To exhibit one’s work at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C., would be a high point in any artist’s career; to receive such an honor at the age of fourteen is truly remarkable. Yet that was the age of the Chinese painter Wang Yani when her paintings were given their first American showing there in 1989. Hundreds of thousands of visitors came and were 1. by her pictures of animals, birds, and landscapes. And in the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery, audiences were able to watch as Yani, barefoot and 2. casually in shirt and denim shorts, walked on stage. With 3. strokes of the brush, she produced works of art right before their eyes. She did so with total concentration, seemingly unaware of the onlookers. If fourteen seems a young age to receive so much attention, consider this: Yani’s first exhibition, in her native China, was held when she was four! She has been working 4. at her art since the age of two; that was when Wang Shi Chiang first became aware of his daughter’s interest in painting. Himself a well-known artist, he encouraged Yani by providing her with large sheets of paper, ink, and brushes. These are the traditional materials of Chinese painting. He never gave her a lesson and also discouraged her teachers at school from doing so. He believed such instruction would only 5. her imagination and prevent her from expressing her feelings freely. His faith in his daughter’s 6. talent was fully justified by her early success. In fact, Wang Yani’s fame soon 7. her father’s fame.

Yani’s first subjects were monkeys. She became fascinated with their 8. after a visit to the local zoo. She has painted hundreds of pictures of them. One of her favorites is thirty feet long and took her just four hours to complete. It shows 112 monkeys in various 9. , each with a different expression.

As she grew older, she became more 10. and began painting other creatures such as birds, horses, and lions. Later, her style 11. . She broadened her range of subjects to include trees, flowers, and, especially, landscapes. Her interest in landscapes is not surprising, because Yani lives in a region of great natural beauty in southern China, with gently rolling hills, clear streams, and ancient temples. Not far away are the famous cone-shaped Guilin mountains. The mountains are often 12. in mist and are a favorite subject of the young painter. Yani paints what she feels about what she sees rather than simply what she sees. In her paintings of the mountains, she tries to capture the feeling of 13. that she experienced while visiting the scene.

She often begins by spilling ink onto the paper, a method known as po-mo. She follows this with a few 14. strokes. Then she proceeds rapidly until the painting is completed, often in less than half an hour. Yani often includes an 15. in Chinese characters as part of a painting. A typical one reads, “Autumn is a withering season for the trees, but the animals are happy.”

By the time she was sixteen, Yani had painted more than ten thousand pictures. Today, as an adult, she is still painting. Her work continues to grow and change. She finds new ideas in nature and in the changing world around her. She also finds them through singing and dancing. These are skills that she feels have helped with her painting. In a good painting, according to a Chinese saying, “the brush sings and in ink dances.”

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