One
Fourth-grade daughter Xiaoqian is taking online classes at home again. This is also good, she can spend more time painting.
Remember that at the beginning of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in 2020, all schools were changed to online classes, and Xiaoqian watched live broadcasts and did homework at home every day. There were no children to play with, and she felt distressed, so she drew a group of little girls wearing masks, painting people who either took flowers or danced or listened to lectures. This childish work, which she named "Want to Go to School and Play with Children", was later selected to participate in the "Unity of Purpose - 2020 China Anti-epidemic Theme Art Works Exhibition".
This time, I wonder what she will draw? Inside and outside the window, the flowers bloomed very much, the magnolias opened in a noisy way, and the daffodils on the desk spat out a burst of clear fragrance in a dish of clear water and a few stones. Xiao Qian saw me grinding ink to paint, and said that she wanted to draw, of course, I immediately gave her the painting plan: she picked up a large brush, looked at daffodils, dipped in light ink, put the pen down to write, and soon there were three or five stretched leaves on the rice paper; she changed a pen, thirsted for ink, outlined the bulbs and whiskers, and rubbed them a few times. The Lingbo fairy on the paper is a bit of a charm, and a little bit of child's clumsiness.
I still remember when Xiao Qian was six or seventeen years old, I took her to the Songjiang River to pick diamond horns by the River. The pink diamond horns are like a lightly dyed layer of rouge, which is fresh and lovely on the plate, and it is watery and crisp to eat. Xiao Qian ate the diamond horn and painted a painting, named "A plate of diamond horns, a plate of stars". I sometimes think that the so-called "children's painting world", these eight words may also be summed up. She likes to paint flowers, toys, and objects that are visible and tangible, and she also likes to outline those imaginative fantasies and pour out those childhood dreams into the pen.
Xiaoqian painted on my drawings.
Two
The reason why Xiaoqian likes to draw may be very important - when she has not fully learned to walk, she will swing into the study to watch my writing and painting, she scribbles, engages in all kinds of destruction, and sometimes reads the big picture album in a serious way; when she is more than one year old, she can finally sit in the study, pick up a brush, what rice paper, leather paper, silk, fan, etc., can be used to dip ink and wave, hand-waving, that "graffiti" makes onlookers feel endlessly happy.
This application does not seem to stop. Anyway, the paper on the bookcase is ready-made, the ink is also freshly ground, and everything can become her toy, her creative tool. I let her go, painting her dolls, painting the albums she had read, drawing the strange thoughts in her head, painting everything she saw... All this is happy for her, and of course for me.
When she was three or four years old, I took her to the home of the painter Xie Chunyan. Xie Lao likes children and wants to cooperate with Xiao Qian to draw a painting, he painted a big rooster on the spot, when it was Xiao Qian's turn to make up the painting, she "painted" an old man with disheveled hair on the back of the rooster, grinning and riding the rooster. The whimsy amused the two of us adults.
After that, I consciously or unconsciously cultivated Xiaoqian's painting ability, but I deeply felt that there were many misunderstandings, and because of my limited time, I sent her to an art training institution to study. But after a period of study, I felt that the learning style was more like strangling the nature of children, and I reached a consensus after discussing with my friends in the calligraphy and painting circle, and quickly "braked" to let Xiaoqian return to the days of "free-range" painting.
Kids sketching. Image from Xinhua News Agency
Three
Saying that it was "stocking", I was actually guiding her. I encouraged her to read various albums, let her see me draw, and also allowed her to grind ink on the side, or write or write, or travel together to sketch, and occasionally there were good works.
After Xiaoqian went to kindergarten, I began to let her try to write calligraphy. For a while, it was Yan Lugong who wrote the letter, because Yan Lugong's calligraphy had the atmosphere of a seal, and the natural authenticity was beautiful and healthy. I myself wrote a lot of Inscriptions on the Cliffs of the Han Dynasty, so I let her write "Shimen Ming", "Ode to the Western Narrow", etc., that kind of clumsiness and frankness have a kind of similarity with children, and Xiaoqian seems to have grown in pen strength for a period of time.
I watched Xiaoqian write humanoid objects with a brush, and from the time she was two years old, she saw that now, in fact, it is changing year by year. But it is gratifying that no matter how it changes, those really clumsy smells have been well preserved.
The innocence and childlike fun of children is actually a kind of inspiration and learning for me. Children learn to draw, "love" is the most important teacher, not only pen and ink to witness growth, but also to paint to witness the innocence in nature.
Moya inscription "Ode to the West Narrow"