Self-taught artist has brush with fame at 80

How it began

For Yang's 70th birthday, her daughter gave her a computer as a gift. After learning how to use it, she began writing her autobiography which she later printed.

In one section of the book, Yang struggled to describe a handmade mill. Instead, she drew a black and white illustration of the mill and included it on the page.

Liu said: "I told my mother that if she couldn't explain it well in her writing, she could paint it. Reading and typing on a computer was also harming her eyes."

Yang Peilian's first art work, the mill, didn't look so good without color. Once she filled it with color, she found her talent because she had "an excellent sense of color", Liu said.

After that, Yang switched from the pen to the paintbrush, painting her favorite animals, scenery and scenes from her childhood.

At the beginning of her life as an artist, she copied images of tigers shown in the TV show Animal World.

In 2015, Yang painted a tiger walking down from a mountain and gave it to her husband, who was once very domineering.

"He is just like the tiger who used to be strong but gradually loses his power," Yang said. "As he ages, he can no longer do anything harmful to me."

Liu said Yang also learned animal composition by observing farm animals. Yang also drew on her childhood memories for inspiration, such as herding cattle or painting herself smiling in a field of sunflowers wearing a pink T-shirt and yellow and white hat.

"When I was a child, I didn't have cosmetics or colorful clothes, which I loved a lot," Yang said.

"I lived in a poor and remote village where people didn't know too much about beauty or art. So I won't say that I have talent, but what I will say is that my paintings are true and natural."