visionary Convergence Los Angeles and the World Ayahuasca Conference in Girona, Spain 2019 where she had her own gallery.

In 2017 she became an instructor at the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art and continues to teach painting workshops in Europe.