2018-08-25 21:40

刘心泉文章 | 自然而然的光明与奇特 - 散记钟蜀珩艺术

钟蜀珩 出村 54.5cm x 39.2cm 纸本油彩1980


“罗·洛梅说：创造是一个有强烈觉知的人跟世界的相遇。” 


自然而然的光明与奇特
——散记钟蜀珩艺术

文/刘心泉


一位本真而严谨的学者型艺术家，一位令我尊敬的老师钟蜀珩先生,今年我去京西九龙山的工作室看望她，看到先生创作的油画大作《荷塘》，我被作品强大的气场和精妙的表达，以及弥漫着的清新又古澹的设色深深地吸引，它更新了我以往对油画作品的印象，有感而发，写下此文，记录我对先生的艺术理想和艺术品格的认识。 

钟先生是一位性好自然、热爱生活、善良淳朴的女性，更是一位豁达深厚，情感丰富细腻的知性女艺术家。在她眼里，艺术无所不在。她把自己的生活、经历当作一场与世界的相遇，从中体验自然伟大的智慧与美妙、生活的悲欢、生命的美好与创造的快乐。

她从不刻意，而是顺其自然又竭尽所能做自己喜欢的事。自然而然形成了自己独特的观看与表现方式。走出了一条不拘一格的艺术之路。

她的艺术世界是开放的、多元的、生长的。她的学习细胞一直很活跃。她勇于突破自我，没有思维定势。她兼容并蓄，在新时代面前从不隔膜，主动迎接新事物，善于吸取古今中外之文化艺术精华，是真正的学者型画家。

钟先生深受导师吴冠中先生艺术思想的影响，深入理解继承传统的根本在于中国文化的精神内涵，她非常珍惜血脉里与生俱来的真性情，同时注重研究西方现代视觉艺术的形式规律，如吴冠中先生所言，将其视作解剖刀，以发现东西方艺术能够在高端相会的路径。    

她做学问严谨缜密，一丝不苟，寻根究底。她在艺术上不懈的探索精神往往能从深度、广度上启迪学生的创造性。她言传身教，创作、著书、译书，立意高远。她探求造型之法与色彩之道，为后学树立了极高的起点。她很早就在自己的教学中引入欧美艺术教育理念，并以宇宙自然法则来阐释造型规律。不断拓宽艺术学子的情怀与视野。

钟先生的绘画作品自然而清凉，有着自然天成般地大气和精致。她的创作是具象的、有形的、朴素的。她通过具象的形式传达出平凡、朴素与平静的生命气息。一幅幅瑰丽的图景：高粱、大树、河床、远山、庄稼地，雪后的都市街景，壮硕鲜亮的向日葵，花团锦簇的菊花，映照她恬澹超然的心境，吟咏出她内心美妙动人的旋律。她沉浸在光与色的律动变幻里，与自然进行交流。不管外面的世界多热闹、多炎嚣，她独守边缘的姿态，静定里体味着物态、光色的变化。

钟蜀珩 荷 210cm×600cm 布面油彩 2017


她画荷塘，画的是荷之神韵，荷之气度。她与荷静静交谈，不用普通的语汇。她用富于韵律的，具有抽象精神的色彩得以与自然交融，与宇宙对话。看似云淡风轻般，却抒写了“古澹清逸”的色彩乐章。她画的荷塘弥漫着山水之韵。虚中有实，实中有虚，清晰与模糊已经没有了界限。它看起来既近又远，既明晰又氤氲，既微茫又微妙。她笔下的荷塘不是一种普通的存在。青灰泛绿的画面，升腾起一团碧玉般燃烧着的智慧之火焰。盛开的粉色荷花贞静轻盈，光明而透亮，形态飞扬。火炬般若隐若现殷红的花骨朵。青碧的莲蓬像一个个音符。用笔松动而有序，用色谐和而变化不拘。一派新鲜的东方气韵，鲜明洗练又有韵致。她的荷塘何其壮阔恢弘。初阳、初叶，初生的花朵，新生、新放的光色。眼前之景与梦中之境互相交迭。记忆中的荷塘，意象中的景象自然呈现。仿佛清风抚面，满眼烟霞气象，勃勃生气。让观众仿佛置身于此起彼伏的节奏的海洋里。令人神思飞扬，渐入杳茫之境，带给人“温兮如玉，满纸生氤氲”的气韵。

