(Biodiversity Conference) Natural History Painting "Savage" Tian Zhenqiong
Chinanews.com, Dali, September 28th, title: Museum painting "Savage" Tian Zhenqiong
Author Xie Ying
At the foot of Cang Mountain, Tian Zhenqiong, a painter who has lived in Dali for 9 years, has long been far away from the ancient city where literary and artistic youths gather.
Pushing the door of Tian Zhenqiong's house, the living room is simple and tidy, without the mess of the artist's studio imagined.
On a large workbench made of old wood, there is a biodiversity-themed museum painting with gibbons and green peacocks as the protagonists. The painting is more than half completed.
"I didn't think about what I would do after the painting was finished, whether it was on display or how would it be. I just think that the biodiversity conference is about to be held, so I have to paint something in response to it." The experience of living in the Southwest for many years is nothing. Tian Zhenqiong's northeastern accent has not been changed.
This is a group portrait of Yunnan creatures. Animals, plants, insects, two crawlers, and fish all gather in the same abstract space-this is not common in Tian Zhenqiong's works.
Most of his paintings are true representations of a certain species in its habitat.
"I just write down what I see with a brush. I don't like to do too much artistic processing, and I never think of myself as a person in the art circle." Tian Zhenqiong always thinks that he is a "savage who engages in science"— —The “wild” here has two meanings. One is that he often soaks in the wilderness to find wild animals and plants that can be painted; the other is that he is not from a professional background.
Going to the field, observing a flower, smelling its fragrance, chewing on a weed... These are the ways Tian Zhenqiong mobilizes the perception of the five senses and builds links with natural creatures. He can only establish emotions for the painting objects. Trace their most vivid appearance.
Although repeatedly stressing that he is not an artist, his sensitive personality and reliance on intuition are still rooted in the thinking style of Tian Zhenqiong, who was a designer.
The picture shows Tian Zhenqiong and his museum paintings.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
For Tian Zhenqiong, painting museum paintings can be described as a monk halfway through.
Before settling in Dali, he graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts and has been doing costume design in Beijing.
In 2012, Tian Zhenqiong planned to stay in Dali for a while with the purpose of recuperating his body.
As the legacy of the ancient Nanzhao country, Dali in history has accepted immigrants from the Central Plains several times. Since the 1990s, groups of sojourners from home and abroad have flocked to Dali again. The pleasant climate, The rich flora and fauna and the colorful ethnic customs make "Dali Furnia" (another name given to Dali by literary youth, describing its diverse, inclusive and international atmosphere) as their ideal home.
Tian Zhenqiong is one of the new immigrants from Dali.
For a fashion designer, drawing software is the production tool they rely on for survival, but after coming to Dali, Tian Zhenqiong became "dizzy when he turned on the computer."
With a pen and a piece of paper, he began to return to the most primitive way of painting.
"I didn't deliberately paint the animals and plants at first, but when I was walking on the street, I always wanted to paint the small flowers and grasses I saw. Later, my friend suggested that I don't paint the plants in the city, and it's better to go to Cangshan!" Tian Zhenqiong's fascination with the mountain world became uncontrollable the first time he went to Cangshan Mountain. Here, it also became the starting point for him to establish the direction of his museum painting creation.
The picture shows Tian Zhenqiong shooting in the field.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
In 2017, Tian Zhenqiong followed the famous botanical painting industry master Zeng Xiao Lian as his teacher, and systematically learned the techniques of naturalistic painting.
At the same time, he also rode a broken motorcycle, traveling across northwestern Yunnan, from Shangri-La to Litang. At the Jiajinshan Pass, he finally saw the long-admired Meconopsis.
This portrait painted by the "Highland Elf" Meconopsis is still in the collection of Tian Zhenqiong.
Talking about the difference between museum painting and art painting, Tian Zhenqiong shared his views concisely, “Drawing correctly is always more important than painting beautifully.” Therefore, he not only observes the birds flying in the sky, but also picks them up. Return to the bird’s corpse and go home to dissect and understand its body structure; he will not only be amazed by the beauty of alpine flowers, but also take pictures of the small ecology around them-such as a small insect crawling on a leaf, and then when creating Add real details.
Tired of painting every day, Tian Zhenqiong would take her 7-year-old daughter to walk on the lawn next to the basketball court of the financial school, and teach her daughter to recognize plants while walking.
In just one year, they have found more than 40 kinds of weeds and wildflowers in this small world. These ordinary plants have given the father and daughter countless moments of surprise.
"In fact, what is not beautiful?" Tian Zhenqiong said, "It's just that their beauty is different." (End)