The wandering of the heart and the ink
——Commenting on Chen Hua's freehand figure paintings
Text/Zhang Tongyu
Freehand figure painting seems to be very "lively" in recent years, which may be caused by the reverse effect of the popularity of the brush painting in previous years, and the advantages of freehand painting in participating in exhibitions with certain "consciousness" requirements are particularly prominent, which also attracts a large number of young painters to join it, fueling the popularity of freehand figure painting. However, we also find many problems through this "hilarious" surface. The most important of these is to pay too much attention to the effect of modeling and production, ignore the innovation in the sense of fine arts, mistake the pattern for style, and inadvertently embark on the road of craftsmanship. Fortunately, the old man always leaves young people with the opportunity to correct their mistakes, allowing them to make continuous progress in trial and error, and the invisible hand of "things must be reversed" will also lead them from this shore to the other shore, from the commercial packaging that pays attention to the impact effect of sociology, back to the ontological exploration of art and fine arts. In view of the development status of freehand figure painting, many talented young painters have also realized the seriousness of the problem, begun to look for the entry point for the academic innovation of character painting, and began to sort out the relationship between the transformation of intention and technique, which is also the "sunshine avenue" of the contemporary development of Chinese painting. In recent years, Chen Hua, a young painter who has been active in the Chinese painting world, has felt this and has shown extraordinary artistic talent in the process of exploring the expressive vocabulary of Chinese painting, which has attracted the attention of the painting community.
The realistic requirements of modern freehand figure painting in terms of expression have been different from the previous conceptual freehand character painting, which in addition to the consistent requirements of pen and ink taste, it needs the internal support of modeling and sketching skills, only in this way, freehand figure painting can complete the transformation from traditional form to modern form, and can fully express the painter's realistic emotions. However, what puzzled Chen Hua was that in the past, the drawing teaching of art schools did not take into account the problem of how the language of sketch expression was expressed to the freehand painting and the language of excessive, but only taught students some sketching skills in a flashy way, and it was difficult to integrate sketching and pen and ink in the same vocabulary system. At present, the confusion of the creative techniques and expression language of freehand figure painting is often caused by the relationship between sketching and pen and ink, in Chen Hua's view, the contemporary development of freehand characters, first of all, is the contradictory relationship between Tianzheng sketching and pen and ink, changing the previous concept and understanding of sketching, extracting the factors that are beneficial to Chinese brush ink edge county in sketching, and learning to use Chinese vision to examine sketching, so that sketching is used in Chinese painting. Based on this understanding, Chen Hua emphasized in his sketches the training method of taking the line as the technique, taking the structure as the basis, and taking the character modeling as the purpose, trying to avoid "accuracy", and striving to excavate the "image is not like", under the premise that the image is not necessarily accurate, so that the "image" of the character shape is unified in his "mental image", and the externalized work is "ink image". Due to the strengthening of lines and structures, the dilution of light and shadow, block surfaces and perspective, Chen Hua's sketches maintain a relative plane, which creates favorable conditions for the flatness of Chinese brush and ink. When we appreciate Chen Hua's freehand figure paintings, we will feel that he has not lost the inner interlude and connection of the structure in the relatively flat brush and ink swing, that is, he is seeking change in unity. In the specific techniques of painting creation, Chen Hua is still trying to unify the structural line and the pen, so that the plane structure and the ink are coordinated, and firmly grasp the "pen and ink" characteristics of Chinese painting, which is also the reason why his works are full of ink charm. In addition, the structural lines in Chen Hua's paintings are also very flexible, and he sometimes uses blank space to explain the direction of the structure in thick ink and splashed ink, which adds a lot of vivid atmosphere to his works. In order to avoid the monotony brought by the change in the relative plane to the work, Chen Hua in the pen and ink contrast relationship, with the big ink and white as the keynote, increased the contrast between the plane and the plane, so that the black and white contrast of the picture is very loud, enhance the visual tension.