她的许多作品，画面如此现代又如此古雅。这竟是怎样的一种心境哪。其色清亮明澈。就如古琴的琴音。雅洁高致，古澹从容。它使人绝去炎嚣，仿佛置身深林，又如处身清风明月之中。一切都这么安闲自如，虚淡舒徐。

她性情中和，贞静宏远，作画之时澄心肃气，缓其度，远其神，等待万籁俱寂时方才泠然笔出。她用清凉如水的色彩，营造出如冰雪一般纯净的况味。仿佛一位用色彩来弹奏的琴师。行笔不絿不竞，不急不躁。取色温润清透，一尘不染。
她的追求与两宋时代的“山水意象”不期而遇。真正的“不味而味”“不馥而馥”，恬味得矣。看似忘怀一切，反而拥有一切。此种天趣，须恬澹心境方能得此境界。

在她的艺术世界里，色彩犹如音乐，极富感性。她自如地调度颜色。色的面积，形状、材料。色的明度、纯度，色相。她调和这些变化的状态并以一定的秩序组织在一起。她善于驾驭色彩，激发色彩的节奏、韵律。演绎着色彩的高长调、低长调、低中调等调式。在她的指挥下。它们在完全轻松自由的状态中触动人的灵魂。她说这是一个永远吸引我们精神升华的理想境界。它们是艺术中的数学，富于哲理、充满美感。它们与宇宙的法则相合，情感深邃。比如她的作品《荷塘》，色彩为中间中调，效果有梦一般的朦胧感，模糊、混沌、深奥。源自于其对自然形态深刻的洞察力，对形态、空间和运动的全面特征的熟知。她会在一个动态的关系里，恰到好处地处理形态、造型、色彩与肌理。她往往能从画面某个特别动人的点出发。生发出来一种情绪，捕捉到一段旋律。从一个点伸到所有地方。通过不同的结构关系的组合变化，使画面激荡在这种旋律中。这种举重若轻的大手笔令人惊叹！使她得以享受其造型艺术的表达自由。潜入色彩宇宙的秩序美与和谐美的规律，揭示色彩的明度为色彩隐秘的骨骼。她敏锐的艺术感觉让其将音乐与色彩联姻。音乐与色彩为艺术里最灵动、性灵的成员，它们具有抽象与纯粹的特性。而她就像放风筝一样，放飞画上的每块颜色，让它们为心灵而舞蹈、鸣奏。

她时常感慨，大自然如此精致、如此壮观、如此丰富。她在创作中品读自然，领悟自然。她不断地与自然的交流。逐渐体验到观察自然以不能限于表面。而是要体验那潜在于自然内在中美的法则。因为艺术的本质在于人性与自然的交融呼应。若没有人的心灵感应，自然的美就不复存在了。她发现自然无时无刻不在展示着动态。最微小的也是最宏大的，最宏大的也是最精微的。一朵鲜花或一片云，一座山脉或一层海浪，都有自己的造型和色彩的特征。但在本质上它们是一致的。

她认为，自然中那看不见的虚空的运动，往往决定了看得见的实体的形态。而这些实体的式样又反映出虚空的存在。就像被大气的运动吞噬的岩石一样。万物的表象展示了万千年来大气运动的势象。一切形态都受着自然法则的主宰。每一种物质的组合中都体现了音乐般的节奏与韵律，人类也不例外。我们的人体，是我们视觉所及的众多物象中最具特殊含义的形态。我们无时无刻不在自身或外因的作用下改变自己的体态。体验着伸展、收缩、压迫、上升、紧张、松弛、跳跃、奔驰、颤栗。人体可以说是一个浓缩的自然，一个小宇宙，又可以说是一个大自然。它蕴含着与大宇宙息息相通的结构和气脉。但人体又是不同于万物的特殊形象。它是人自我的影子。艺术家表现人体有两种趋向。一种把人体融于自然之中。着重体悟人体的自然气质。寻找人体与自然的和谐。另一种趋向则把人体拉向自我。着重体悟人体所容纳的人性内涵。即人的理想、精神、情感与肉体美的完美结合。她是用大自然的力感、量感和动感来体悟人体美。正是在于领悟自然内在的和谐，并将其秩序抽象出来创造为艺术。她的一幅仰卧的油画人体作品，非常明确地表达了她的这一理念。这是一幅奇特的画面，与几乎所有见过的油画人体不同，那形象既是人体，又让人联想到大自然的河流，画面构图的抽象处理和人体形象认真入微的表现合而归一，展现出的是东方的情境。
 
