BEAUTY IN WHITE AND RED

Her fascination with the only member of the genus Nipponia capture these beauties on canvas, write Huo Yan and Li Yang

Artists in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, who know Yan Zi usually introduce her somewhat like this: O, she belongs to no circle of oil painters in the city ... she is unique, quiet.

That's also exactly how Yan describes her favorite model, muse, inspiration, call it what you will. The crested ibis, an endangered "bird of paradise", as she calls it, are found in the wild only in the southern part of Shaanxi today.