Inspired by a tree

Ink-brush artist Zhou Zunsheng is holding his solo exhibition, Poplar Trees Never Decay, featuring paintings of the trees, at the Xinjiang International Convention and Exhibition Center in Urumqi. [Photo/ China Daily]

Xinjiang is the home to some 80 percent of China's poplars. And they are the source of inspiration for a solo show by Zhou Zunsheng now on at the Xinjiang International Convention and Exhibition Center. Lin Qi reports.

Over the last two decades, ink-brush artist Zhou Zunsheng has frequently journeyed between his home in Beijing and the source of his inspiration, the Xinjiang Ugyur autonomous region. Every year, the 59-year-old stays there for two to six months.

He says every time he leaves Xinjiang, he feels like "a man who cries when parting from his lover". And when he returns, he is "as eager as a man running toward his destination".

Besides traveling in the region, he often visits his "friends", the desert poplar trees around the Tarim River.

Xinjiang is home to 80 percent of China's poplars. They've existed in the area for some 60 million years.

The trees have been a major subject of Zhou's paintings since 2000.