Dai Ze, a prominent oil painter and retired professor of Central Academy of Fine Arts, believes that truth and purity constitute the essential beauty of life. 

The 99-year-old has produced a body of works including paintings which document his country's socialist progress as well as still lifes and landscapes that evoke a sense of calm and serenity. 

Nurturing Silently, an exhibition navigating Dai's career over the decades, brings together representative works from different stages of his creations at the National Art Museum of China until Oct 7. 

In his works, both oil paintings and watercolors, Dai doesn't seek to embellish the subjects with more colors; rather, he tries to present the most natural moment with a soft palette that makes viewers feel as if time has stopped on the canvas.