Photo provided to China Daily

Huang was born in Hebei province and fled to Shaanxi province with his family after the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945) broke out.

He dropped out of school following the death of his father. He taught himself how to paint by sketching people from China's lower classes lower, and then later improved his style under the guidance of painters such as Han Leran and Zhao Wangyun.

Together with Zhao, he founded the Chang'an Painting School, an artists' group based in Xi'an, capital city of Shaanxi province, known as Chang'an in ancient times. The group rose to fame in the 1960's for painting magnificent landscapes of the Loess Plateau and detailing the life of farmers in Northwest China filled with earnest and deeply human concerns.

Huang is mostly known for his artistic depictions of ethnic people and donkeys.

He also started a fine art foundation which was named after him along with the Yanhuang Art Museum.

"I'm just a painter. Painting is my job, and the job is an important part of my life. That's what I only have to live on," he once said.