Close encounters with daily life

"For me, painting is a healing process. It is something grounded on my understanding of culture, love and beliefs," says Beijing-based artist Liu Maonian.

"Painting is lighthearted, pure and simple. All you need to do is to express yourself clearly, as long as you see images and scenes in your mind."

Liu's one-man show in Beijing, Nian Nian You Yu (An Encounter With Liu Maonian), displays more than 100 oil paintings, watercolors and mixed-media works, which review his creations over the past decade. Liu says hopefully his sincerity of experiences in art and life can also bring comfort to people facing difficulties in this time of pandemic. The exhibition runs at the Hanjian Fine Art Gallery in Beijing through March 25.

Liu's work presents a distinguished style in close association with his earlier years spent in Northwest China. He was raised in Huangling county in Shaanxi province, attended an art academy in the provincial capital Xi'an, and taught at university for years in Yan'an, before relocating to Beijing some 15 years ago.

"I primarily center my work around the northwest and southwest, the mountains, sky and people there," Liu says.

For years, he journeyed to Tibet and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions, and Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. In between these extensive trips, he created a distinctive vocabulary of art, drawing inspiration from the long history and rich cultural heritage from these areas, such as archaic painted pottery, bronzes and prehistoric cave art.

Liu adopted elements from these forms, as well as from local religions and folk tales to build a body of semi-abstract patterns of his own, rendering to his work a mysterious, primitive atmosphere.

He would add commonly found objects and plants, such as buckwheat husks, straws, newspapers and used boxes to his works. Also, he is inspired by the folk architecture in northern Shaanxi to give a rough texture to his works.

Liu's works chronicle the day-to-day life of farmers and township people, of which the powerful palette and the impulsive, expressive brush strokes remind one of the peasant paintings by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh.

"I love spending long time with people and observing, which allows me a glimpse of their inner world and mentality," he says.

Niu Hongbao, one of the exhibition's academic directors says one easily senses the link between the motifs and colors in Liu's works and the arts of the northwest and southwest such as the cliff paintings, cave paintings and thangka paintings.

"But far beyond the traditions embodied in these forms of art, Liu dwells on the themes drawn from modern experiences, the relations between the Earth and humanity, ways of existence, divinity and hardships," Niu says.

"His explorations accentuate a harsh quality and meanwhile a genuine attitude and philosophical depth in his depictions of the landscapes and people's daily routines of working, farming and living. He touches upon the truth of life."

Si Lin, a critic says in his works Liu looks to answer the question－what is the world truly about?

And above all, Liu believes love is one of the keys to the answer.

"Love is what art means essentially," he says.