Chinese painting is an art with the purpose of writing the state of mind, painting taste, and lyrical spirit, emphasizing the high aesthetic realm of "forgetting the form and being proud" from writing the god in form to having both form and spirit, and then "taking the spirit from the appearance", and even "forgetting the form and being proud". The painter Li Xiuwei has always been committed to the study and exploration of the laws of Chinese painting and the spirit of freehand, and has devoted himself to the experience in and out of painting, paying attention to self-cultivation, and has created a series of interesting and tasteful works in recent years, reflecting his integration of traditional context and real life. His art creation, as a representative case, reflects the outstanding achievements made by the outstanding young painters of the post-80s generation in Chinese painting, and has attracted wide attention from the art and collection circles.
Li Xiuwei is a native of Ju County, Shandong, with a long and profound influence of Ju culture, and is dyed by the family's scholarly atmosphere. He is currently a member of the Chinese Artists Association, the initiator of the Shandong Observation Art Society, the deputy secretary-general of the Rizhao Artists Association, the deputy director and secretary-general of the Comprehensive Materials Art Committee of the Rizhao Artists Association, the head of the Art Training Center of the Yimeng School of Painting Research Institute, and the full-time painter of Juxian Art Museum. In recent years, more than 130 painters have been trained by the Provincial Artists Association, and nearly 100 members of the China Artists Association have been approved or are to be approved.
As a powerful young painter with artistic perception and active aesthetic thinking, Li Xiuwei has benefited from many types of paintings, such as gongbi, freehand, peasant painting, lacquer, comics, mixed materials, pottery, etc., and has a solid training in the "trilogy of Chinese painting" of copying, sketching and creation, and has a solid foundation in art. On the one hand, he stretched out to nature, and on the other hand, he went deep into the tradition, observed things and framed them, remembered them with his eyes and minds, made effective trade-offs, refined and sublimated, and created a better environment. Since then, Li Xiuwei has relied on his unique understanding of Chinese painting, and at the point of convergence between the source of the heart and the creation, from sketching to creation, from realism to freehand, from gongbi to freehand, revealing the amazing aspects of various images in his brushwork, which have both form, spirit, qi and rhyme.
《Autumn Taste》
Li Xiuwei's freehand works cover a wide range of aesthetic objects, with flowers, birds, landscapes as the main themes, as well as human figures. No matter what kind of object he represents, he always pays attention to "getting its quality" and "getting its rhyme". The so-called "quality" is the pursuit of the "truth" of the depicted object, that is, both form and spirit; "Out of its rhyme" is to express the spirit of self-subjectivity by depicting objects, that is, to express the spirit of freehand. To this end, he pays attention to the use of calligraphy into painting, attaches importance to the feedback effect of calligraphy on freehand painting, and is usually willing to work the brushwork, and writes as the norm. He is in the pond every day, studying the famous monuments of the past dynasties, especially the Han Jian, Wei monuments, from which there are many comprehensions and extraction of essence, which enables him to naturally deduce the painting method from calligraphy, on the occasion of creation, the practice of bone method with a pen, grasp the ecological characteristics of the image, pen to write. In the process of writing stroke by stroke, the imagery gradually emerged from the shape to the god, and with the help of the lyrical tone of the strong writing, he also vividly expressed what he saw and thought.
Li Xiuwei's freehand creation focuses on the construction of aesthetic conception. He admired the rich charm of the literati in the paintings of the past dynasties, and practiced poetry into painting, invoking his own traditional cultural cultivation when creating, borrowing scenery to lyricism, supporting things with words, and deliberately connecting and combining all kinds of refined images in accordance with the aesthetic creation law of poetic conception, so as to construct an ethereal and brilliant artistic conception with unique poetic beauty.
