Chinese Australian oil painter Li Xiaozheng (L) and his wife Yingzi (R) pose before his work "Big Boats and Small Port" during the opening of his new exhibition themed "Jiangnan Charm" opened on July 7 at the Roundness Art Gallery in Beijing's Songzhuang, the largest art zone in both China and the world. The exhibition features 28 artworks created by Li during his 34-day fieldtrip, between March and April of this year, to Jiangnan. [Photo by Zhang Junmian/China.org.cn]

Chinese Australian oil painter Li Xiaozheng's new exhibition themed "Jiangnan Charm" opened on July 8 at the Roundness Art Gallery in Beijing's Songzhuang, the largest art zone in both China and the world.

The exhibition features 28 artworks created by Li during his 34-day fieldtrip, between March and April of this year, to Jiangnan. The area is one of the most naturally fertile and beautiful ones found south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and not in the least enhanced by the presence of the charming waterfront towns in Zhejiang Province.

The 56-year-old painter and his wife Yingzi, who also acts as the event's planner, set out on their more than 5,000-kilometer-long journey on March 16.

They drove southward from Beijing to re-take the painter's long march to China's Jiangnan, an area to which he had once paid a one-month-long visit and created a series of works 30 years ago.

Rain or shine, the painter continued his work all day, every day, immersing himself into nature and drawing on his canvas the charming spring scenery of Jiangnan.

"It happened very often that we would forget to eat, as Xiaozheng was fully engrossed in his artistic creation," Yingzi, who accompanied Li all the way and recorded the entire creative process, said.

Sometimes, the artist would venture out to climb onto the roof of an uncompleted building in order to find the best angle to observe the views he wanted to take into his paintings. Then he would simply stay there for several hours until he had completed the drawing.

Yingzi described the process as tiring and by no means easy since Xiaozheng is a painter fond of standing when drawing -- and additionally he had to drive to and from the different locations.

Nevertheless, the journey proved full of fun and joys. What we have experienced, as well as the help we got from the local residents and our friends, will surely become one of the most precious memories in our life, Yingzi said.

Li has a pair of eyes trained to find the beauty within everyday life. The poetic artist is used to drawing from nature rather than from pictures. He mainly conveys to his viewers his conceptions of and thoughts on the seasonal changes, nature's beauty and life's greatness.

Li has thus far completed nearly 3,000 paintings throughout his life, with many of them bought and reserved by his followers from home and away.

He has stayed true to his personnel statement of nearly 40 years that "Painting is in my life the most common and irrevocable presence."

Venue: Roundness Art Gallery, Roundness Art Community, Songzhuang, Beijing

Duration: July 7-August 26, 10:00a.m.-6:00p.m. (Tuesday to Sunday)