Artist Joan Fai Shih, 74, art teacher for 50 years

Joan Fai Shih, 74, of Center City, a Chinese-born, American-educated artist and beloved teacher for nearly 50 years, died Aug. 8 of complications from heart surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital.

Born in 1932 in Shantou, Guangdong province in mainland China, Miss Shih was one of four children whose family owned an embroidery factory. The young woman was encouraged to study fine arts at the British Convent School in Hong Kong.

Miss Shih left China in the early 1950s when she was offered a scholarship to study at the the Kansas City Art Institute, where she earned bachelor's and master's degrees and began teaching art.

Miss Shih moved to New York to study at the Art Students League before coming to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for four years. She taught for one year at Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C., before moving to Center City in the late 1960s, where she lived for the rest of her life.

Miss Shih taught drawing, watercolor and oil painting at Rosemont College for the next 20 years. A talented teacher, she dedicated her life to her students and art.

After leaving her sparse apartment on Walnut Street each day, she bought armsful of flowers and fruits for students to paint still-lives. She carried them on her train ride to the Main Line.

"She was a tiny woman with tremendous inner strength. She dressed in brown, gray and black, but her paintings were full of color," said former student and friend Marie Sheehy-Walker. "When I first studied with Joan, she said nothing to me in class as I worked hard on a painting. Then, when I brought in my painting of a garbage pail, she said, 'You can paint! It is so natural.' "

When Miss Shih held a 2004 solo exhibit at the Art Gallery at Villanova University, she said in an interview for the show: "In Eastern paintings, watercolor is the primary medium, and brush strokes are strength and grace. In Western paintings, oil is the dominant medium, and color and content are paramount." Her show, "East Meets West," fused the two.

"In Chinese art, it's technique that's important. In Western art, it's subject that matters. In my work, I blend the two," she said in 2004. She noted her watercolor Lobsters. In the crustaceans' long, gracefully tapered feelers is the application of calligraphy. Around the creature's eyes is a facial expression of concern.

Her Villanova exhibit, for which many of the paintings sold upward of $600, included some of her award-winning paintings from prestigious organizations such as the Philadelphia Water Color Society and the National Association of Women Artists in New York.

In the late 1980s, Miss Shih began teaching at the Main Line Art Center, where she stayed until shortly before she died.

She never stopped painting cityscapes and florals in a soft-focus, straightforward perception of life.

Her oil of Wild Sunflowers in a Vase came from a plant she found near the train tracks. She sat on the sidewalk as she painted Chestnut Street and Rittenhouse Square. The vivid landscape Melting Snow, in oil, was the rooftop from her apartment window. Miss Shih has no immediate survivors.

A memorial Mass will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the chapel at Rosemont College, 1400 Montgomery Ave. Burial is private.

To see a slideshow of Joan Fai Shih's paintings, go to http://go.philly.com/faishih

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