Painter Xiong Qinghua creates in his Western-style home and studio in Changhe village, Hubei province, many surrealist images that reflect the serene past of the countryside and its current realities. [Photo by the artist]

Xiong's brushwork also embodies sadness and loneliness.

Speaking of his feelings, he tells of his childhood friends who return from the cities and are unaccustomed to the peace of their village homes, which makes him feel sad.

Despite his love for village life, Xiong also could not resist the lure of city life.

After getting married in 1999, Xiong found a job in a factory in a city.

But he says he quit his job soon because doing the same work on an assembly line every day "almost drove him to a breakdown".

He later looked for work in Dafen in South China's Guangdong province, where the village has blocks of wholesale production units of oil paintings. But he was turned down "for not having a diploma in painting and for being unwilling to produce copies".

So, he returned home to paint and do odd jobs to make ends meet.

At first, he says his fellow villagers who had not heard of oil painting wondered why he had left the city.

"In their eyes, I was a grown-up with a willful child inside, I was seen as a loser. But I believed that there are things more important than eating.

"I can endure suffering. I just can't stand a life that is neither creative nor interesting. Even when I fail 1,000 times, I still have hope," he says.

His turning point came in 2010 when a friend put his paintings online bringing him wide attention.

He held his first solo exhibition at the Chen Gallery in 2015 by which time he was known to art dealers and collectors.

His financial situation has since improved: He can now afford better painting tools and he has built a Western-style house for his family in the village.

But despite his success, Xiong has no plans to relocate to a city despite the more opportunities that such a move could bring. This is because he dislikes noise and traffic and feels secure working in the countryside.

Still, he doesn't blend with his fellow villagers.

"Knowing that I make money from painting, those who looked down on me earlier have changed their attitude. But I don't think they like my work."

He often depicts some villagers' devotion to money and their indulgence in gambling and alcohol.

Speaking of Xiong's work, Chen Min who has authored the artist's biography A Wild Potato says in the preface: "He paints the land where he is. ... His village is economically depressed and culturally conservative. But using a surrealist approach, Xiong unfolds the magical and profound reality (of the countryside)."