Judging from Chen Hua's works in the past ten years, he has focused his performance on the "Winter Catch" series, which has become a symbol of his self-expression. Winter fishing is a tradition of fishing and hunting culture in Northeast China, which has been formed since the Neolithic Age and is an important part of Northeast Culture. Chen Hua's Winter Fishing series of creations captures the life state of fishermen in the ice and snow and the temperature of life in the cold, presenting a picture of northern Saibei that is cold and hot on the outside, the outside and soft on the inside. The image shaping he adopts also seems to be the solidification of a certain labor action, and it also seems to be frozen at once, showing a sculptural thickness, which is very consistent with the northeast region and characters, and is a high degree of unity of content and form.
Chen Hua's "Winter Catch" series has roughly two kinds of performance directions, one is the group scene depiction, the other is the specific portrayal of a certain image, and these depictions and portrayals highlight the vivid shaping of facial expressions, and the clothing, props and the like are simplified and flattened as much as possible to avoid too many branches affecting the presentation of the character's expression. One thing we should also note is that even in the composition of the group scene, Chen Hua tries to minimize the number of characters in the picture, avoid the picture from being too "lively", weaken the simplicity of the work, and win more than a little. The emphasis on the portrayal of the face is the highlight of Chen Hua's work, and his unique image depiction of the fishermen in the northeast can be described as three points into the wood, and the joy, laughter and anger are all articles, and sitting, standing and squatting are all included in the works. Typicality and universality are pinched just right. It is this profound shaping and enthusiastic dot dyeing that makes Chen Hua's "Winter Catch" series of works attract the attention of the academic community and become a certain symbol of his works.
It should be said that there are still many problems in contemporary freehand figure painting, which have not been solved, and there is still a lot of room for development that can be explored, which also provides a big stage for the personal play of freehand figure painters, and we sincerely hope that Chen Hua can become a qualified dancer, incorporate his Chinese painting creation into the overall pattern of China's contemporary development to consider, and create excellent works worthy of the times.
Artist Profile
Chen Hua
Born in 1964, he graduated from the Department of Fine Arts of Northeast Normal University in 1990, majored in Chinese Painting, studied in the Fine Arts Department of the People's Liberation Army Academy of Arts from 2000 to 2002, graduated from the Figure Painting Advanced Research Class of the National Academy of Painting of China in 2006, and graduated from the Modern Ink Painting Graduate Class of Capital Normal University in 2008. Member of China Artists Association, Director of Chinese Painting Society, Vice Chairman of Jilin Provincial Artists Association, Vice President of Jilin Provincial Chinese Painting Society, Vice President of Changbaishan School Of Painting Art Research Institute, Vice President of Jilin Provincial CPPCC Calligraphy and Painting Institute, Vice Chairman of Jilin Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature, Chairman of Jilin Artists Association, President of Jilin Academy of Painting, Director of Jilin Art Museum, Distinguished Professor of Northeast Normal University, Master Tutor of Academy of Fine Arts of Beihua University, Middle-aged and Young Professional and Technical Talents with Outstanding Contributions in Jilin Province, Top Innovative Talents of Jilin Province, National first-class artist (second-level professor), the highest award of literature and art of Jilin Municipal Government, the lifetime achievement award of Songhua Lake Literary and Art Award, and enjoys the special government allowance of the State Council.
Appreciation of works
One of the Characters in the Winter Catch series, 270×200cm, 2011
"Winter Catch Series Character Five" 240× 145cm, 2015
"Winter Catch Series Character Six" 230× 180cm 2019
"Winter Catch Series Character Seven" 240× 145cm 2017
"Winter Catch Series Character Eight" 230× 180cm, 2014
"Winter Catch Series Character Nine" 240× 145cm, 2016
"Winter Fishing Series Characters No. 10" 216×150cm, 2013
"Winter Catch Series Characters XI" 240× 145cm 2016
Characters of the Winter Hunt Series 260× 200cm 2014
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