Old Lady of Ge Ethnic Minority by Jun Liu

"This is a portrait of one of the women of an elderly minority group of people whom I met during folk song performances in Qiandongnan Prefecture of Guizhou Province in China. I painted this piece on the model of the elderly.

This is a simple image of a mother, with years of wind and frost on her face and hand-carved deep marks in her skin. Her tenacious and resolute eyes lead people to feel strongly that she must have gone through many tribulations and hard times in her life. Although, in her face you cannot see the suffering, and some may think she exudes humanized glory.

The deep and insightful gaze of the elderly was my motivation behind this portrait, and her eyes hidden in the dim shadow are the focus of the painting. In order to highlight this strong feeling, I gave up the composition of a hand, more clothing and other aspects that could have been in order to simplify the piece and make the presentation purer. I wanted to show my admiration for the mother as the queen of my heart and to show her solemn noble and sacred beauty!" – JUN LIU