Veteran Chinese painter Zhou Shaohua donated 46 of his works to the National Art Museum of China last Friday.

These works along with a further 70 other works he has produced over the past years are on show at the museum at an exhibition running through Wednesday.

The self-made artist was born in 1929 in east China's Shandong Province and lost his parents at an early age. In 1941, he joined the Shandong branch of the Eighth Route Army fighting against Japanese invaders during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).

In 1949, he left the army and settled down in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province and began to study the art of Chinese painting.

Shunning the mild and delicate style of the 700-year old Chinese wenrenhua, or "literati paintings," the artist has experimented with centuries-old Chinese ink painting, drawing from both the ancient art of the Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Tang (618-907) dynasties and contemporary Western art from the early 1980s.

His best-known works are imposing landscapes of northwestern China that are defined by novel compositions and unrestrained color and brushwork.

Other works of his are characterized by scenes similar to those found in ancient Chinese brick and stone carvings, pottery figurines, ritual and funeral sculptures, murals, Buddhist images and lines from the Buddhist sutras.

(China Daily December 20, 2005)