A painting from the "Suspension" series by Liu Yanfeng.

Modern artist Liu Yanfeng, through his impressive "suspension" paintings, ponders the relationship between man and nature.

"Nowadays, people are facing much pressure in life and bound by many trivial things," Liu Yanfeng said, "My 'suspension' paintings portray people's state of tranquility and their free souls".

"Modern art is closely related with society. You may not understand them at the first sight, but when you get sudden enlightenment, or resonate with the artist, you will find it very interesting," Liu said.

The "suspension" series was inspired by Liu's trip to Southeast Asia. When he was taking a vacation there, he noticed that people there live an easy and natural life, totally enjoying their own lives. Their simple attitude to life touches Liu a lot, and he thinks this is what life should be like originally.

The relationship between man and nature is a theme Liu always explores. "Oriental thought stresses the interaction between humans and nature, and thinks that the two should be integrated with each other." This is quite different from Western thought which regards humans as the center of the world.

Though there are differences, Liu is trying to find some similarities between Western and Oriental art. "I want to express using pure Western painting language, while using the aesthetic view of Oriental culture."

Using realism, Liu meticulously sets up the scenes in his paintinsg like a director with a drama. The characters in the painting seem to narrate their stories emotionally and bring audiences to the scene. Thus, his paintings always have people lingering and lost in deep thought.

Having studied the genres of art design, oil painting, and traditional Chinese painting, Liu has gradually formed his own art style. His artworks are collected by many art institutions and painting albums. His 1996 painting titled "Samsara" won an award for its creativity during the US's ASIS art contest.

Though not born to a family of artists, Liu showed his gift for art since childhood. When he was two years old, he still couldn't hold a pen well, but surprisingly he drew a lifelike bird. During a summer holiday in his primary school years, his mom bought him some plasticine, which was a popular toy at the time. He later created models of more than 100 figures from the Chinese classics The Romance of Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin using the plasticine. This amazed his family and he was later introduced to a teacher at a local art academy, who brought him onto the road of art.

"If a child is indulged in something, that may be the start of his career," Liu said, and he feels lucky that his family encouraged him to walk on the road of art.

Art is seasoning in our life, which is indispensable, but shouldn't be too much. Liu said that when the economy develops to a certain level, people need art to enrich their spiritual life. Yet the common people's perception of art still needs to be improved. "We always say that art is borderless, but art has a threshold actually," Liu said.

As for modern art, Liu deems that it needs time to verify its true value. "We can probably see the real value of an art piece 50 years later," Liu said. So he thinks that when we see an art piece at first sight, we shouldn't be too hasty to appraise it. But, to be sure, "only one percent of artworks can be recorded in art history".

However, Liu calls for the public to give more opportunities to new emerging artists. As Liu said, modern art occurs spontaneously, and may encounter many uncertain factors during its growth, so it's unknown what they will grow into, and may turn out to be a masterpiece, or garbage. He suggests a free and unrestrained environment for art, and advises people not to draw conclusions too early. "You can't tell who will succeed in the future of art history."