Cleaner by day, artist by night

Drawing on a dream

In 2016, when she heard that there was a free painting course in Shuangxi ancient town, East China's Fujian province, Wang, the then 50-year-old farmer and housewife in Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province, knew that it was time to restart her life. Although married twice, happiness seemed elusive.

"The timing was right, because my daughter graduated from college and my rural home was decorated," she recounts, adding that at first, she wanted to use painting as a way to release her emotions.

Wang left her home in Shang'ao village, Zhejiang province, in March 2017, with just a few hundred yuan to her name, and started a week's study at a charity program initiated by artist Lin Zhenglu in Fujian.

"Providing paint, brushes and canvas for free, teacher Wang Yafei told me to paint whatever I wanted. On the fourth day, I finished my first picture, depicting a springtime scene in the town, with rapeseed flowers blossoming in the fields," Wang Liuyun says. She completed another two paintings on the fifth and sixth day.

"Although Lin kept saying that I had a talent for landscape painting, I didn't believe that," she recalls.

Wang Liuyun left the studio with just enough money to get back home. Shortly after leaving, her three paintings were sold, each for 150 yuan ($22.32).

"It boosted my confidence and I began to take painting seriously. It not only keeps me entertained, but also makes money," she says.

Borrowing 5,000 yuan from the local rural credit cooperative, Wang Liuyun went back to Lin's studio and decided to stay longer. Renting a hotel room for 600 yuan a month, she could get a canvas board every day and two paintbrushes and three pigments every week from the studio.

"I enjoyed every day in Shuangxi. I kept drawing and painting without feeling tired."

In three months, she finished more than 50 paintings. To promote her work, Lin helped her to open a small exhibition.

However, the happy days didn't last long. Three months later, her husband borrowed money to go to Shuangxi to take her back home.

"There was gossip about me in the village. He was afraid that I would divorce him," she explains.

Within a week of being back, Lin contacted her saying that all her works were sold, and had made a total sum of 20,000 yuan. Many people contacted her for paintings. She bought a smartphone to help her sell her work.

In 2018, she went to spend a year immersing herself in appreciating artworks in Shenzhen's Dafen oil painting village in Guangdong province. She then became an art teacher at a rural primary school in Henan province in 2019. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak which led to the school's shutdown, she had to quit that job and headed to Beijing to seek employment in early 2020.

It is the third year that Wang Liuyun has worked as a cleaner in Beijing, earning 4,500 yuan a month, but she never stops painting. For her, Beijing is a city of tolerance and displays a civilized hospitality, where she gains respect, fair treatment and security.