Kelvin Lei was born in 1954 in Canton, China. For several years, he studied traditional Chinese figure drawing with Zhiguang Yang, one of the most famous artists in China. In 1975, Kelvin was admitted to The Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art I Canton; the school considered to have the very highest standards to study oil paintings.

After graduating in 1979, he immigrated to Hong Kong with his family and began his career as an artist. Because of colonization by Britain, Hong Kong is a city filled with many western influences, and it was there, inspired by the western atmospheres, that Kelvins's paintings began to show a very classical European style.

In the past twenty years, Kelvins's paintings have not only been sold in Hong Kong, but also in Japan, Singapore, and many European countries such as England, Norway, France, Germany and Sweden.