Recently, Liu Huayu, a tiger painting expert known as the "Tiger King of Shenzhou", brought a number of classic tiger-themed paintings to hold the 2022 Spring Festival Exhibition at the Jinan Newspaper Building. Liu Huayu's tigers have different looks and appearances, and the overall painting is magnificent and shocking, and the exhibition has attracted the attention of many audiences at the beginning. "I like the tiger in my heart" "Draw a tiger to be focused, not impatient, and the next pen should be affirmed" "To give it a 'human touch'"... The simple words tell him more than 50 years of experience in painting tigers, as well as his love for traditional Chinese culture and his firm belief in vowing to inherit Chinese tiger culture.
Bond with the tiger
It all has to start with the "Little Man Book"
Liu Huayu, Zi Bohu, Shan Jun Shepherd, Nanhua Resident. Born in 1954 in Jinan, Shandong Province, he has loved painting since he was a child and has participated in exhibitions since he was 10 years old. In his studio, paintings created over the years are displayed here, where the vivid tiger attracts the eye and the beauty that can be felt in nature is in the painting.
Why love tigers alone? Recalling the fate with the tiger, Liu Huayu told reporters that when he was a child, he could buy a villain book for a few cents, such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West" and other books, there are illustrations of tigers, and every day he copies the tigers on the books. "I have feelings for tigers, and I like tigers in my heart", a lot of copying practice has laid a solid foundation for future tiger painting. Over the past 50 years, Liu Huayu has used artistic expression techniques such as hyper-realism, work-and-write, and ink painting to paint thousands of tigers with different shapes and more than 100 tiger heads with thousands of appearances.
In 1991, Liu Huayu exhibited the 60-meter-long large-scale "Hundred Tiger Figures" and the giant "Tiger Head Diagram" at the first China Hundred Absolute Expositions, and the famous Chinese painter Li Dinglong personally wrote the inscription "Shenzhou Tiger King" after viewing the old man to encourage it. Later, Liu Huayu worshiped under the name of the "Great Wind Hall" created by the famous ink splashing masters Zhang Daqian and Zhang Zishan, and was personally taught by Mu Lingfei, a master of contemporary Chinese painting. Under the continuous study and tempering, Liu Huayu has a better control over the artistic standards and thoughts and emotions of HuZuo.
Tiger through human nature
Painting the tiger also has a four-character scripture
It takes a few and a half months to make a small tiger work. Sometimes for a hair, Liu Huayu sits for half a day, three days, five days, and each work is carefully examined, which tests patience and perseverance. Liu Huayu told reporters that the process of painting tigers is complicated and precise, and the structure of tigers is the most difficult to draw. "The flesh pad of the male tiger is larger than that of the female tiger, and the footprints left by walking up are deep; the proportion of the tiger's eyes to the ear roots and the nose should also be paid attention to at all times, the painting is a dog when it is long, and the painting is short and becomes a cat..." Over the years, Liu Huayu poured a lot of blood and sweat into the tiger, he traveled all over the country, close contact with the tiger in zoos around the country, to understand the habits of the tiger, the changes in the hair of the male tiger and the female tiger, and so on. It also visits many famous mountains and rivers, observes the trend of mountains and rivers, and integrates landscapes into the creation of tiger paintings, forming the flexible beauty of the tiger according to the mountain.
The tiger in Liu Huayu's painting returns to human nature and is a spiritual protagonist with both affection and affection. He said that these "protagonists" are grateful, sentient, intelligent, quick, loving and merciful, and "righteous" are self-righteous, have thoughts and emotions, and have virtue and disposition. "Tigers understand human nature, and we must give it a 'human touch.'" This is a sentence that Liu Huayu has repeatedly emphasized. Joy, anger, sorrow, joy, love, hate, affection, hatred, these emotional words are definitely not the "patent" of man.
In the accumulation of creations, Liu Huayu summed up the four-character true scripture of painting tigers - good, learning, diligence and courage. Good refers to hobbies, learning refers to practice, diligence can make up for clumsiness, and courage is the heart. Liu Huayu's works show extraordinary basic skills, active artistic thought, and solid compositional ability. He believes that painting should first cultivate interest, and then be willing to study, think diligently, learn more, and summarize well, and you will be able to succeed. The big freehand technique should show the shock, so the mind and courage should be large, the tiger is mighty and unstoppable, and the depiction of the tiger must highlight the might, majesty and boldness, which is used to represent the beautiful meaning.
Knowing the tiger understands the tiger
China's tiger culture has national genes
For Liu Huayu, painting tigers is a hobby, a persistence, and a heritage. In Liu Huayu's studio, there are art works such as root carvings and utensils related to tigers everywhere, and every time he sees objects related to tigers, he has to buy them and study them. Liu Huayu is obsessed with tigers, one of which is because the tiger culture and art that has been passed down for thousands of years is worth exploring and inheriting.
In the Chinese zodiac, the tiger is the only animal that spans two worlds, and the king of the hundred beasts has his own divinity, and the words containing the tiger do not hesitate to praise. According to Liu Huayu, the origin of tiger culture is not later than that of dragon culture, as early as the Stone Age, there is a tiger totem symbol. The tiger is hidden in the folk, can incarnate tens of millions, is the protection god of the common people, and it is natural for traditional Chinese culture to advocate tigers and national genes to love tigers. In Liu Huayu's new work "Tiger Totem", you can see the traditional Chinese auspicious pattern - the town house god tiger, which is used by the people to pray for home and tranquility, happiness and well-being; in the tiger head series of works, the tiger wei symbolizes the national prestige, and the tiger spirit is the epitome of the Chinese spirit...
Liu Huayu respects the tiger, and elevates the realm and sublimates emotions in the interpretation of tiger culture. In recent years, tigers have become rare and endangered species, and Chinese understanding of tigers, they have generally experienced a long process of worship, reverence, use, hunting and protection. He said that the spirit of traditional Chinese culture cannot be lost, and he sincerely hopes to increase people's understanding of tigers and attach importance to tiger culture through his paintings, and also hopes to contribute to enhancing the cultural self-confidence of the nation.