Yu Jianrong 于建嵘 has never received formal art training before he started painting portraits of Chinese petitioners. Look at what he is now doing!
Picture
Picture credit: Lianhe Zaobao 联合早报

As a sociologist, he comes into contact with many petitioners. He'd initially commissioned artists to do a series of 10 portraits using photographs. After rejecting their work for being too unimaginative (匠气 jiangqi), he picked up the brush and did it himself.