钟蜀珩 少女 布面油画 91.4×65.6cm 1990年


她的肖像作品《少女》《圆圆》等，把女性身上的那泉水一般透亮的“清”与“纯”体现得无可挑剔。这种少女般的纯真特质，正是艺术家自己心灵的写照。

作品《小川》，捕捉的是弹琴者刹那间的表情和动势，作品体现出作者对动态、韵律极强的感受力与表现力。画面宁静古典又气味清新，有维米尔《倒牛奶的女仆》《戴珍珠耳环的少女》那种自然、生动，把貌似平常的生活凝于一瞬，定格成永恒，定格在舒缓自由的音乐旋律里。人物浸泡在优美的旋律里，仿佛处于无人之境，似乎抛却了一切思虑，轻松地弹拨着琴弦，画面深蓝与明黄构成鲜明的明度对比，冷色调配以少许的暖黄，笔触流动着舒缓的旋律，表现了一个现代女性的丰盈而恬静的精神生活状态和令人回味联想的视觉印象。

作品《圣诞卡》是一幅用丙烯颜料完成的作品，乍看像一幅版画作品，画面恰当的调和了平面、抽象与意象的表现手法，展现了一种清新明快的画面节奏。作品受一张精美别致的卡片感发，从这个动人的点生发出来一种特别的情绪，顺着这种情绪捕捉到一段旋律，然后从一个点伸到所有地方，使画面激荡在这种旋律中。自画像剪影似的轻轻浅浅至于一隅，她做画没有偶像包袱，而是顺着这张貌似简单的几何形的卡片图形，编织出一幅由直线、弧线构成的几何形为主的恬淡空间。青灰色的平面里隐藏着无限的想象空间。

钟蜀珩 圣诞卡 布面丙烯 81×100cm 2005

在她眼里，每一个模特的形象都负载着某些属于整个人类的精神内容。她画的人物眼神里都闪烁着纯洁、善良和真诚的光芒。看似寻常，却体现着她对世界的温柔态度。

她说，艺术的价值不是建立在竞争或标新立异的目标上。艺术应该是生命过程中自然而然由心而发的。让绘画回到“绘画”中去。美感是绘画之本。最好的艺术状态是自然而然的流露，顺其自然的抒写。她崇尚真正的返朴归真，非表象的、风格上的追“古”或“拙”，而是追求创作态度上的“朴”与“真”。她曾尊崇“黑白之美”——力量之美，而今倾向于将其消融在色彩和谐的乐池里。强调色彩在绘画中传达出的意境与心境。她像鱼儿一样游弋于色彩那梦幻般的神秘世界，深邃的大海、广袤的宇宙的深处。感悟与色彩的魅力，那犹如交响乐般的丰富、博大与厚度。

她说，真正的绘画艺术是以心灵指导视觉的。那么观察自然就不应该局限在眼睛，我们还需要聆听和触摸。一切感官，包括味觉和嗅觉，都会唤起真切的感受，然后通过视觉形式来传达。她的老师吴冠中先生说，造型艺术一定要讲形式美，而抽象美是形式美的核心。她全心领悟先生的思想，深知以心见物，以情观物，才能真正捕捉到对象抽象美的生命形态。她以虔诚、敏感的心去感受自然，把握自然的特征。创造出属于自己的感人的艺术表现形式。她的绘画静静待在那，不招摇、不晃眼，一不留神，会不动声色的把你的心给俘虏。

