我的第一张画
我从小就喜欢画画。直到现在我还淸楚地记得小学一年级时，我在第一节图画课上的情㬌。那是画无轨电车。古老师在前面示范，大家照着临摹…… 一些同学走下位子看到我画的，惊讶地说我画得真好，像老师画得一样。我也下位子去看看其他同学画的，他们有的画得太小，有的画得太大，画面上已画不下全部电车，还有的画得歪七扭八的…… 现在回想起来，我的画在构图，比例及着色（蜡笔）上最合适…… 反应了六岁的我在心、眼、手的配合上发展较为优先。也许这就是所谓天赋。因为第一幅画就画得这样顺手，又得到老师、同学的大大赞赏…… 画画从此以后就成为我的第一爱好……
My First Drawing
I always love drawing from my childhood. Even now I can clearly remember my first drawing class in first grade. The assignment was to draw a trolley bus. Ms. Gu, the teacher did a demonstration in front of the class. Students were instructed to copy her drawing. Some students walked over from their seats to see my drawing. They were very surprised and started shouting "Wow! Your drawing was excellent! It looked just as good as the teacher's drawing!" I also left my seat to see other students' works. Some buses were drawn too small. The others were drawn too big to fit the size of the paper. Some buses were drawn so crooked. Looking back, the composition, proportions and coloring (crayons) of my drawing was the most appropriate among the class. As a six-year-old boy the coordination of my mind, eyes and hands was developed earlier or more advanced. Perhaps this is the so-called talent. Because of this successful first drawing and the compliments from the teacher and class, drawing became my first hobby ever since.
法国印象派与我的绘画
第一次听到印象派是七四年我入读苏州丝绸工学院学美术设计时，插入我班的进修生苏州画家黄东山先生对我说起画色彩画要画出法国印象派的效果…… 我当时十分好奇地问他，什么是印象派画法？…… 他说挺难解释，但他又解释道，即画出一种好像从室内环境中突然向窗外景色快速地一瞥，那种明亮的瞬间色彩印象。他的解释就是从今天来看也可说是对印象派绘画一个较精典并简洁的阐明。从那时起我就自觉不自觉的追求起那样的观察与绘画方法，好像我天生地就属于那样的画风。不断地追求、探索纯正法国印象派的画法始终是我绘画的主要兴趣，也成了我的特长…… 虽然我并没有出生在那个时代，更不是一个法国人。
第一次看到国外出版的法国印象派画册大概是在一九七六年夏天，我回北京父母处过暑假，专门到北京图书馆访一位刚复员到那里工作的战友加老乡刘泽椰。当他听说我在学画时，就主动热情地将刚进口的国内第一套西方绘画全集推荐给我看！这种书在那个时代是完全的禁书，只有极少的特殊有关人士凭所谓很高一级政府介绍信才能去北图进行所谓的内部阅览…… 天赐良机！记得当时刘泽椰在他同事的帮助下，用小车将那堆二十多本左右暂新、漂亮的画册运到內部阅览室一角，让我一个人在那里大大享受了视觉大餐！我快速地浏览了各画册目录后，抽出法国印象派时期的专册，全神贯注地看着每一页莫奈、毕沙罗及西斯来他们的画！他们的画真的比以前我所见到的各种画更吸引我。直到今天我还记得许多画面给我的那种似乎从暗淡的室内突然一下子看到阳光灿烂的室外景色的感觉…… 这样的特殊机会以后我还碰到过几次，我读了那会儿的禁书《印象画派史》并几次细看了进口的印象画派画册…… 我想在七十年代像我这样幸运地可以饱览进口法国印象派画册的人一定为数甚少。
我努力写生实践与教学，一九七八年起，我试着像莫奈那样画，追求光色的变化。对着宿舍窗外的同一景色，从早画到中午，每半小时左右重新画一幅，以训练自已观察光色不断变化及捕捉这种变化的能力…… 后来调去南京纺校教画时，利用教学，我试教学生画在各种颜色灯光照射下的石膏模型及静物，研习光与影的对比、协调以及它们之间的补色关系。我觉得我天生对光色的兴趣与敏感，使我的画风十分自然地溶入法国印象主义风格，又有得天独厚的学习加实践的条件，这一切促成了我今天有着明显法国印象主义影响的画法。
French Impressionism and my painting
The first time I heard about French Impressionism was in 1974, when I was enrolled in the Art and Design Department of Suzhou Institute of Silk technology. One time, an artist of Suzhou, Mr. Huang Dongshan was attending our class. He told me that we should strive to achieve the color effect of French Impressionism. I curiously asked what French Impressionism was. He replied that it was hard to explain. But then he said, “Think of the momentary visual effect of glance of bright colors when your eyes suddenly moved from indoor to outdoor.” Till today, I believe his explanation is a classic and succinct definition of French Impressionism. From that time on, I began consciously or unconsciously pursuing that method of observation and painting, as if I was born for it. French Impressionism has become my main interest and continued pursue and discovery of its true techniques is a hallmark of my art, despite the fact that I was born neither in that time nor place.
