Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn

Ink-and-wash artist Yuan Wu gained the power to excess and the confidence to express from these devout Tibetans when traveling in Lhasa. His solo exhibition, The Heaven and the Lantern, shows a series of colored ink portraits of Tibetans who are on their pilgrimage routes to the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.

In these works, all titled The Morning of Jokhang Temple, people of varying ages pose the same praying position to hold their hands together, and their side faces speak for peace and kindness.

Yuan endeavors in the realm of neo-realism and new ink painting. And he has found the same passion and devotion in the Tibetans as what he embraces for painting. In his works, he tries to tend the flame of traditional ink art by incorporating spiritual energies from religion.

The exhibition is held at Beijing’s Today Art Museum until March 8.