Lin Lan: Aesthetic education is actually a kind of "aesthetic education"

"When there is beauty in the human heart, his whole life will be nourished"

■ Coordinator: Hong Bo ■ Written by Pan Weiqian, a reporter of the New Express

"Letting the seeds of beauty take root in people's hearts is the significance of our work. I would like to say that this is not only 'aesthetic education', this is 'aesthetic education'. When there is beauty in the human heart, this state will nourish his entire career and life. A few days ago, Lin Lan, president of the Guangdong Academy of Painting, shared his views with readers on the important role of "aesthetic education" and how to "cultivate beauty", combined with his own growth and exploration experience and work experience.

The little contestant has become an excellent practitioner

New Express: Please tell us about your impression of "Hanmo Youth Inheriting Lingnan - Guangdong Youth Calligraphy and Painting Competition".

Lin Lan: The competition has been held for many years, and I have always paid close attention to it. First, it covers a wide range of adolescents of all ages; Second, professional organizers guarantee the academicity and high standards of judging; Third, extensive media support has made "beauty" known to more people and sowed the seeds of beauty in the hearts of more teenagers. It is a result of the combination of three powerful forces. After years of deep cultivation, I believe that many of the young contestants of that year have become excellent art practitioners.

New Express: There are indeed people who are already on the professional path.

Lin Lan: That's great. I have always loved children's paintings, which are innocent and open, different from the mature thinking patterns that our professional painters have been immersed in for many years, and are particularly creative and inspiring.

I think that letting the seeds of beauty take root in people's hearts is the significance of our work. I would like to say that this is not only "aesthetic education", this is also "aesthetic education". When there is beauty in the human heart, this state will nourish his entire career and life.

"I'm going to be on this road for the rest of my life"

New Express: As we all know, you have also been growing up and chasing in an atmosphere of beauty. Looking back now, at what point did you begin to realize that art was indispensable in your life?

Lin Lan: My grandfather was a master of Chaoshan yarn extraction arts and crafts, and my father was admitted to the affiliated middle school of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 16. Her mother was a classmate of her father's, and her four sisters were also engaged in art.

To be honest, most of my family is engaged in artistic work, so when I was young, I even thought about it, can I do something else? I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to be an architect. Then, when I was in high school, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Affiliated Middle School stopped recruiting for many years, and just happened to re-enroll.

New Express: How did you choose at the time?

Lin Lan: Sometimes, when a teenager is confused, you will grasp the most familiar things, like Wang Anyi said, the pain of exploration is like walking in the dark night, and at this time, the flashlight in your hand turns on a beam of light, and you tend to think that the direction is right. The most familiar, perhaps, is the only thing he can grasp. At that time, my family was painting every day, and it was something I knew and could control. So I got in.

New Express: In the process of searching from the Attached Middle School to the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and even the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, which stage gave you a unique touch and thus strengthened your choice?

Lin Lan: If the whole attached middle school is a stage of perceptual learning, when I arrived at the Academy of Fine Arts, it was a rational study, and I was widely exposed to the classics of art history, which gave me another kind of nourishment. The real touch was when I was studying for graduate school, in the 1980s and 1990s, the fiery wave of reform and opening up swept through Shenzhou, I hoped that what I learned could interact more closely with reality, and I chose the mural major between design and painting after comprehensive consideration, and went to Beijing.

If I was most familiar with the "light of the flashlight" in my hand before, then at this moment, the sky was already bright, and I suddenly saw the fellow travelers next to me. At that time, there were about ten female students living together. Some of these sisters from all over the world are nearly forty years old, have families and careers, but they can be close to "clearing zero" and study day and night in the new track of life.

This kind of dedication to dreams and the state of learning that is always fighting makes me feel that the sky is bright: I am going to go on like this, no matter what, I will be on this road for the rest of my life.

"Loved" and "able" are the ultimate competitiveness

New Express: Never Tire?

Lin Lan: Never tire. And we will find the unique charm of art: there are individual professions that may easily enter the slack period and hit the "ceiling", but the career of art will not have an end. That's what I want to share with parents today.

Moreover, art does not have a "first". Art has standards, but art is more unique. Therefore, every parent must discover the uniqueness of their children and cultivate their uniqueness in adolescence.

New Express: The requirements for children's painting are the more they draw, the better, or the more unique the better?

Lin Lan: A lot of times we prefer a combination of composers and performers. Composers need originality, openness, and emotion; The skillful skill of the performer is the muscle memory formed by the diligent study and hard work day and night under the standard requirements - then this combination is a combination of hand-brain interaction and emotional expression.

When a child is young, try to let him draw according to his own imagination. The path can be "observe-comb observation-expression". First of all, he wants to observe the object, such as a cup, which is the ability to observe; Second, he wants to comb through his observations, how the cup is going to express, this is the ability to comb, which is not exactly the category of the performer, but the category of the composer; Third, draw it, which is the ability to express. The three abilities of "observation-combing observation-expression" are thus formed in the painting.

If you struggle with "drawing like it" at this time, it has entered the standard procedure, but there are 1,000 Hamlets for 1,000 people, and 1,000 people have 1,000 combing methods. Therefore, in the primary school stage of young children, we recommend "being a little more lenient", just let him feel life, comb through cognition, and then express emotions, and that's it. Don't look like it, but the more unique the better. After junior high school, if the child still has a special love for art, then you can start professional and strict "military training".

New Express: Is the cognition (observation)-grooming-expression you mentioned also a process of self-searching?

Lin Lan: Yes, you have to let him recognize, comb and express himself, if this is not fully nurtured, immediately put "him" into the basic training of art to polish, his self will be incomplete. For example, the ego is incomplete, and as an artistic training product, it affects the final effect, because the ego is also an important part of the product.

We recommend that when the child is a child, how much paper there is at home, give him; Ink, water, watercolor, gouache, oil sticks, crayons, all for him. After painting the whole person, just throw it in the water and wash it (laughs). This is very good, this free cathartic channel, can make the child's emotions full of healthy development.

New Express: And the above-mentioned quest process is also a correct underlying logic.

Lin Lan: Well, I think feeling the object, combing through the self and then expressing yourself is needed for anyone, any career, for the rest of their lives. Therefore, "aesthetic education" is popular, it is not just to cultivate art workers - it is "aesthetic education", to cultivate the seeds of "beauty" in everyone's heart, and then make their lives more complete and full of flowers. I think most people should spend their lives in this way.

New Express: Do you have anything else you would like to share with young art practitioners?

Lin Lan: Realistically speaking, many people are studying art now, and the competition is fierce. I remember that Mr. Yang Zhenning was asked by college students how to achieve success, and he said that the first choice is what you like, the second choice is what you have the ability, and the third is to consider the reality of the situation. As far as art is concerned, I think that in this industry, your "loved" and "can" play an important role in the future, and can almost become the ultimate competitiveness. So everyone has to ask themselves if I really love it.