In the rhythms of music he found the same spirituality as what he found in nature. He spoke of once camping with friends in Luorong Pasture in Sichuan province, where, unable to sleep, he slipped out of his tent.

"I was suddenly enraptured by the view of the snowy mountains. I just sat there and couldn't take my eyes off them," he recalled.

"I thought they were deeply impressed in my mind, but when I painted them after I came home, I was not able to fully convey the same marvelous feeling of that night and the spirituality of the mountains."

Du Pengfei, executive director of the Tsinghua University Art Museum, says that Zhao conceived the Sacred Mountains series after he turned 60.

He often said that the series was part of a process of breaking his own rules and smashing himself into pieces, during which he questioned the connections between art and life, and allowed himself to rediscover the true meanings of art and life, Du explains.

"Later, he went further in dropping some themes in his work, and gave his paintings numerical titles, which was a way to remove limits and reinvent himself," he says.

"How courageous he was to recreate himself, and how precious that he was reawakened with creativity."

Contact the writer at linqi@chinadaily.com.cn