我对水彩艺术的理解

　　社会可以从艺术家的想象和描述中寻找人类生存的基本状态，当那些作品可以描述和记录人心的欢乐与痛苦、伟大与渺小；人生存环境的悠然与自得、忧郁与沉重的时候，观赏者可以在其面前沉思，受其指引，寻找与情感、生命和情绪的共鸣。这是艺术家和艺术作品该具有的特质。

　　世界上的任何物象或事件在适当的条件下都可以对人的内心产生深刻的震撼，也许只是一艘渔船或者是一间破屋，但如果产生印象的是一位艺术家，那他们启动的就是艺术性的经验，当然这只是个开端。真正的艺术品必须融入艺术家的情感和意图，依靠艺术家特有的敏感、修养和技能，使作品提供能吸引人的品质来。

　　对于艺术家来说，即使是普通的一棵树、一丛草足以引发他强烈的审美经验及情感，当他把对象赋予了自己的意图、见解和表现展示在公众面前，引起观众对之有像创作它一样复杂和具有创造性的理解，那么艺术创作就产生了。当然，任何一个艺术创作者，都必须全身心投入一件艺术创作中。当代艺术市场上那种既不能满足观赏者的要求而且也极容易被制造出来的物件，是没有价值的，更谈不上艺术。

　　在水彩艺术中我强调情感的投入、强调纯粹的水彩绘画语言、强调对象性、强调形体与结构、强调色彩。这些都是水彩画创作中无法绕过的问题，无论忽略其中哪种都无法表现出水彩画种的特性。选择水彩作为我艺术的表达，是因为水彩画写意式的奔放、酣畅淋漓的表现力更符合我的心性和追求。当然我也不会对画种作严格的区分，因为很多艺术形式都滋养了我，雕塑是我在鲁美大学时期学了五年的专业，当时我也画过一些油画，这样的经历锻炼了我坚实的造型能力，所以我描绘的景物才能笔到形立，没有犹豫、没有反复修饰、没有刻意雕琢，自然流畅、整体概括、气脉相通。我就是要在兼顾中国水彩画的东方审美意境和西方艺术的色彩造型特点的同时，让画面尽量张扬水彩画透明、流畅、瞬间的笔法特色。

　　写生是我的一种生活方式

　　水彩艺术创作是我了解和掌握世界的一种方式，如果说水彩画已经成为我生命的一种表现形式，那么写生就是我的一种生活方式，他架起了我与自然沟通的桥梁。

　　我喜欢写生的现场感，这是直接触动我绘画形式展开的动力，我强调画面用笔的书写性，我喜爱以畅快的勾描传神，你甚至可以数得出我画面的笔痕，笔锋所及，生意盎然。这种书写性是中国人骨子中的文化传统，因为这种书写性，画面便有了东方写意情绪，这是中国人特有的精神追求，是人与自然新的关系的表达，是人在自然中感受自由的体现。

　　在写生中，与用笔同样重要的是用色的主观性，我关注色彩对于形象的把握、色与形对于情绪与情感的体现，这是依赖色彩的主观控制能力和主观表达能力的结合达到的效果。它的基础是提炼生活的能力、提炼和概括眼前景物的能力。现场的情境与情绪往往转瞬即逝，把握它就必须要有胸有成竹的肯定、大胆准确，但也要摆脱胸有成竹对于作画方法、画面效果的固定想法，达到胸无成竹的具有创新、创意的艺术成熟。

　　水彩艺术的当代性与哲学性追求

　　经常会有学生问我怎样才能让自己的画具有当代性，很多人正在所谓的哲学层面探讨这个问题，也有很多人认为水彩画在精神性和时代感上相比于油画和国画表现得匮乏。

　　我首先要说的是当代人的画，就一定具有当代性。师古人也好，师造化也罢，文化碰撞也好，强势文化的侵蚀也罢，即使我们完全的模仿他人，也无法使自己成为别人，更不可能返回哪个时代，自己只能是自己，自己是所处时代的产物，因为无论自己怎样存在着，都代表了这个时代的一部分。

　　我们这个民族正处在文化的转型期，现代人对自己和自己生活方式的思考总是在不断的争论中进行。但我想今天的人们不会再去用较为极端的方式重演国门打开那段时期，人们在精神上所承受的震荡，我们早已从那样的冲击状态下冷静了下来。在某种程度上来说，也许水彩艺术并不需要亦步亦趋的跟随在油画或国画之后来完成自己当代性的转变，重要的是正视水彩艺术自身的特性与表现力，这样才不会加深自身的局限造成与时代的割裂。历史的进程总是在人不经意的时候出现拐点，也许我们平静的追求早已经开始了一段新时期的探索。

