A visitor admires Richard Kane's paintings at Tianyi Pavilion Museum in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on May 18. [Photo/Ningbo Daily]

An exhibition featuring more than 80 butterfly wing paintings created by Richard Kane opened at Tianyi Pavilion Museum in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on May 18, which is also International Museum Day.

The African artist is renowned for creating patterns ranging from figures and life scenes to animals using butterfly wings as the material.

Kane was born in 1968 in Tanzania in eastern Africa, and now lives in Nigeria. He has been devoted to creating butterfly wing paintings for more than 20 years since his interest was arisen by butterflies spotted during a trip when he was studying oil painting in Brussels, Belgium.

His paintings were presented as a national gift to Sierra Leone, a country in western Africa.

In 2006, his works were also given to China as a national gift by Francois Bozize, the then president of Central African Republic, and are now collected in the National Museum of China.

The exhibition is slated to run until June 2 in Ningbo.