作品《静物》，是一幅宋瓷般青灰恬淡的油画小写意。画面用笔用色精妙，这种精妙来自她把静物当成“活物”来对待，她给每一笔都注入了独特的体验，通过触摸、听闻，把萝卜、大葱的鲜活气息吸入心田，然后再春蚕吐丝般吐出色与形，两个清润丰硕的白萝卜，几点新绿的萝卜茵子，以浅褐、浅黄色的小碎笔轻松铺就；三根大葱用笔大气洒脱，由白、青、黄绿及黑画成，轻描淡写中捕捉到这些平凡之物的平实与生趣。

作品《乌兰察布古老河床》，是一幅充满诗意的绘画，它看似草原上极平凡的一景：蓝蓝的天空下，一片灰紫赭灰色的山丘，草地像新绿的绸缎，一棵深绿的大树静立其间，干枯的河床记录着河水曾一路流淌，奔向远方的足迹。她画的自然纯粹、宁静，却满含深情与感恩之心，你能感觉到画上的每一笔都是她用温柔的心触摸过的，站在其作品前，你会不由自主被带入一片旷野的气氛中，一种梦境中，让人走进去，走得很远很远……

作品《胡麻花》，表现的也是内蒙古草原上并不起眼的风光，主体是绿色的草原与蓝色的胡麻花。山坡上的胡麻花一片片、一朵朵，像饱和纯净的蓝色火焰在跳着群舞，晶莹熠丽，风中摇曳。高明度与高纯度的和谐表现出高原上花朵原始的力量与美丽，这是一种陌生又新奇的色彩体验——见了它你会顿觉精神明亮。

她画油画，作品却特有一种温兮如玉的气质，蕴含着莲花般柔软的力量。

钟蜀珩先生清晰地感受到天人合一的中国美学境界是人类的永恒主题，具有永恒的生命力。因此，她的作品始终在自然而然的表达中，透露着光明和奇特。钟先生通过自己的艺术证明了她的理想，她热爱自然，感恩自然，用绘画寻找回归自然之路，走向自己的精神家园。


——




"According to Rollo May, creativity is the encounter of the intensively conscious human being with his or her world." 


Being Naturally Bright and Extraordinary
- On the Art of Zhong Shuheng

By Liu Xinquan

Being genuine and rigorous, Ms. Zhong Shuheng is a scholarly artist and a respectable teacher of mine. I went to visit her at her Studio in the Jiu Long Mountains to the west of Beijing this year. There I saw her great oil painting "the Lotus Pond". I was deeply attracted by its strong mental aura, exquisite expression as well as the refreshing and quiet classical colors of the work. It renewed my previous understanding of oil painting. Out of this experience I am putting down these words to record my thoughts on the art ideal and artistic characters of Ms. Zhong.

Ms. Zhong is a lady who is enthusiastic for nature, life-loving, kind, genuine, and simple and honest. She is also an open-minded and intellectual female artist with rich and subtle feelings. In her eyes, art is everywhere. She takes her life and experience as an encountering with the world, from which she can feel the great wisdom and beauty of nature, the happiness and sorrow in life, the beauty of life and the joy of creation.

She is never artificial and always follows nature. She tries her best to do things she likes. Naturally she formed her own unique perspectives and expressive style, and blazed an individual path in art.

Her art world is open, diverse and growing. Her learning cells are constantly very active. She has the courage to break through her own establishments and does not confine herself to certain mindsets. She is inclusive and never estranges herself from the new era. She is willing to embrace new things and good at drawing from the essences of ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign cultures and arts. She is truly a scholarly painting artist.

Ms. Zhong is deeply influenced by the artistic thoughts of her instructor Mr. Wu Guanzhong. She understands profoundly that the inheritance of traditions roots in the spiritual connotation of Chinese culture. She cherishes the true nature she was born with. At the same time, she emphasizes the study of formal principles of modern visual arts in the West. Just as Mr. Wu Guanzhong once put it, she uses it as a scalpel to analyze and find the path where the Eastern and Western arts can meet at the higher end.

She is rigorous, meticulous and inquiring. Her unremitting spirit of exploration in art can often inspire the students' creativity in depth and breadth. She taught by practice, creates art, writes and translates with high aims. She explores the way of modeling and the laws of colors, which set a high starting point for the later researchers. She has introduced the European and American art education philosophy in her own teaching at very early times, and she interprets the modeling laws with natural law of the universe. She keeps broadening the passion and vision of artistic students.

