I grew up in Hainan. On our island, fishing harbors are not merely places where boats are moored — they are the center of people’s lives. Fishermen set out to sea before dawn, mend heavy nets, and repair the wooden hulls of their boats. Their hands have been roughened by salt and wind, while their faces have darkened under the southern sun.

In this painting, I sought not to create a picturesque sunset scene in the manner of a tourist image, but to construct its psychological portrait — a reflection of hard work as an inner experience. It is a portrait of hope and quiet joy that emerges after the end of an exhausting working day. The outlines of boats, fishing gear, and dark human silhouettes form a living image of my homeland. Dense, saturated tones of red, gold, and warm ochre convey the heat of the Hainan sun that I remember from childhood, as well as the inner aspiration of ordinary people toward light.

The Russian realist school taught me its most important lesson: art must remain truthful. At the same time, Chinese culture revealed to me that authentic reality is often concealed within the simplest, most everyday things.