In the mid-80s, Chinese realist painter Chen Yanning started his artistic journey in the United States. He later became an art professor in Oklahoma City University in 1988. Awa y from his home town, Chen gradually stood out in the Western art world. He has received some major portraiture awards and held several solo exhibitions during the past two decades in the West. In 1991, Chen was awarded the national prize held by Federation of British Artists, and honourably painted portraits for the British Queen and Prince Philip. Through his realistic paintings, Chen recorded the multiple faces of contemporary culture in his own way. Open Country (Lot 1155) was painted in 1989 while Chen had only been to the USA for a few years. In this painting, Chen merged the humanistic spirit from his Eastern root into his masterly oil painting technique, making it a classic work during this period of his career. In the work Open Country, the innocent facial expressions and detailed and vivid outfits of the ethnic minority children in China reveal Chen's exceptionally realistic portraying skills. In terms of composition, even though the figures are not placed in the centre, they are emphasized by the monochrome background and the slightly blurred wild field. Chen's paintings seem to bring viewers into a wonderful, ceased time, which is partly because of the special aura he created. With Chen's careful arrangement, time is static and condensed in his painting. The Chinese ethnic minority children's piercing eyes are looking back at the viewers, in the poetic wild field. In Chen's paintings, Chinese realistic oil paintings are no longer the extension of the prolonged development of Western oil paintings, but the capture of the verve and the soul of the Eastern spirit. Chen has successfully constructed a unique style with originality and nationality.