Ms. Zhong's paintings are natural and refreshing, with a natural grandiose character and exquisite textures. Her art creation is figurative, tangible and simple. She conveys through the concrete forms an ordinary, simple and calm atmosphere of life. There are magnificent scenes in her paintings: the sorghum field, great trees, riverbeds, mountains afar, crops, and urban scenes after snow, robust and bright sunflowers, and blooming chrysanthemums. These are the reflections of her peaceful and pure state of mind and the beautiful moving melodies from her heart. She is immersed in the rhythmic changes of lights and colors and dialogues with nature. She ignores the noisy and restless outside world and remains alone on the edge, so that she can quietly savor the changes in the objects, states, lights and colors.

In her painted lotus pond, she paints the spiritual posture and the character of the lotus pond. She quietly talks with the lotus with an extraordinary language. Her colors being rich in rhythm and bearing an abstract spirit enables her to blend with nature and converse with the universe. Seemingly light as the clouds and gentle as the breeze, actually it composes a colorful prose with the simple and elegant ancient spirit. The lotus pond she paints is filled with the charm of mountains and waters. It is vague and realistic at the same time. There are no boundaries between clarity and ambiguity. It looks near and far away, clear and foggy, hazy and subtle. The lotus pond under her paintbrush is not a common presence. From the green and grayish picture rises a flame of wisdom like burning jade. Blooming pink lotus is pure, light, bright and translucent, as if flying. Dark red flower buds disappear and reappear like flames of a torch. Jade green seedpods of the lotus are like notes of a melody. The brushstrokes are relaxing and orderly. The colors are harmonious and full of variations. All contribute to a fresh oriental charm, a clean, concise, tasteful and rhythmic picture. How grandiose is her lotus pond! In the picture we see the morning sun, sprouting leaves, budding flowers, new and fresh light and colors. The scene before our eyes overlaps with that of a dream. The lotus pond in the memory and image in the mind are represented in a natural way. It's like a gentle breeze on the face, hazy and twilight scenery in the eyes, full of vitality. The audience feels as if sailing in the rhythm of ocean, rising up and falling down. Thoughts are carried away and minds gradually enter a state of oblivion. The painting provides us with the kind of vivid flavor, same as the warm feeling of holding a piece of jade and the image of hazy fog rising from the canvas.

Many of her works have such modern and quaint images. What kind of a state of mind must it be! Its color is bright and clear, like the sounds of Guqin, elegant and clean, quaint and relaxed. It rids people of the restlessness. People feel as if being in a deep forest or bathing in a gentle breeze in the bright moonlight. Everything is so leisurely and relaxing, careless and soothing.

Her disposition is moderate, loyal, quiet and generous. When she paints, her mind is clear and concentrated, spirit going far. She will not start a stroke until it's all quiet down. She uses the flowing colors as cool as water to create such a pure atmosphere like the world of snow and ice. She is like a musician who plays with colors. The movements of her brush are not aggressive or hasty. The colors are warm, mild and clear, stainless.

Her pursuit echoes with the "mountains and waters atmosphere" of the Song Dynasty unexpectedly. Having no taste is the tastiest. Being scentless can be very fragrant. Taste is then truly acquired in peacefulness. It seems to forget everything, but actually possesses everything. Such heavenly joy can only be obtained by calming down the mind. 

In her art world, the colors are like music, being very sensible. She arranges the colors at ease. The area, shape, material of the colors, the brightness, purity, hue of the colors are coordinated and organized in a certain order. She is good at commanding colors, activating the rhythm of the colors. Colors are rendered in higher long tune, lower long tune or lower middle tunes. Under her command they touch the human soul in a completely free and relaxed state. She said that this is an ideal state that always leads our spirit to sublimation. They are mathematics in art, philosophical and beautiful. They are consistent with the law of the universe and have deep emotions. For example, her work "the Lotus Pond" has the medium colors of a middle tune. The effect is like a dream, vague, hazy, fuzzy, chaotic and esoteric. It comes from the profound insight into the natural forms and the familiarity of the full features of forms, space and motions. She can deal with the shapes, forms, colors and textures precisely in a dynamic relationship. She can often begin with a particularly moving point in the picture and generate a mood, capture a melody. It expands from one point to all directions. Through the combination and variation of different structural compositions she let the picture vibrate in this melody. Such kind of grandiose command of the brush with ease is amazing! So that she can enjoy the expressive freedom of the forming art.  She submerges herself in the laws of the beauty of order and harmony of the universe of colors, revealing that the brightness of colors is the hidden bones of colors. Her keen senses in art help her to unite music with colors by marriage. Music and colors are the most spiritual and agile members of art. They are abstract and pure. Like flying a kite, she flies each piece of color on the canvas and let them dance and sing for the soul.