Appreciating Li Xiuwei's landscape paintings, whether they are green, light or ink, all emphasize the leading role of intention, not copying nature, not being limited to the specific authenticity of the form of creation, not to mention the depiction of objects and images, ignoring the expression of thoughts and feelings, but grasping the aesthetic touch that occurs by chance when the self-soul meets the natural reality, and writes a poetic aesthetic conception in the random collision of paper and pen. Further, this aesthetic conception benefits from the ingenious combination of the painter's traditional literati painting writing style, the "three distances" composition rule and the modern composition, hue and texture of the block, which appears fresh and beautiful, sparse and beautiful, gorgeous and vulgar, and warm and sunny. This shows that the artist's aesthetic tendency tends to have the construction of the realm of "me", and strives to express the self's heart and taste, so that the work can convey his self-awareness and leisurely mind and his own love for the atmosphere of the mountains and forests, so that the picture contains emotions and connotations.
"Willing to go to the famous mountain"
In Li Xiuwei's flower and bird painting "Wishing to Travel to Famous Mountains", we can see that the composition is strange in the ordinary, and does not ignore the transmission of the charm of the object. By expressing the vigor of flowers and trees, the delicate beauty of aquatic plants, and the cuteness and agility of deer, the author portrays the life aura of all things with beauty and beauty. On the whole, the painting is novel and unique, clumsy and strange coexist, fine and atmospheric complement each other, and as a whole shows the painter's inner world of elegance and self-comfort, and the heart of creation, expressing an endless spiritual charm, but also has a peaceful meaning, which is intriguing.
"The Great Autumn"
Li Xiuwei's painting "The Great Autumn Picture" is based on a small scene of his own encounter with grass insects wriggling on corn in the field.
"The Elder"
Li Xiuwei's painting "The Benevolent" integrates watercolor elements, relying on his effective control of water, ink and color and the staggered interspersing of lines, writing about flowers and branches, hazy and graceful, elegant and pleasant; And with a fine pen linear, sketch the hedgehog sniffing the flowers under the shade of the flower branches, out of its brilliance. On the whole, with the theme of freehand and expressiveness, it is both dignified and smart, and expresses its self-literati feelings of taking inkstone as pleasure and learning from things.
In Li Xiuwei's view, freehand is the pursuit of the spirit and charm of various scenes written in a rhythmic rhythm like the art of calligraphy, so as to express the feelings of the author, and the strokes and portraits of excellent freehand works are moved by note, forming a beautiful and moving music, which requires considerable aesthetic accumulation and cultural cultivation to do. To this end, he has been constantly exploring the innovation of the past since he started his art, and has worked hard to temper his pen and ink skills.
Li Xiuwei said: "I have opened several kinds of paintings over the years, that is to say, in addition to Chinese paintings, of course, Chinese paintings include landscapes, flowers and birds, figures, as well as gongbi, boneless, freehand paintings, pottery, comprehensive materials, and a peasant painting, comics, etc., we have opened a total of 7 types of paintings." Some teachers said, "You have opened so many painting types, how can you integrate them together?" Then I will say the opposite, in fact, all kinds of paintings have a characteristic, and they all have a freehand spirit in them. Therefore, I always believe that the knowledge we have learned today, especially the knowledge of our art, is the same, and the various types of painting are all interconnected, and they are all networked. For so many years, I have also brought my students here like this, that is, to walk on multiple legs, to study the high-level art works of our ancients, and to work hard to improve their aesthetics; The other is the teacher's creation. A good painter, he is first and foremost a naturalist. The ancients said that we should not be ashamed to ask, but in order to do this, we must learn from our contemporaries and excellent painters, and accumulate over time through a large number of studies and long-term dedication, so that we will change from quantitative to qualitative. This is a personal opinion of mine who has been engaged in the art industry for so many years. ”
What is particularly rare is that Li Xiuwei considers and connects with the aesthetic objects he expresses with the creative consciousness of modernity, and the freehand masterpieces can abandon the disadvantages of following the tradition, giving people a refreshing sense of modern aesthetics, which is unique and indicates a beautiful future for the development of art.
We hope and firmly believe that Li Xiuwei will make greater progress and more achievements in art in his continuous efforts and humble and enterprising freehand creation in the future.
Written by Shangguan Juewen
On April 20, 2024, he was repaired in Quancheng Stone