Luo Xianyue: The landscape of my homeland is the source of my paintings

Mondo Culture Updated on 2024-03-05

Dachen Island, watercolor on paper, 58, 67cm, 2021

I've always liked to paint watercolors, maybe it's more convenient to use, it can freely sway the poetry of water and color, and dialogue with the landscape. When I was studying at Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, I met Pan Changzhen, Wu Delong, Xu Junxuan and other teachers left a deep impression on me. I chose a watercolor painting for my graduation project, I remember it was a group of four, entitled "The Sound of the Waves", which depicted reefs, pine trees and beaches on the East China Sea. The creation of this group of works originated from the 7 days of life on Higashifuyama Island when I experienced life, because of the typhoon, I lived on the island for a week, there was only a small village on the island, and there were almost no people in sight during the day, during these 7 days, the object of my conversation was only the waves and reefs, and all I heard was the sound of the waves. I was very encouraged by the fact that this group of works was recognized by many teachers during the graduation exhibition.

The profound study of the landscape and the self-consistent artistic language expression paradoxically reproduce the "shape" and "image" of the landscape.

Dachen Island Old Wharf, watercolor on paper, 58, 67cm, 2021

Since graduation, I have been working in watercolor for decades, and when I paint watercolors, I try to integrate the expression of Chinese ink painting, the tension of black and white woodcuts, to express the spirit of oriental ink painting. During my 7 days on Higashifukuyama Island, I learned to contemplate and dialogue with nature, which is one of the reasons why I have been painting landscapes, and I feel that the message conveyed by nature is enough to express my heart, and the harmony between man and nature can achieve spiritual resonance and symbiosis.

Dachen Island Plum Blossom Villa, watercolor on paper, 58, 67cm, 2021

When I paint landscapes, I will have the characteristics of both color ink and watercolor in my paintings, and I also like to use colors to accompany a lot of water, and use Chinese brushes to dye out the pictures of turnips, and strive to give new life to the scenery with my own creations, and use natural scenes to conjure up poetic visual images, and express the truth of my heart through dialogue. Let watercolor painting condense the characteristics of the Orient, and coincide with the spirit of modern Oriental ink painting in the sense of innovation and harmony between China and the West.

Morning on Dachen Island, watercolor on paper, 58, 67cm

Due to the particularity of watercolor painting, the final picture will give birth to a lot of unexpected interest, seemingly occasional texture, water stains and seepage charm, but in fact are intentional, is the inevitable of continuous coverage and adjustment, and the occasional free and easy on the paper is the condensation after the continuous accumulation of expression techniques. In the face of natural space, I pay more attention to the mind after withdrawing from the physical appearance. Sometimes it seems that the lack of depiction of natural scenery is to give the picture more psychological space, and the physical "negative" space in the picture is precisely for the rich emotional expression, for the integration of ideas and the environment, and to spread the visual experience and natural elements in a limited space, producing a sense of spiritual and visual volume, which is often called "poetic space".

Dongziguan Village, watercolor on paper, 130, 150cm, 2021

When I paint, I have the habit of putting the drawing board upright, deliberately letting the water and color flow and dissolve, and in the case of being particularly difficult to control, I grasp the relationship between water and color, so that the viewer can feel the potential control behind the color and enjoy the natural harmony between thought and nature. The visual changes obtained by the natural immersion of color and color, color and water, color and paper, make the creation of watercolor painting endless, if you are attentive, all accidents are inevitable.

Wencun, watercolor on paper, 130, 150cm, 2021

The closer the technical expression of a painting is to directness, the higher the purity of its inner spirituality is required. At the same time, the relatively direct artistic language can highlight the true artistic essence, and the simpler the scene description, the more readers can feel the profound connotation of the work. Indeed, I am constantly striving to practice the sinicization of Western media and the contemporaneity of traditional techniques, thinking about how the spirit of Chinese art can be renewed in the current environment, and using Chinese emotions to find the oriental expression of Chinese watercolor painting.

Morning in Huang Shang Village, watercolor on paper, 76, 114cm, 2018

Huang Shang Village in the Afternoon, watercolor on paper, 76, 114cm, 2018

I am expressing the coolness of the morning dew, or the tranquility given by the afternoon sun, and the freedom in the evening afterglow, which mostly presents a bright world, a kind of tranquility and leisure in the state of life, the state of the heart, the clarity and eternity in the passage. The buildings and plants in the painting are the breath of the landscape, and the gray colors are pure and simple, but they are beyond reality, and they are the presentation of artistic ideas in the works with the help of the landscape.