She often feels amazed at how delicate, spectacular and rich nature is. She reads nature and understands nature in her art practice. She keeps communicating with nature and gradually understands that to observe nature should not be superficial, but to experience the law of beauty hidden in nature, because the essence of art lies in the blending and echoing of humanity and nature. If there is no response from human mind, natural beauty no longer exists. She found that nature is constantly dynamic. The tiniest is also the greatest and the greatest the most subtle. A flower or a cloud, a mountain or a wave in the sea has its own shapes and colors. But in essence they are all the same.

She thinks that the invisible void movements in nature often determine the forms of the visible entities. And the forms of these entities also reflect the existence of the nothingness. Just like the rocks that are swallowed by the movement of the atmosphere. The appearances of all things show the momentum of the air movement over thousands of years. All forms are dominated by the laws of nature. The composition of each material embodies the musical beats and rhythm. Humans are no exception. Our body is a form of the most special meaning among the many objects in our vision. We change the shape and posture of our body constantly, voluntarily or by outer force. We experience stretching, contraction, oppression, rise, tension, relaxation, jumping, running and trembling. The human body can be said to be a concentrated nature, a small universe. It can also be taken as a great nature, which contains the structure and the spirit that are intertwined with the great universe. But the human body is a special image different from all things. It is the reflection of the ego of a person. The artist tends to represent human body in two ways. One is to integrate the human body into nature, focusing on understanding the natural temperament of the human body and looking for harmony between the human body and nature. The other tends to pull the human body to the ego, emphasizing on understanding the connotations contained in this body, that is, the perfect unity of human ideals, spirits, emotions and physical beauty. She uses the sense of power, volume and dynamic in nature to understand the beauty of the human body. It is to comprehend the inner harmony of nature and to abstractize its order to create art. One of her oil paintings with a body lying on the back very clearly expressed this idea. This is a unique picture, being different from almost all the oil painting of human body I have seen. That image not only is a human body, but also makes one associate it with a river in nature. The abstract handling of the picture composition and the detailed depiction of the human body are harmonious and united as one, presenting an oriental sentimental state.

Her portrait works including "the Young Girl" and "Yuan Yuan" perfectly represent the "clear" and "pure" characters of the female body as translucent as spring water. This girl-like innocence is a self-portrait of the artist's own soul.

The work "Xiao Chuan" captured the player's expression and momentum in a moment. The work reflects the artist's strong expression and senses for dynamics and rhythm. The picture is quiet, classical and fresh. It has the kind of capture of a natural, vivid and seemingly ordinary life's moments as shown in the works of Vermeer's "the Milk Maid" and "the Girl with the Pearl Earring". It fixed the moments into eternity and maintains such moments in a relaxed and free-flowing melody. The character is immersed in the beautiful melody, as if no one were around and free of all thoughts. She plucked the strings lightly. A sharp contrast is formed by the dark blue and the bright yellow. The cold tone is mixed with dashes of warm yellow. The brushstrokes flow like a soothing melody. It presents the rich and peaceful spiritual life of a modern woman and an intriguing visual impression.

"Christmas Card" is a work done with acrylic paint. At first glance it looks like a copy of printmaking. The picture appropriately reconciles expressive methods such as the plane, abstract and expressive approaches and demonstrates a fresh and pleasant rhythm. The work was inspired by a fine greeting card and the embodiment of a specific mood generated from this touching point. The artist followed this mood and captured a melody. From one point she expands to all directions. The entire picture is resonating in this melody. The self-portrait is placed quietly in the corner like a silhouette. She does not carry the burden of icons when she paints, but just follows the seemingly simple geometric graphics in the card and weaves a comfortable space composed of geometric shapes of straight lines and arcs. The gray, green plane hides an infinite imaginative space.