About the summer of 1976, I went back to Beijing to spend time with my parents. I went to the Beijing Library to visit an old army friend, who was also a native of Beijing. When he heard that I was studying painting, he enthusiastically offered me the Complete Collection of Western Paintings, a newly imported series of twenty some volumes. At that time, such books were banned from public eyes. Only the privileged few bearing approval letters from high government officials could enter the Library for private viewing. This was a blessing from Heaven! After my friend carried the collection on a library cart to a corner of a private room, I was devouring the visual banquet joyfully. I browsed all volumes, but focused on French Impressionism. I closely examined the details of every painting by Monnet, Sisley, Pissarro and etc! Their paintings truly attracted me much more than any other paintings I have ever seen before. Today, I still remembered that these paintings gave me a striking impression as if I suddenly saw the outside sunny scene from inside of a darkroom. I later was fortunate to have a few more opportunities like this, reading the publicly banned The History of Impressionism (By johnrewald) and other books of Impressionist paintings.
I believe that in the 1970s there was only a handful that had the same good fortunes as I did. Since 1978, I attempted to follow Monnet, pursuing the techniques of color variations under different lighting conditions. I practiced painting the same scene outside a window from morning to noon at half hour intervals, in order to train my eyes to capture the continuous change in light and colors. Later on, when I was teaching painting at the Nanjing Textile School, I taught my students how to paint models and still life under different color lights. I gave them instructions on the contrast of light and shadow, color harmony and complement. I feel like that I was endowed with a special interest in and sensitivity toward light and color. It is all nature for me to develop a style blending that of French Impressionism. My unique environment of study and practice also engraved French Impressionism into my art style.
参与八十年代＂美术新潮＂
一九七八年我从苏州丝绸工学院毕业。王敬贤老师问我愿否留校补色彩课教师之缺，因父亲工作缘故及他的安排，我放弃了留苏丝的机会。我到了当时在江苏美术设计界颇有影响力的南京市一轻局设计室搞美术设计。那时设计室里有好些毕业于不同美术院校的老大学生。他们中不少是纯绘画专业毕业生，只在设计室谋份工作。一些人那时已是挺有名气及影响力的地方画家。那会儿新到任的徐荏华主任看我的色彩画画得较好，竟指任我这个新毕业生负责每周一次的设计人员绘画进修。在各位前辈画师的积极参与下，我的工作虽然是设计，绘画技巧在那儿却继续得到充分地发展。
八十年代初经济体制改革正逐步展开。因体制变化我有机会被调去组建南京纺织工业学校的服装专业。对我来说又是一个发展自己绘画特长的好机会。我说服黄奎元校长，又费了很大周折调来了我向来钦佩的同学画友付泽南。付在我的苏丝时代是师生公认的绘画基础最好的学生。教学相长，有付的全力支持与经验，我们试用了不少自创的色彩、素描及设计的教学方法与内容。
八五年前后，源自北京的美术新潮渐渐地波及到各省市。在雄心勃勃的付泽南建议下，我们也组织参与了类似的活动。他又串联他早年熟识的一些画友，特别是在美学及美术理论方面极有天赋的樊波先生，组织了所谓＂江苏新野性画派＂。付有雄心大志、绘画才能及善长纵横术。樊具有深厚哲学功底和雄辩犀利的文笔。附上在这个框架下众成员与我们纺校学生创作了颇有前卫风格的绘画。这些特点使得这个画派在当时全国美术领域内产生了引人注目的影响。当时不少重要新闻媒体，包括中央电视台在内，竞然都报道了它。它也被列为＂八五美术新潮＂的重要画派之一。
因着紧密的参与这次＂新野性画派＂美术新潮活动，大大地开拓了我的审美眼界。我能亲身体验到绘画语言的多样性以及它自身的视觉力量与美。这使自己不再局限于仅追求更高水准的学院和印象传统画风。让我能够从不同时代与风格的绘画中看出个所以然，以便从中学习其精华。南京纺校的教学经验及对新潮美术的参与使我的审美观与绘画整体水准向更宽更深发展。这样，一九八七年当有机会在上海交通大学土建系工业设计专业试讲色彩课时，系主任朱崇贤先生及工业设计教研室主任程建新先生即刻决定调我进该专业负责美术设计基础课教学，特别是色彩教学。在教授上海交大第一届工业设计本科过程中，我和程建新、贾丽军、陈伟雄及徐子鸣等来自交大，有雄厚工科背景的美术教师一起愉快地工作，探讨，尝试新的教学方法与内容，这让我有了一个不断更新，开拓自己综合能力的更高平台。
Participation in the 1980s’ “New Age of Arts”
