When she first picked up a watercolour brush in the 1980s, Molly Yi Zhimin did not expect her life to be as colourful as her paintings.
The 36-year-old graphics design lecturer at the Art College of Chongqing Normal University has a relatively 'luxurious' life - spending her spare time painting and taking in a continuous stream of contemporary exhibitions in Chongqing's burgeoning Huangjueping art district.
Yi, a lecturer with the college since graduating from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute 12 years ago, joins fellow Chinese artists to work at the Tank Loft Contemporary Art Centre, a government-funded cluster converted from a tank factory five years ago.
If Beijing's Dashanzhi is the nation's art and culture hotbed in the north, Shanghai's M50 in the east and Hong Kong's Cattle Depot Artists Village in the south, Tank Loft may more than qualify for representation of the central regions. Tucked behind a bustling food hawker alley, it provides a nurturing ground for emerging artists. Yi says of her hometown: 'Chongqing is quite open in arts, as you can see: the government allows artists to wrap buildings with graffiti at Huangjueping.
'Since Tank Loft was opened about five years ago, I have loved hanging around here to meet artists and soak up exhibitions running throughout the year.
'I find more paintings reflect the social changes in the city, especially in the past two years, when the economy roared ahead.