In her eyes, the image of each individual model is loaded with some of the spiritual content shared by the whole human race. The characters in her paintings all have pure, kind and sincere glows in their eyes. It seems to be common, but reflects her gentle attitude towards the world.

She said that the value of art is not founded on goals of competition or trying to be unconventional. Art should be the natural process of life and arise from the heart. Painting should be treated as "painting" is. The sense of beauty is the essence of painting. The best artistic state is a natural expression and a narration with flow. She worships the real returning to nature, not chasing the style of "ancient" or "clumsy" in the superficial sense. She pursues the "purity" and "authenticity" in the attitude of art creation. She used to advocate the "beauty of black and white" - it is the beauty of power. And now she tends to melt it in the music pool of various colors in harmony, and emphasizes the moods and atmosphere that colors convey in a painting. She swims like a fish in the fantastic mystic world, deep sea and vast universe of colors. She feels the charm of colors, their richness, broadness and thickness like a symphony.

She says that real painting art is a vision guided by the mind. Then the observation of nature should not be confined to the eyes. We also need to listen and touch. All senses, including taste and smell, can arouse real feelings, and then these feelings are conveyed through visual forms. Her teacher, Mr. Wu Guanzhong said that formal beauty is important to plastic arts, and abstract beauty is the core of formal beauty. She studied and understood the idea wholeheartedly and knows well that one has to look with the heart, feel things with emotions and thereby capture the life form of abstract beauty in the object. She feels nature with a pious, sensitive heart and grasps the characteristics of nature, and thereby creates her own touching artistic expression. Her paintings stand there quietly, not flashy, not dazzling, and it captures your heart unexpectedly before you become aware of it.

"Still Life" is a small oil painting reminiscent of the light blue-grayish porcelain in the Song Dynasty. The use of brush and the colors is exquisite. The exquisiteness comes from the way she treats still life objects as "living things". She injects specific experiences into each brushstroke. Through touching, listening and smelling, she breathes in the fresh air of the radish and the green onions, and then spin out colors and shapes like a silkworm. Two fresh and round white radish and a few new green leaves are accomplished by light brown and light yellow broken strokes in leisure. Three green onions are drawn boldly with liberal strokes. The composition of white, cyan, yellowish green and black casually captures the plain fun of life in these ordinary things.

"Ancient Riverbed of Ulan Qab" is a poetic painting. It looks like a very ordinary scene in the prairie: blue sky, grayish purple hills, green grass like a new silk textile, a dark green tree standing quietly in between, the dry riverbed reminds of the footsteps of river water used to run towards the distance. The painting is natural, pure and tranquil, which is saturated with deep affection and gratitude. You can feel that every stroke in the picture is touched by her gentle heart. Standing in front of her works, you cannot help being brought into the atmosphere of a wilderness or a dreamland. You walk into it and go very, very far...

"The Heloniopsis" portrays a common landscape on the grassland of Inner Mongolia. The main area of the picture is the green grassland, patched with the blue Heloniopsis. The scattering patches and individual blooming flowers on the hillside are like blue dancing flames, saturate and pure, crystal clear and bright, waving in the wind. The harmony between high-toned brightness and high-toned purity in the colors displays the primitive power and beauty of flowers on the plateau. This is a strange and novel color experience - it brightens your mind once you see it.

Ms. Zhong's oil paintings always contain a unique kind of warm texture like a polished jade. They contain a soft power like that of a lotus.

Ms. Zhong Shuheng clearly feels that the Chinese aesthetic pursuit of the unity of heaven and humans is an eternal theme of mankind; it has everlasting vitality. Therefore, her works always reveal brightness and the extraordinary quality in their consistent natural expression. Ms. Zhong proves her ideal through her own art practice. She loves nature, is grateful for nature, and seeks the path to return to nature through painting, and walks towards her spiritual homeland.


来源：TAIMAY