South Wharf, watercolor on paper, 955×135.5cm 2021

Typhoon, watercolor on paper, 955×135.5cm 2021

Many of my watercolor paintings are completed from sketching, which allows me to quietly think and dialogue with the scenery, borrow the objects of physical space as a medium, and sincerely express the most valuable poetry in painting creation, this poetic expression is not generalized, he needs repeated dialogue between the heart and the scene, but also with the help of the medium, that is, to be proficient in the properties of materials, skilled in the use of tools.

There is a typhoon - one of the caves, watercolor on paper, 96, 136cm, 2019

There is a Typhoon - Dongtou No. 2, watercolor on paper, 96, 136cm, 2019

I grew up in Zhejiang, there is the road of Tang poetry, is the hometown of landscape poetry, there are Huang Gongwang's "Fuchun Mountain Residence Map", Shi Tao's "Shiliang Waterfall", the majestic Kuocang Mountain, the beautiful Nanxi River, there are mountain villages, there are islands, there are plains, the vast East China Sea contains infinite energy. The mountains and rivers of my homeland are the source of my paintings. The works displayed here are my new works in recent years, it is my creation and thinking at this stage, "Dongtou" is created by me in Dongtou District, Wenzhou City, Dongtou is an island, there is a strong southern Zhejiang style, when I arrived at Dongtou, it coincided with a typhoon, I felt that the whole island was empty, I was immediately attracted by the strange and strange scene, I tried to grasp the fleeting scene at a very fast speed. After the large frame was laid, I let my heart beat slowly, rationally experience the special feelings brought to me by this unique landscape, and then use my brushes and colors to write the feelings into the landscape, and the time of the day, I feel like a baptism, I have completed a dialogue with the scenery.

Miaozi Lake Old Wharf, watercolor on paper, 97, 136cm, 2019

The old wharf is completed in Dongji Town, Zhoushan City, Dongji Town is located in the easternmost part of the Zhoushan archipelago, there are 28 islands of Miaozi Lake, Qingbang, Huangxing, Dongfushan and other sizes, including 4 permanent resident islands, the town has 2,000 people, the fishermen's paintings of Dongji Island are very developed, the town has insisted on 30 years of fishermen's painting creation team, has its own fishermen's painting art museum, the cultural atmosphere of this island is very strong, "Old Wharf" is painted is the old wharf of Miaozi Lake, now except for mooring some small fishing boats, basically do not use, When I painted, it was evening, the sunset illuminated the houses in the distance, and the shadows in the near distance were very cold, so I used a lot of cool colors to try to express the tranquility and vicissitudes of the old pier with the water and color of the watercolor painting.

Miaozi Lake Fishing Port, watercolor on paper, 963×136cm 2019

Pen and ink should be with the times". As a landscape painter of watercolor painting, the watchfulness of the landscape of my homeland is the most meaningful of my watercolor paintings, one is the homeland in the spiritual sense; The other is the landscape in the real sense, which depends on whether we can face nature with awe and inhabit the earth in a poetic way.

Under the Fengyang Mountain, watercolor on paper, 963×136cm 2019

The sense of guardianship of the mountains and rivers of the times is a true humanistic spirit and a metaphysical spirit. It is this simple spirit that gives us enough strength and confidence to watch over the beauty of our natural homeland. Only then can there be many vivid and profound images of various beautiful villages and poetic landscapes, allowing the viewer to truly perceive the ecological consciousness contained in the picture through the works.

High Tide, watercolor on paper, 96, 136cm, 2020

Tide Sound, watercolor on paper, 96, 136cm, 2020

Every kind of artistic language and form with new ideas will bring us more or less strangeness, it is precisely because of this strangeness that the viewer has a visual memory, I hope that through my watercolor painting can express my simple and indifferent painting attitude, so that the spirit of Chinese landscape in the watercolor painting presents a spiritual and visual sense of quality.

(Wen Luo Xianyue).

Artist Profile

Luo Xianyue,Born in 1960. He graduated from Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1986 and from the Advanced Seminar on Watercolor Painting at China Academy of Art in 1999. He is currently the director of the Chinese Artists Association, the deputy director and secretary general of the Watercolor Art Committee of the China Artists Association, the executive director of the Watercolor Painting Institute of the China Association for the Promotion of Cultural Affairs, and the vice chairman of the Zhejiang Artists Association.

In 2018, he was selected by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Artists Association as the "Young and Middle-aged Artists Who Went Deep into Life and Rooted in the People", and participated in the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Artists Association "Report to the People - 30 Young and Middle-aged Artists 'Go Deep into Life and Take Root in the People' Theme Practice Activity Report Exhibition". In 2019, he was selected for the National Museum's "Bacon Casting Soul - Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China 70 Art Works Exhibition".

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