I graduated from the Suzhou Institute of Silk Technology in 1978. Upon graduation, Mr. Wang Jingxian offered me a vacant position teaching paiting in the Institute. Due to my father’s work assignment in Nanjing and other reasons, I had to give up this opportunity. I went for a job at the Industrial Art Design Institute in the Bureau of Light Industries in the Nanjing Municipal Government. Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu Province. The Industrial Art Design Institute was quite influential in the art and design field in Jiangsu. Most of my colleagues in the Institute had graduated from art academies. Some of them had majored in paining while at school. For them industrial art design in the Institute was merely a job. They themselves by that time were already established artists with local influence. The new Director of the Institute, Ms. Xiu Renhua somehow discovered my talent in painting. Surprisingly, he instructed me to be in charge weekly painting workshop for my colleagues in the Institute. With the help of senior art designers, my painting techniques continued to develop freely, even though my official duty was industrial art design.
In the 1980s, China’s economic reform gradually took place. Taking advantage of the institutional change, I managed to transfer to the Nanjing School of Textile Industry. My job was to develop a new fashion design program in the school. This was another great opportunity to practice my art career, but I need help to develop the curriculums. Back in my days in Suzhou, my fellow student Mr. Fu Zhenan was widely recognized in the school as the best student with solid foundation in painting. I pursued President Huang Kuiyuan to recruit Mr. Fu. After overcoming many obstacles, Mr. Fu finally joined me in Nanjing. With Mr. Fu’s experience and full support, we experimented with many painting, drawing, and fashion design curriculums that we developed.
Around the middle of 1980s, new ideas in fine arts spread from Beijing to provinces. Ambitious Fu implied that we should participate in and organize events promoting this new tide among Chinese artists. He gathered a group of artists, especially Mr. Fan Bo, who was very talented in Esthetics and Arts Theory. We called ourselves “Jiangsu Neo-primitivism.” Mr. Fu had a high goal and he was not only talented in painting but in political strategies as well. Mr. Fan on the other hand was deeply philosophical with a sharp penmanship. The members in our group and the other former graduates of Suzhou Institute of Silk Technology painted a number of works with cutting edge style. All these made our School well-known among Chinese artists at that time. The media, including China Central Television, reported and featured the activities of the “Jiangsu Neo-primitivism.” It was regarded as one of the important schools of arts in the mid-eighties of the last century.
My close participation in this artistic experiment opened my eyes in esthetics. It enabled me to experience the diversity, visual strength and beauty of language of painting. It liberated me from merely seeking higher level in the tradition of academic or Impressionist arts. I was able to make my own discoveries in paintings from different times and schools, and to learn from all. My teaching experience in Nanjing School of Textile Industry and my participation in the New Wave of Arts Movement further developed my view in Esthetics as well as my overall painting techniques. As a result, in 1987, I was invited to give a lecture in color theory for the Industrial Design Program in the Architecture Department at Shanghai Jiaotong University. After the lecture, the Department Chair, Mr.Zhu Chongxian, immediately decided to recruit me to teach industrial art design foundation courses, especially in color design foundation and painting. In teaching the inaugural class of Industrial Art Design at the University, I worked happily with Cheng Jianxin, Jia Lijun, Chen Weihong, Xiu Zhimin and other art teachers. They all had strong scientific background. Discussing and experimenting with new curriculums and teaching method with them promoted my overall abilities to a newer and higher level.
