China News Service, Hong Kong, October 25th. Topic: Retired only to write and write an exclusive interview with Chinese painter Wu Peijiang: Evening breeze is also clear
China News Agency reporter Han Xingtong
Under the rice paper on the desk, daisies poked their heads out of the green leaves, vividly appearing on the paper.
Wu Peijiang, the founding chairman of Hongya Hongya Danqing Society, with white hair, is very spirited.
He took a sip of his tea and looked back at the past years.
"Like most people who paint, I would describe myself like this:'I like painting since I was a child.' The society is in turmoil, immigrating to Hong Kong and rushing for a livelihood.
So those hands that should have held a pen have spent most of their life busy working in agriculture and factories.
It’s easy to be aware of talent when you are young. “You find yourself doing the same thing better than others.” For example, in a primary school art class, the teacher draws a set of teapots and cups on the blackboard with chalk and asks the students to copy it, Wu Peijiang It's always drawn like a look.
So he was selected by the school to paint some posters, and when he grew up, he helped the local government draw posters and slogans in the countryside.
At that time, it was rare for rural teenagers to go to middle school. After graduation, they naturally returned to the countryside and worked hard on farming.
Two years later, Wu Peijiang accidentally read the enrollment notice of Hebei Normal University of Arts in the newspaper, and went home to search for paintings accumulated in the past to apply for the exam, and he succeeded in one fell swoop.
Wu Peijiang enrolled in the autumn of 1965. It was the only pure time in his life when he was accompanied by a drawing board. He went out to sketch, practice sketching, listen to the teacher's explanation of theories, and concentrate on observing the far and near, light and dark of objects.
But in a blink of an eye, the "Cultural Revolution" broke out in the spring of the following year, and classes were suspended just a few months after the start of school. The hands holding the paintbrush once again picked up the sickle for harvesting wheat.
"Looking back now, although what I learned was very simple, although I have not yet entered the stage of real painting, the knowledge has actually affected my life." After earnestly studying art with a teacher, Wu Peijiang firmly remembered the knowledge learned in a limited number of lessons, such as elementary Chinese painting elements, how to write, use water, and use ink.
He couldn't help but hypothesize: "If I keep reading, maybe I will go another way later."
But the reality is that he moved to Hong Kong and worked in a decoration materials factory to make a living. "It's very hard. Going to work during the day, you have to work hard to support your family, and go home at night so tired that you don't want to do anything."
Until he retired at the age of 60, he suddenly left home. Wu Peijiang was thinking about finding something to do, and the idea of painting naturally broke into his mind.
In his later years, he really experienced a rashness, and devoted himself to painting and calligraphy that he loved all his life without hesitation. “In addition to eating and sleeping, 90% of the time is painting during the day.”
He especially loves painting flowers and birds naturally, which is his most familiar thing.
He thought that spending more than ten springs and autumns in the countryside "lonely on each other" was really a waste of time. Now people are in a foreign land, the cicadas teased in their childhood, the boundless wheat fields that moved with the wind, and the heavy harvest in his hands during the harvest season. Watermelon, all lingering in front of the eyes, turned into creative inspiration.
With his childhood talent and perseverance in his later years, Wu Peijiang has gained a reputation in the painting and calligraphy circles in Hong Kong, and he has held solo exhibitions in 2015 and 2019.
Among them, the 2019 painting exhibition is titled "Evening Wind and Chenghuai". He said it was just a reminiscence of a famous saying by Wen Tianxiang, a patriotic poet in the Song Dynasty, "What do you learn when you read the books of sages and sages?" After going around for most of my life, I found the original path, and felt that the evening breeze was also clear.
He described the state of the moment as "one who travels a hundred miles and half is 90". He is also eager to make breakthroughs in the rest of the journey, but he always keeps in mind that no matter how the complex techniques break through, he must not deviate from the traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy style. Lost the meaning of traditional art.
"Don't forget the original intention", he wrote these words and pasted them on the center of the wall of the studio.
The original intention was to pass on traditional Chinese culture to the next generation through brushes in hand.
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