　　当代绘画渴望新的面貌，但如果把对新样式的追求等同于当代性的体现，那么解决水彩画创作当代性的问题就变成了一个伪问题。艺术史是画家最好的画廊，走过大浪淘沙般的历史长河，一切才可以尘埃落定，于是我们会发现历史不是按照某一个人或团体的意愿去发展的，活在当下的人，无法知道自己所做的是不是最前沿、是不是能够承前启后的事业，只有时间能证明哪些人用自己对艺术特有的敏感和投入，酝酿并完成了他所在那个时代价值体系的变化。

　　其次我要说的就是哲学性的问题，人类认识世界依靠艺术的方式、宗教的方式、实践的方式和科学的方式，艺术本身就是一种意识形态和生产形态，是艺术家个体对于世界的看法、对生活体验的表达、对生命本质的追问，在某种程度上它本身就是一种哲学。在我看来哲学思辨可以滋养我们的思维，但绝不可能指导艺术的方向。

　　在这里我并不是否定创作对精神性以及时代感的追求，但脱离生活的抽象追求，只能使作品陷入尴尬和无趣，甚至连思考一下什么是水彩创作都会陷入困境。导致艺术创作要么流于表面的描摹、要么进入绞尽脑汁寻找新面貌的痛苦状态。所以说水彩艺术的当代性与哲学性不应是刻意追求的，脱离了画面具体讨论的泛泛强调，往往会带上形式化和政策倾向的色彩，这就背离了问题提出者的初衷。而解决此问题的实质应该是怎样把握水彩作品和语言本身，怎样把握水彩艺术发展大的趋势。

　　我经常说艺术家首先应该是匠人，他们要具有高超的技术能力，否则艺术作品就会像一个畸形儿，再好的艺术观念、再好的营养也无法使他的体魄强健起来。还有我对水彩画的定位，她就像诗词与轻音乐，而不是交响乐或者叙事性文学。每个人都可以通过水彩画获得感觉的愉快与欢欣，进入人与自然在契合中达到的境界。

　　对水彩艺术的追求是我面对生活的思索和对于生命的态度。安闲自在，流淌着自我欣赏的神气。想起黑格尔曾经将艺术归类为精神的艺术和生命的艺术两大类，在他的定义中精神的艺术是集中表现和揭示人性的丰富和升华，表现事物的复杂形态、历史地位和形而上意义；而生命的艺术是指直观的、感性的艺术。很多人分析黑格尔的美学思想，认为在他的美学框架中精神的艺术是更高一个层面的，但就此认为生命的艺术仅有直观、感性而没有主观精神的表达，这样的理解未免流于表面化，绘画之达意原有不同路数。其实两种艺术类型并没有高下之分，而应该是一种辩证的关系，我们无法追求没有体验的生命的抽象精神；生命的艺术才是艺术创作的基础，同时也是艺术创作的最终追求。

Wandering in Watercolor

——on the Art of Watercolor Painting

　　by Zhao Yunlong

　　My understandings on the art of watercolor painting

　　People's living status of a certain society could be mirrored by the imagination and descriptions of the artists, when their works recorded human's happiness and agony, greatness and insignificance, leisure and somberness, the watchers could lost in deep thinking, guided and trail to a resonance of sentiment, life and emotion. This quality should be shared by artists and their works.

　　Any object or any issue in the world could bring about a heartquake to people under certain conditions. A fisher or even a shaggy shed may inspire an artist to his artistic innovation. A true artistic work must integrate the author's sentiment and intention. His work can be appealing only in a way that combines the artist's sensitivity, cultivation and technique.

　　A tree or a grass is powerful enough to arouse an artist's strong aesthetic experience and sentiment. When he enriches an object with his intention and understanding, exhibits it to the public and successfully responded with the same complicated and innovative understandings, a piece of art is created. Any art originator, of curse, has to devote himself heart and soul to the creation process. Those articles that fail in satisfying watchers' requirements and easily manufactured in modern art markets are valueless and excluded from art.

　　In watercolor painting, I emphasize the input of sentiment, pure painting language, objectivity, shape, structure and the use of color. Those elements are inevitable, and neglect of any point will lead to the failure in manifesting the characteristic of the art. To choose watercolor as my way of art expression lies in that its boldness and forcefulness are accord with my style and pursuit. I would not make a distinction among painting varieties, since I was nourished in many forms of arts. My five years study of Sculpture in Lumei University and my experience in oil painting during that time have laid a strong foundation for my molding ability, which explained how I could paint those sceneries so natural, fluent, and without hesitation, repeated decoration or intentional carves. What I want is to possibly display the transparent, fluent and instantaneous characteristics of watercolor painting while giving consideration to the eastern aesthetic and the western color molding.