留学美国读研
1989年伴随着全国上下的出国潮，我也终得机会到美国读研学习绘画。圆了我在西方国家读研西画的梦。
来到美国首先让我有了机会亲眼目睹在国内仅能看到复制品的那些大师们的原作！我有多次机会去了纽约大都会博物馆、现代艺术博物馆、首都华盛顿国家美术馆及其它不少地方、高校及私营美术博物馆，看了许多在国内出版物上刊发过的大师原作。我特别感兴趣地认真观摹学习那些对国内西画界影响很大的一些艺术大师的画…… 站在众大师作品前，一些在绘画语言上有特点，且技巧丰富精湛的画显然让我更为赞叹与佩服；而对另一些，仅是在绘画概念与题材上革新，在绘画语言上较平庸的作品，除了满足我对创作者的标新立异精神之稀奇，它们不能引起我在它们面前产生控制不住地激动与感叹，也很少让我不自觉地停在它们面前不尽地欣赏与学习。让我花了最多时间反复仔细观赏学习的画是印象画派、后印象画派、纳比画派、表现主义画派、野兽画派，以及抽象表现主义等在绘画语言上独创并深入发展的那些画..... 很明显，我是更注重感观、直觉，由视觉和谐而产生美感的人。
在Radford(在佛杰尼亚州)大学带我的两个导师都属于倾向上述风格的画家。Dr. Paul Frets，我的绘画课导师是个抽象画画家，与美国著名女画家Eileen de Kooning （抽象表现主义大师德库宁的夫人）是好友，并邀其来Radford讲过学。Frets本人在教学中推崇及教学方法都是倾向于抽象表现主义绘画…… 他挺欣赏我的色彩感觉及绘画能力，请我做他的助教，放手让我在绘画课上自由发挥与探索，鼓励我多研究绘画语言自身的美，而不为塑造物体的实际形状所束缚。他对我善长的印象派画法及实验的半抽象表现主义的画法都表示赞许。因此，在他的指导下，我做助教时教本科生的是用印象派画法，而自己的毕业画展作品主要是些半抽象表现主义的画。
初到美国的那两年是观察、体验与实验的两年。在我的毕业论文中，受另一美学理论课教师的指点，我特别强调了我来美读研的新体验与收获，即领悟到画家应更重在体验绘画的过程，而不是强调绘画的产品。正是这样，留学学画是一段有意义与必要的经历，我的视野与绘画表现方法又进一步拓宽拓深了。
Post-graduate Study in the US
In 1989, the tide of study abroad swept the entire China. I finally got an opportunity to come to the US for post-graduate study in painting. This was my dream of studying Western painting in the West becoming true. Upon arrival in the US I immediately had opportunities to view the original masterpieces that I only had seen in reproductions in China. I visited the New York Metropolitan Art Museum, The Museum of Modern Arts, the National Gallery in DC and other local museums, museum in university and private galleries. With great interest, I seriously studied those Western masterpieces that had profound influence in China. Standing in front of the masterpieces, with great respect I admired and esteemed many works that demonstrated particular painting languages and fine painting techniques. Those works that merely created new concepts or subjects without extraordinary expressive painting language, on the other hand, could not raise my excitement, nor drew me consciously to respect and study them. They only aroused my surprise about their creativeness for nothing. I spent tremendous time in studying the detail of those masterpieces of Impressionism, Post-impressionism, Les Nabis, Expressionism, Les Fauves, and Abstract Expressionism. These masterpieces uniquely developed the expressive language of modern arts. Undoubtedly, I am a person who is fond of the beauty in the visual harmony of sense and intuition.
At Radford University (in Virginia), two of my professors were both artists with the afore-mentioned styles. Dr. Paul Frets, my instructor in painting was an abstract painter. He was a friend of the famous artist Eileen de Kooning, wife of Willem de Kooning, highly influential artist in the Abstract Expressionism movement. Dr. Frets on a number of occasion invited Eileen to teach a few classes at Radford. Dr. Frets’ own teaching also highlighted painting of Abstract Expressionism. He appreciated my sense of color, and painting skills. He asked me to be his teaching assistant. He let me freely explore and express myself in his painting classes. He encouraged me to study the beauty in the language of painting itself, and not be bound by the mere modeling of realistic forms of the objects. Under his guidance, I taught the Impressionism to my undergraduates but painted in semi-abstract Expressionism for my own graduation exhibition.
The first two years in the US were the years of observation, experience and experiment. Under the guidance of another instructor of Esthetics, my Master Thesis focused on my experience and gains studying in the US. I realized that an artist should value the process of painting, rather than emphasize on the product. Admittedly, I am still far from perfect, but it was during this significant and necessary period of study in the US that my artistic vision and techniques further developed in both width and depth.
