Old Kunming is the obsession of old Kunming people who can't go back, and every old Kunming person can find his own belonging in his paintings. Artist Jiang Ling started a painting journey of the old Kunming scene in a fortuitous coincidence of drawing an illustration of his father's academic works, those inadvertent past, familiar and strange deceased people, old streets that have walked countless times, dark street trees... Although it has been washed for a long time, the things and scenery that are still not easy to forget are becoming more and more timeless.
"Painting Kunming" album. Intern reporter Yang Qian/Photo
Artist Jiang Ling used "painting" to say Kunming, more than 400 "old Kunming", each of which has a story, each of which is a trace of time. Next, he also wants to use "painting" to say Yunnan, collecting the unique colors of Yunnan's great rivers and mountains and ethnic minorities into his paintings and sharing them with more people.
Jiang Ling is introducing his paintings. Intern reporter Yang Qian/Photo
The back of his father's work became the driving force for Jiang Ling to insist on painting
Jiang Ling was born in the early 1970s and grew up in a high mountain shop next to Nanping Street in the old city center, and he always had an indelible emotion for old Kunming in the depths of his memory. "Alpine Shop" is too familiar to the old Kunming people, it is a small street hidden behind the bustling Nanping Street, or an alley to be precise.
"My grandmother had to eat noon every day, which was also the habit of many old Kunming people, so every afternoon, my grandmother would let me buy buns, or burn bait blocks, small pots of rice noodles, cold roll powder, pea flour, rice cakes, etc." Jiang Ling said that he was walking inside and out of the alpine shop at that time, and it was precisely because of his experience of living in the alpine shop since he was a child that he had created his unique feelings about art, and he would have indelible emotions for old Kunming.
Jiang Ling "88 Years of Beijing Road" 55cmx37cm pen pastel 2021
Jiang Ling's painting process has gone through three stages: Chinese painting, oil painting and pen painting. In elementary school, Jiang Ling liked painting, and his parents were very supportive of his hobby and enrolled him in a Chinese painting class. "At that time, the conditions were not good, he and I could only draw on the straw paper, and as soon as the ink was stained, I immediately fainted." Jiang Ling said, but he still insisted on going to class, so he drew from straw paper to rice paper.
"What impressed me most when I was a child was the back of my father's desk work." Jiang Ling said that his father, Jiang Gaochen, was an expert in ethnic architecture, and in addition to supporting his hobbies from an early age, his influence on his painting creation was profound and lifelong. Jiang Ling said that when he was a child, the family of four lived together, no matter what time he woke up, his father was writing, and the back of the book was the benchmark for Jiang Ling's diligent painting.
Jiang Ling", "North Gate Street in the 90s", 51cmx36cm pen pastel 2021
In 2015, when Jiang Ling began to "paint" the Kunming paintings, his father was already eighty years old, but he was still writing the manuscripts that were about to be handed over to the publishing house, and he also had the creative structure and writing plan of several books. "Every time I talk to my father, it's a great encouragement to me." Jiang Ling said that until now, his father has insisted on writing every day.
Jiang Ling "Bijifang" 55cmX32cm pen pastel 2020
Jiang Ling was admitted to the Yunnan Academy of Arts at the age of 17, majoring in environmental art, he has been engaged in the human settlement environment design industry after graduation, and has also held several positions, serving as a director of the Chinese National Architecture Research Association, a member of the Yunnan Provincial Artists Association, a member of the Yunnan Oil Painting Association, a member of the Kunming Artists Association, a secretary-general and vice president of the Design Professional Committee of the Cloud Room Association, the chairman of Wenda Gallery, and the executive director of DAS Omori Design Agency, but he still uses fragmented time to insist on painting creation. "Being able to paint all day on the weekend is the best rest for me." After a day's work, he went home to pick up the lights and worked in the night to create a case, and Jiang Ling enjoyed it tirelessly.
Jiang Ling "Chongren Street" 55cmx37cm pen pastel 2021
Record with a brush that Kunming at that time and open a new stage of painting creation
"The old Kunming series was originally painted to fulfill his father's wishes, but from the first illustration onwards, it has been unstoppable, and in the past 5 years, more than 400 pen paintings with the theme of old Kunming have been accumulated, depicting the city of Kunming that has changed in the times since the 1930s, expressing the recollection of generations of people living in old Kunming and the simple nature that seems to flow like water." Jiang Ling began his painting journey of the old Kunming scene by chance to draw illustrations for his father's academic works.
