Abstract:The paper mainly discusses oil paintings of Yi people in Butuo County created by three famous oil painting artists Gao Xiaohua, Cheng Conglin and Pang Maokun in the 1980s and 1990s from the angle of art theory and folklore and analyzes different images of Yi people here in their eyes on the basis of their specific oil paintings. Meanwhile, a comparative study is made on the images and painting schema of Yi people created by them in different periods.