Nature in Art: Man devotes life to painting pictures of plants

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An artist in southwest China has spent much of his life painting pictures of plants. CGTN's Yang Jinghao discovers his passion for presenting the beauty of nature in this report.

80-year-old Zeng Xiaolian has been painting plants for almost all his life. Today, his passion is still strong. He began his artistry right after graduation from high school in 1958, when he joined the Kunming Institute of Botany in Yunnan Province.

ZENG XIAOLIAN BOTANICAL PAINTER "I was thrilled, and my classmates were all envious of me. It happened that our country had just decided to compile the Flora of China and needed a batch of illustrators. I was lucky to join the project."

The enormous project, consisting of 126 volumes, records some 31,000 types of plants. About 160 painters finished more than 9,000 illustrations in 45 years. Zeng says he is proud of contributing to this effort.

ZENG XIAOLIAN BOTANICAL PAINTER "I did a meaningful thing throughout my whole career. It's something I really love and I think it was all worth it!"

Another scientific mission in the 1960's provided Zeng a rare opportunity to get closer to nature. He was assigned to illustrate potential anti-malaria herbs in thick virgin forests and submit his drawings to research institutions. Seeing the magnificence of nature stunned Zeng and inspired him to make painting nature his lifetime endeavor.

ZENG XIAOLIAN BOTANICAL PAINTER "I was so excited and forgot everything while painting. I even couldn't notice the insects around me. I once got 42 bites from leeches and only found out the next morning when my body was tightly stuck to my bed with blood."

Following his retirement in 1997, Zeng embarked on a new journey – depicting plants and animals in a more artistic way after absorbing more painting techniques from both ancient Chinese and Western styles. In recent years, he has created hundreds of works, which have appeared at exhibitions, in books and on stamps.

ZENG XIAOLIAN BOTANICAL PAINTER "Expressing the beauty of nature is my focus now, but it's different from the mainstream concept. My works are based on certain professional knowledge. It means that I first need to know which family and genus a plant belongs to and its morphological characteristics."

One recent masterpiece by Zeng is a giant painting he created specifically for the International Horticultural Expo underway in Beijing. Entitled "The Journey of Chinese Plants", it shows 37 plants which originally grew in China and then spread around the world.

ZENG XIAOLIAN BOTANICAL PAINTER "There was not enough time for me to prepare a draft and draw them in the wild. So I could only work based on my experience. It was really a tough job and I worked on it cautiously for six months. It's not perfect, but I am generally satisfied."

Looking ahead, Zeng says he will continue to do what he loves – painting an even wider variety of nature with his delicate brush strokes. YJH, CGTN, KUNMING, YUNNAN PROVINCE.