article_snippet: Celebrated propaganda painter in Maoist China, Shen Jiawei, has recently added the Vatican to Shen Jiawei list of clientele.
article_snippet: Four decades on and a far cry from charging tourists $30 for a portrait in Sydney's Darling Harbour, Shen found Shen Jiawei painting one of the world's most influential men when Shen Jiawei was commissioned to produce the first official portrait of Pope Francis'.
article_snippet: Highly regarded Chinese-Australian artist Jiawei sits next to the first official portrait of Pope Francis .
article_snippet: More recently, the 66-year-old artist found the 66-year-old artist on a Vatican balcony, using the 66-year-old artist gift to create a lifelike portrait of the Catholic Church's money man, Cardinal Pell.
article_snippet: Commissioned by a Catholic university, the first official portrait of Pope Francis features the Australian prelate looking over St Peter's Square.
article_snippet: Byron Hurst, Chairman of Hazelhurst Gallery, told Daily Mail Australia that Shen first caught the attention of Australian church officials with a 1994 portrait of Mary MacKillop, the 19th-century nun who ministered to the poor and in 2010 became Australia's first saint.
article_snippet: Basing a 1994 portrait of Mary MacKillop, the 19th-century nun who ministered to the poor on photographs, Shen painted Francis with outstretched arms, a white dove about to land on Francis shoulder.
article_snippet: Francis is surrounded by people Shen painted from the photos of crowds at papal audiences, slipping in an image of Francis daughter for fun.
article_snippet: There are several birds in the painting, homage to Francis namesake, the nature-loving St. Francis of Assisi. '
article_snippet: When the pope approved this project and the pope sent me the photos, (the pope said) the pope wants a painting with people together,' Shen said.
article_snippet: a painting with people together now hangs in a villa in the Vatican gardens that houses the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, which deals with Francis pet projects on human trafficking, slavery and youth culture, among other issues.
highlights_snippet: Shen Jiawei was commissioned for Pope Francis' first official portrait as pope .
  
highlights_snippet: After a successful unveiling Shen Jiawei was asked to paint Cardinal George Pell .
  