Nouria El Alami and her painting The World Upside-Down [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

El Alami came to Beijing with her husband, Ambassador Jaafar Ali Hakim, in 2009. Living in China has inspired her art and she has produced more than 70 paintings during the past six years. Traditional Chinese brush painting is one of her biggest inspirations.

"It's easier to paint with color, but it is challenging to use only one color, black, to create so many different shadows. Here (in China) I found many possibilities with color," she said.

El Alami started exhibiting her work publicly in 2004. Her paintings have been shown in several countries, including Korea, Niger, Morocco and China. In 2012, she held a solo exhibition at the Palace Museum in Beijing, right after her book Empreintes de Culture (Cultural footprints from Morocco to China) was published.

"She has a gift to project her feelings of the moment into her art work, whether portraits of people, flowers or landscapes." Zhang Zikang, deputy director of the National Art Museum of China once commented.

This year, she co-published the book Cultural Similarities between China and Morocco with Mrs. Ho Ching, wife of the chairman of the China World Peace Foundation.

The pieces in exhibit will be on display and on sale until May 19. All profits will go to charity.