Photo by Liu Xiangrui / China Daily

Once he painted traditional buildings in Huizhou, a historical region in southeastern China. Against the overall gray tone, he included a bright crescent moon in the sky. But its reflection in the water is a full moon, which in Chinese culture is symbolic of family reunion.

"Reality and dreams are often different," he explains.

This painting turned out to be an interpretation of the inner world of local women, who longed for reunions with their husbands. Businessmen from Huizhou are famous for often traveling all over the country for business, leaving their wives and families at home.

Most of his paintings fall into the abstract style. Yan says he believes abstracts "have unsurpassed beauty and are a better tool to express the spiritual world".

Meanwhile, he has fully exploited the agile nature of ink painting to express his poetic feelings, as he did in works for the upcoming show.

"In the spiritual world, I am as free as the water ink," says Yan.

For him, it has been a benefit rather than a loss that he didn't receive any formal education in art.

"I was like a blank paper. So I had few scruples and confinements," he says.