Living in an isolated villa at the east end of Beijing, Shen Ye, a Chinese painter, spends most of her time creating free-style oil paintings.

　　Her creations cover a wide range of topics -- some of them display the beauty of nature, while others tell stories between the sexes. Her paintings, with blurred lines and soft colors, are neither too abstract nor too realistic.

　　Her works include depictions of party girls and naked bodies, as well as panoramic views of water banks and forests.

　　A graduate from China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Shen has drawn hundreds -- if not thousands -- of pictures, most of which are piled in a big store room in the first floor of her house.

　　She usually paints a picture a day, yet sometimes the work will take her months or even years to complete.

　　"There are times you feel excited to paint something, but occasionally the process will be blocked by some accidents or the bad moods," said Shen.

　　After graduating in 2006, Shen settled with her husband in Beijing. She leads a secluded life to concentrate all her energy on painting and reading.

　　"I read art history, philosophy, sociology and anthropology, the knowledge from which inspires me in my paintings," she said.

　　The professional painter once felt desperate because she thought painting was a hopeless career.

　　"It's not like movies, which can reveal a huge part of people's inner feelings," said Shen.

　　But when she painted more and became more experienced, she found drawing was an interesting game, which requires her to demonstrate as much as possible on a framed two dimensional space.

　　"Painting is to disclose the reality of the world through a piece of canvas, but the art is subjective," Shen said. "The visual center selected for a picture is inevitably what the painter thinks is the most important or interesting."

　　To mock traditional style, Shen painted a cup to surround a portrait of her husband's naked body.

　　"That's funny," she said. "Usually artists love to paint female bodies and male heroes, but for me, I just want to make a change. I feel free to paint the picture, and it looks lovely."

　　She met great difficulties in finding a job after the graduation and has been unsuccessful in finding a job. She said the world is unfair to women.

　　Because of this, she was in sad mood after graduation, and expressed her feeling through a series of girl portraits.

　　Gradually, she has become accustomed to the secluded life, and her paintings more free.

中国网：2010.07.07