　　Painting from nature is my way of life

　　Watercolor painting is my way to know and master this world. If to say it is a representation of my life, then painting from the nature is my way of leaving. It sets up a bridge between me and the nature.

　　I love the on-site feeling, the drive and enthusiasm for my painting. I love the calligraphic way of painting with fluent and countable strokes to present vigorous pictures. Such painting style is in the blood of Chinese people and their traditional culture. And such style is a spiritual pursuit of Chinese people, an expression of the new relationship between man and nature, an embodiment of man's freedom in nature.

　　During the painting from nature process, the positive use of color is equally important with that of brush. I am aware of the importance of color to the overall visual effect and to the expression of emotion and sentiment. This is the effect that achieved by mastery of color and the expressive ability. What behind this is the ability to know life, and the ability to summarize the scenery in your eyes. The on-site emotion is easily disappeared; to grasp it we need to have a card up our sleeves, and we must give up the stereotyped painting method and visual effect but try to be innovative.

　　The contemporaneity and philosophy pursuit of watercolor painting

　　From one time to another, my students come to me with the question that how to enrich his painting with contemporaneity. Many people are also discussing it on a so-called philosophy level, and many believe that watercolor paintings are less strong in spiritual and contemproraneity as oil painting and traditional Chinese painting.

　　Our nation is in a culture transitional period. Modern people's contemplation on themselves and their way of life is proceeding in a disputable way. But I believe people of today will not let it happen again like our country's door was violently knocked open and people suffered so much mentally. We are already clamed down from that shock. To some degree, perhaps watercolor does not need to follow up oil painting or traditional Chinese painting to complete its comtemproraneity transformation. What matters is to face up to the characteristics and representability of watercolor painting. Only in this way could we step out of boundedness and prevent ourselves from being abandoned by times. The progress of history is always winding in an unnoticeable way. Perhaps behind our peaceful pursuit is on the exploration of a new era.

　　What I want to make it clear firstly is that a painting of a modern people will definitely resemble certain comtemproraneity. No matter following the ancient people's painting style or culture collision or infringement of strong cultures, the painter himself is a man of his times, he cannot be anyone else, or go back to previous time though he is totally imitating another man's painting style, since no mater in what condition he exists, he still is representing part of his times.

　　Painters today desire a new painting appearance. But if we equalize the pursuit of new appearance to that of comtemproraneity, it would be meaningless to solve the problem of the contemproraneity. Art history is the best gallery for painters. After going through the long river of history and watching all confusion ends, you will find that history is not developed upon the will of a man or a society. Man of today will never figure out whether what he does is on the leading position or is taking over from the past and setting a new course for the future. Only time could prove who have fostered and completed the changes of value system of his time with their unique art sensitivities.

　　Secondly I want to talk about its philosophy. Man knows the world via art, religion, experience and science. Art itself is a form of ideology and production, is the artist's opinion to the world, an expression of living, an requisition to the essence of life, in some degree, art itself is a kind of philosophy. In my opinion, the intellectual enquiries in philosophy could enlighten us, but could not guide the direction of art.

　　I am not denying the pursuit of spirit and sense of times, but abstract pursuit that deviates from life will only lead to a prosy and embarrassment work. A painter may be tied in knots even on a though of watercolor painting, and he may either fall into simple copying or be stuck in the agony of a new way out. The philosophy and comtemproraneity of watercolor painting should not be intentionally pursued. Empty discussions out of pictures will resemble formulization and policy tendency, which is far way from the intention of the problem advancer. The essence to solve this problem is how to master watercolor painting and the language, and how to anticipate the development trend of the art.

　　I always believe that an artist should firstly be a craftsman. He should master a high-level skill, or art work would be like an oaf, no matter how good art notions and how good nutrition will only fail to make him grow strong and healthy. Watercolor painting to me is poem and light music, not symphony or narrative stories. Everyone could be happy by watching a watercolor painting, and feel the state of being integrate with nature.

　　My pursuit to the art is my thinking to existence and my attitude towards lives: leisure and freedom, fluid with self-admiration. Geory Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel sorted art into two categories: spiritual and life. Spiritual art is to reveal humanity, to display the complication, historic status and significance of objects, and life art is direct and perceptual. Many people analyze Hegel's aesthetic thinking, and believe that his spiritual art is in higher level. However, it would be too hasty to conclude that life art lacks subjective spiritual expression. The ways of expression in painting are different. In fact, there is no grade between the two categories of art; they are dialectic. There is no way for us to pursue an abstract spirit without a carrier. The art of life is the foundation of art works, and the final pursuit of it.