-Yang Ming's Chinese painting creation

Text/Shao Dazhao

After the founding of New China, the creation of Tibetan-themed Chinese paintings began to receive attention, and a large number of them emerged in the 1970s. In the 2 1 century, this kind of theme also shows the characteristics of diversified artistic concepts and styles, such as the separate development of freehand brushwork and realism, the feeling of ideal and reality or the search for different expressions, or the blending of the two, and so on. Many works give us a refreshing feeling from form to content. Among them, Yang Ming's creation of Tibet theme and western feelings is particularly worthy of our attention.

Every artist has his own unique "feelings", a lingering thought, that is, people are things, and there are truth and emptiness. Yang, who was born in Qinghai, is no exception. He grew up in Yushu Tibetan area in Qinghai for a long time, and the rich and simple culture in Tibetan area has already flowed in his body like blood and soaked in his artistic creation. Feelings for his hometown are naturally revealed in his works. Working people, yaks in the snow, Tibetan mastiffs and snowy peaks ... The unique customs of Tibetan areas in Yang Ming's paintings seem straightforward, but they are full of affection.

Without careful observation and experience of the unique natural scenery, customs and customs in Qinghai-Tibet region and long-term artistic skills, it is impossible to accurately grasp the unique "shape" of people, things and things in Tibetan areas. Only on the basis of grasping the "shape" can we better express its "charm". Yang Ming is an artist who is diligent in learning and brave in practice. He not only attaches importance to the experience and accumulation of life, but also constantly improves his modeling ability and pen and ink expression level. Because China's traditional freehand brushwork emphasizes "expressive form with both form and spirit", on the one hand, it requires the combination of "form" with "spirit", "scenery" and "emotion", on the other hand, in the long history, Page gradually established the evaluation standard of literati's lyrical brushwork. How to express "the realm beyond image" through pen and ink language, how to further sublimate subjective feelings and objective scenery in the use of pen and ink, and form an aesthetic schema beyond "the image of things", which requires artists to express their common feelings in a very personalized form in their creation. People live in different regions and countries, speak different languages and have different cultures, but they have one thing in common, and that is emotion. When an artist creates with a strong emotional area for people or things in nature, it will produce a moving force and infect the viewer.

In Yang Ming's ink paintings, the true feelings are always released. He likes painting since he was a child, and he has a feeling that snow is thicker than water for all creatures and things in this land. Because of his love for his hometown, Yang Ming chose animal husbandry and veterinary major without the qualification to study painting. After graduation, he volunteered to be assigned to work in Qumalai County, the highest altitude in Qinghai Province. The long-term and down-to-earth life experience is different from the collection style of ordinary artists and the short-term experience of going to the countryside. The hard and enjoyable life gave him a thorough understanding of the plateau snow-capped mountains, the long river sunset, Tibetan customs, herding horses, cattle and sheep, and his own unique understanding of life and nature. Therefore, in his works, men with rough and dark skin, capable and simple but beautiful women and innocent and bright children all show a leisurely and enthusiastic attitude towards life from their smiles to their postures; Those yaks and Tibetan mastiffs are vigorous and rugged, with strong physique and great strength. As Yang Mingxue worked as an animal husbandry veterinarian, he has professional knowledge about yak and some local livestock that other painters don't have, and has in-depth research on the relationship between yak and society and religion. He has written a series of articles such as Yak Culture in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau-Yak Totem, Ancient Qiang Culture, Yak Rock Paintings in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau-Ancient Information, and Talking about Yak Improvement. This makes his mental understanding of yak go beyond the simple concept of zoology, and he has technical knowledge of anatomy and zoology that ordinary painters don't have. Therefore, the yak he painted not only has a mysterious totem symbol of special significance, but also is very accurate in the combination of modeling and pen and ink, and uses dark color and dry and wet changes to express its sense of volume and thickness. Yak's hoof shows strength with thick ink, and its tail shows elegance with light ink. It can be seen that he knows his own structure and temperament like the palm of his hand, and the control of pen and ink seems to be at his fingertips. Painters endow these animals with human spiritual characteristics, and they are as tough and unruly as the Tibetan people. There is a cloud in Buddhism: "The wind does not move, the tree does not move, it is your heart." It is Yang Ming's love for his hometown and Tibetan areas that injects infinite vitality and passion into his painting language.

The enthusiasm and richness of Yang Ming's works are also reflected in his absorption and application of "color". The injection of "color" endows China's traditional freehand figure painting with stronger "appreciation", which is a breakthrough in the concept of literati painting and a self-enclosed language structure of traditional ink painting. In the early days, he was also obsessed with freehand brushwork and made some meaningful explorations. In recent years, he has dealt with the relationship between ink and color more dialectically, attaching importance to the role of both ink and color. He is familiar with Zhang Yanyuan's exposition in the Record of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties in the Tang Dynasty: "Five colors of ink transport". From his works, we can see his profound skills in dealing with ink. He dared to use ink boldly, and brought the ink painting techniques of Chinese painting into full play, not sticking to the gains and losses between one stroke and one ink. His style is chic and casual, and he sees his intelligence in wildness and debauchery. Yang Ming's use of color is very clever. Every time he paints clothes, accessories and other details, he will add a little liveliness and agility through the use of red, yellow and green. This color, unified in the use of ink color, makes the picture active and rich, regardless of primary and secondary.

The ancients said, "Mo Miao is a good writer, and life is a kind of enjoyment". Painting is happy for Yang Ming. The human feelings of mountains and rivers in Tibet and the west are sometimes bold and unrestrained, and sometimes delicate and clever in Yang Ming's works. "Modeling", "pen and ink" and "color" all seem to take a back seat at this time, but what deeply infects us is the artist's free and unrestrained creative state and touching feelings behind the painting.