Judging from the use of alum in Chinese painting, the traditional method of making cooked rice paper is to soak raw rice paper with alum to make it mature, that is, to change the permeability of raw rice paper and make it difficult to penetrate. In the past, many painters painted meticulous paintings, and the cooked rice paper used was this kind of alum propaganda. Its disadvantage is that it is easy to crack and turn yellow. After the meticulous painting is completed, it seems that turning the whole painting yellow will not hinder the overall situation. I remember when I first learned Chinese painting, I bought new rice paper. Our master painter warned me that if we can't control the pen and ink too quickly, we can hang the rice paper for a while. After air oxidation, the paper will not penetrate too fast or too slowly. This is called wind alum. It can be seen that the air must have a great influence on Chinese painting. The ancients talked about the use of alum in traditional techniques, mainly treating water with alum locally to prevent it from infiltrating into ink, but the works are rare. In Fu Baoshi's wind and rain works, rain silk is painted with alum first, and then rendered with ink. Because the alum trace is more or less covered by colored ink, it doesn't matter if the alum trace turns yellow. It seems that if alum is used in painting without adding other colors, and alum is used to paint white in a large area, there will definitely be future trouble. The main raw material of rice paper is a kind of wood called sandalwood bark, which is made by crushing and bleaching. Such bleaching agent and alum of rice paper, combined with long-term air oxidation, especially seasonal wet and dry operation, can be imagined at last. If a painter wants to keep his works in the world, be responsible for himself, collectors and history, he must think about this problem.
I climbed out of the lesson of painting snow scenes for many years. To this end, I paid a painful price and destroyed hundreds of carefully crafted works. Many paintings have turned yellow, and some are quite bad. The more white they need, the uglier they are. To be sure, it is not as good as alum and rice paper. I must study again and choose another way. This is also the main reason why I later used the blank method to express the world of ice and snow.
As I said above, blank space was put forward by the ancients a long time ago, which is the most difficult Chinese painting technique. However, due to the great difficulty, the ancients were not perfect, especially in the vast world of ice and snow. It can be said that they are almost helpless. The only way is to use a coil, twist it slightly, render the surroundings and leave a blank in the middle, such as painting a mountain.
However, due to the emergence of a large number of talents among painters, it is proved that Chinese painting is indeed a profound and excellent painting with unlimited potential, and it also represents the righteousness and tolerance of our nation. In other words, Chinese painting is not a lack of expressiveness, but a lack of pioneering painters. For example, Nan Haiyan, a young painter, countered some people's doubts about the expressive power of Chinese painting colors, and so did the performance of the world of ice and snow. After decades of exploration, I began to use alum locally. Later, when I discovered its future trouble, I gave up the use of alum, and everything was blank.
I was born in northern Shandong and grew up in southern Liaoning, and the geographical conditions gave me rich materials. My painting has never left the track of Chinese painting. I really show the light and shadow of nature in my paintings. Landscape painting mostly faces nature. Observing and thinking in the description naturally formed my current painting style. I have studied Chinese painting for more than forty years. Pen and ink are the means to express form and truth, form is for expression, and pen and ink is for expression. The most fascinating thing about Kanto is the vast world of ice and snow, which should be the main feature and the soul of Kanto. Chinese painting is Chinese painting, and it should be a mainstream to express the local ice and snow world. Looking at it now, it is still recognized that the performance of northern scenery is an important theme of Chinese painting, especially the difficult technique of blank space. Practice has proved that this is the most difficult and best method. The more difficult it is, the more valuable it is, which requires the painter's life experience and the courage to break through the difficulties. I have made up my mind to invest in this project, and achieved initial results, which have been recognized and encouraged by many experts. I firmly believe that ice and snow painting will turn a new page in the history of China painting.