Creating a world of well-rounded folks

Flower in red pitch. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The scenes from many of his works are descriptions of what he witnessed in his childhood and as a young adult in Colombia: the houses in Medelline, when he was born and lived until the age of 19, his family home, from which his recalls his mother often walking out and the winding streets leading up to a mountain.

His images aren't entirely based on real-life models but his own style of satire.

Botero's works are figurative and meanwhile very close to abstract art, says Juan Carlos Botero.

"For him, the harmony of colors and the beauty of composition are more essential than the anecdotes."

The son says at times his father would turn his paintings around after completing them to determine which color need another coat, and which element requires to be smaller to balance the composition and to create a sense of serenity, beauty and calmness.

Botero's works tend to freeze his subjects in time and communicate an eternal loss of sensation, which is a fundamental aspect he inherited from Piero Francesca, a 15th-century Italian painter.

As a tribute to Francesca, Botero reproduced his paired portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, but placed them in a setting of Latin America.

The paintings are on display at Botero in China.