Landscape painter Ma Hong is deeply attached to rural, rugged North China where he grew up. He roams the countryside and his gentle, tranquil works convey his love for the land.

For more than a thousand years, Chinese landscape paintings have been a symbol of nature and a way of expressing emotions.

Ma Hong, a northern Chinese oil painter born in 1959, expresses the tranquillity of the rugged landscape in his native Hebei Province. The low-contrast, earth-tone paintings are soft and gentle in feeling.

Ma, who comes from Chengde, is exhibiting more than 30 of his latest works at the Liu Haisu Arts Museum. They capture the quiet of rural towns in Taihang Mountain, seen from afar, the sunlight on trees, rivers and fields, with mountains rising in the background.

In focusing on ordinary rural landscapes, not emotional, breathtaking vistas, Ma conveys his deep affection for the scenery. For him, beautiful scenery is not the most important thing - what he really cares about is his emotional connection with the land.

"I only paint something that I am extremely familiar with, like my hometown where I spent all my life," says the artist.

Carrying his pigments, bushes and canvas, Ma explores some of the most remote areas of his home province. He travels as the spirit moves him, and paints what strikes his heart.

Some viewers may say the scenes have a sameness to them, without prominent features. Ma seldom uses bright color, as he wants to present the scenery "the way it is."

"I found my heart was quiet when I was painting landscapes," says Ma, whose latest paintings were all created in the Taihang Mountain area from 2002 to 2006.

He travels to the same area at different seasons of the year to capture different aspects of the scenery and different emotions.

He was inspired one golden autumn afternoon as he was walking. Rays of sunshine pierced the shade and Ma was suddenly touched by the scenery, by the place where he has spent his entire life.

"That was where I got the inspiration for the landscape series. It was a feeling," says Ma. "What I am doing is expressing the emotion through my touch on the canvas."

(Shanghai Daily November 1, 2007)