Students during class at Lijuan Art. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Wang Wei and his fellow teachers also explore sensory connections at Color.

"A student of mine, an 11-year-old girl, is very enthusiastic about food," says Zhang Shuang, Wang Wei's partner in life and work. "She once talked to me about her lack of progress, and I encouraged her to paint the thing that she loved the most - food."

The result surprised everyone, including the girl herself. A big bowl of beef noodles complete with tomato soup, some celery leaves and a pinch of leek. "She conjured up the color and texture of the few hard-boiled beef cubes with just a few strokes," Zhang says. "Irresistible is how I would describe most of her appetizing food paintings."

The 34-year-old is also the person behind Color's Study Tour Project. The project arranges for students to travel to renowned historic and cultural cities in China and elsewhere, to soak in the patinaed past and the pulsating present.

"We traveled to the city of Jingdezhen, China's most famous kiln, and to Florence, Italy, where the sunshine was bright enough to penetrate the darkness of the Middle Ages and herald in the Renaissance," Zhang says. "Vision is everything."