Chinese artist's paintings evoke a sense of Cartier-Bresson's photographs

Ma Mingze focuses on urban life in her oil paintings now on show in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

She says the man views the tree as an old friend to whom he can confide his worries, and she remembers that after he finishes, he stuffs the hole with grass and mud as a way to seal his deepest secrets.

"His act is meaningless but it enthralls me."

She says that one day when she was anxious she recalled the scene. So, she created a similar situation in Secret: She painted a wall at a street corner and one of its bricks had a small hole.

"When I painted it, I imagined a scene in which a man slowly passes an alley and stops before the wall. There, he lights a cigarette and speaks to the hole as he smokes, and in the end, he fills the hole with the cigarette stub."

She says that sometimes people need to seal their pains and forget their past so that they can move on.

Ma, a native of northeastern Liaoning province, failed in English at her college entrance exams when she was seeking to enter the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang. So, she studied for another year to get into the academy's oil painting department.

She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the department.

She then taught at a middle school in Beijing, before she quit to pursue a career as a professional painter.

Among her other works is a painting called Magpie, which reflects her early experiences.