There is no doubt artist He Yi is his own man - a recluse very comfortable in his own company and his own skin. He also very much enjoys his "own women".

He Yi makes no secret of the fact he loves to paint women. He is enamored with women, loves their curves and spends his life trying to explore the inner secrets they are not normally willing to share.

For the enigmatic artist, female curves have many implications, while under his brushstrokes there are often emptiness and helplessness blended with attraction.

Always nude, faces blurred, his women pose leisurely or even indulgently on chairs or benches, revealing perhaps too candidly their agony, confusion, desire or sentimentality to viewers.

While the curves of the female body might almost seem a cliche to many Chinese contemporary artists, He has painted them continuously for almost a decade.

"I love to paint women, and only women," the 50-year-old admits. "The curves of the women have various meanings. They could be fragile, tender while at the same time wild and strong."

A graduate from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 1982, He is regarded as an eccentric who prefers a reclusive life, living alone in an attic in Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan Province in southwestern China.