Xu portrays life's warmth in a cold world

The wild brushwork and bright colors give an unreal feeling to Xu Shendong's paintings. The expressiveness of his oil and ink works remind one of such Western master artists as Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, whose styles influence the creations of the 44-year-old painter from Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province.

Through his pictures, in which reality and dreamlike scenes mingle, Xu persuades people to always seek the warmth of life even when going through bad times.

He stresses this in one of his recent poems, Warm Sun, in which he writes: "Doubts and anxieties of the past no longer exist. They've dissolved in the bright sky. The glass of the buildings reflect my face.