China - Artist of Jiuzhou Old Street

Dear Family and Friends,

After buying some of the embroidered balls, we continued through the historic part of Jiuzhou.

We came upon a man sitting on the curb drawing.  I looked across the street and saw what he was seeing.  It is in the picture above. Do you see it?

I told him I liked what he was doing (through our tour guide, of course).  The tour guide told me his teacher was standing behind him.  I looked around and saw this delightful, smiling, friendly old man.

I told him how happy I was to meet him and he asked if we would like to come to his home.  We were delighted.

He spent a lot of time showing us his work.  

He said he has been painting for over 50 years.  He said that people ask him why he only paints, that he could make more money doing other things.  He said that he loves what he does.

He told us that during the cultural revolution that he was forced to go work in a factory.  He said he only lasted about two months.  He came back home. He said he would rather starve than to give up painting.

The painting below is of a lady embroidering a ball.  

He took us behind his house to his studio.  

He had several projects he was working on.

Most of his paintings were of the countryside scenes around his town.

This is a picture looking at the back of his house from the studio.  What an honor to actually be invited inside his home.  

I took a photo of his palate....beautiful colors.

I admired the picture below.

After we left his house, we walked to the end of the road and lo and behold there was the scene that I had admired right in front of us.  How awesome.