Jiang Ling", Daguanhe, 55cmX29.5cm pen pastel 2020
Since 2015, Jiang Ling has created more than 400 old Kunming series of hard pen works, almost using his spare time to complete. "Each pen painting takes three to five hours to complete, and the difficulty in between is to accurately reconstruct the buildings, streets and alleys, but also to properly exaggerate the art. While combing through the historical form and architectural language of the ancient city of Kunming, it also keeps the picture loose and beautiful, and finds a balance between the image and the non-image. In his continuous creation, Jiang Ling tried to mix the painting techniques of sketching, comic strip and sketch, and gradually found his own method.
Jiang Ling", Daguan Street, 55cmx37cm pen pastel 2021
A signature pen, a piece of watercolor paper, occasionally colored with watercolor. To integrate into an emotion, as far as possible to bring yourself back to that era, from the beginning to the end almost in one go, all the details of the picture will be processed together in the process of painting, and no adjustment will be made after completion.
In terms of creative style, Jiang Ling pays attention to the trajectory and feel of the pen, and his picture is full of fine points and lines, and when you look closely, you will be lost in the full details and cannot find any realistic form, like facing a pure abstract formal language. The picture never emphasizes a single building or image, but always focuses on controlling the overall spatial relationship, so that the points, lines, and surfaces spread out like a net and grow along the overall spatial relationship.
Jiang Ling", "Dianchi Lake Grass Sea", 54cmX31.5cm pen pastel 2020
When Jiang Ling created this batch of paintings, only a few of them were sketches, because most of them depicted the old scene of Kunming, so a large number of historical images of old Kunming were referred to, such as the first batch of stained glass inversion films taken in Kunming by Morrison (1820–1920), Fang Suya, William Dipa, an American Flying Tigers player, and some pictures with uncertain provenance. When he drew about 100 pictures, friends around him took the initiative to send the historical materials they had at hand for his reference.
Year after year, under the brush of Jiang Ling, Kunming's old streets, old alleys, old houses, and old trees have become the carriers for him to capture memories, Qingyun Street, Tianjundian Lane, Fengyi Street, Persimmon Bridge, Ditai Temple... The old Kunming in memory jumped on the paper.
Jiang Ling "Dongsi Street" 55cmx37cm pen pastel 2021
Use "painting" to say Yunnan so that more people can see the beauty of Yunnan
After "painting" Kunming, Jiang Ling has a new direction. He wants to continue to use the brush in his hand to depict the beautiful Yunling land, prepare for the "Painting" Yunnan Painting Exhibition, and plan to create 2,000 paintings, and he has created more than 400 paintings with Yunnan as the theme.
Jiang Ling", Golden Horse Fang, 54.5cmx32.5cm pen pastel 2020
"Painting and design are complementary, and art should be combined with urban development." During an expedition to an ancient village, Jiang Ling issued such an exclamation. In the new village of Tanglang Township in Luxun County, all the residents have been relocated out of the village, and the old houses left behind are all earthen palm houses, which are seriously damaged, so Jiang Ling painted them with a paintbrush. He believes that with the demolition and relocation of many ancient cities and ancient villages, they can be recorded with a paintbrush in a timely manner, which can greatly reflect the changes in the previous history, living environment, traditional architecture and culture, which can accumulate more experience for the development and renewal of the city in the future.
Jiang Ling", "Longmen Village in the 40s", 57cmX30.5cm pen pastel 2020
"The culture of Yunnan is diverse and diverse, and the diversity of residential buildings has made Yunnan rich and diverse architectural characteristics, and the multi-ethnic characteristics also show the colorful and gorgeous of Yunnan." Jiang Ling said that art should also be close to the people, positive aesthetics, as long as you like it is enough, architecture, art, culture together can create a new form of artistic expression. And Yunnan is unable to finish painting, what you can do is to sketch more, try to draw as much as possible, let more people see the beauty of Yunnan, and lead the culture of Yunnan out. (Kunming Information Harbor reporter Yu Xiao intern reporter Yang Qian)