Staff members from the Guangdong Museum of Art arrange an exhibit of He Duoling's paintings at his solo show in Guangzhou.

"When I paint, I enter a quiet and lonely world parallel to real life," He says.

"My life can be intense, but the world in which my art is created is quiet and behind a shut door."

He is only introverted when alone, he explains.

"I love hanging out with people only when we're at ease, talking about art and life. I avoid trapping myself in big occasions where I need to socialize with officials and businesspeople."

This may explain why He, who made a name for himself in 1982 when his Spring Winds Have Awoken painting was exhibited at the Spring Salon Exhibition in the Louvre in Paris and later collected by the National Art Museum of China, has left the spotlight to his Sichuan Fine Arts Institute schoolmates.

Oil painter Zhou Chunya, who graduated with He in 1982, tops the latest Hurun Art List released in April with $76 million in 2012 auction sales. He ranked 44th with $7.8 million.

He's classmate Luo Zhongli is the institute's president, the China Artists Association's vice-president and a National People's Congress deputy. He keeps a lower profile as a painter and a professor at the Chengdu Academy of Fine Arts under the Sichuan Conservatory of Music.

He says he has no hard feelings and admires his schoolmates' ability to become successful businesspeople and administrators, while actively creating art.

He has declined opportunities to become an institute's director, he says.

"I hate meetings," he says.

"I fear responsibility and interfering with others. I'd rather leave them alone and have them do the same to me."