An item on display. [Photo/China Daily]

He adds that while painting brings misery to artists, because they often don't feel satisfied with their work and destroy their own creations with the same hands that created them. But even in such moments, instances of delight keep artists like himself going, which is why he would not abandon art.

The process of discovery of new approaches to painting is also to "release one from the control of advancing technology, and therefore, gain the freedom to imagine".

"If artists never stop racking their brains, painting will not lose its divinity," he says.