I think summer should be the most beautiful season of the grassland, with thousands of miles of grass, melodious horse-head piano sound, mellow milk tea, simple Mongolia ballads, majestic horse runners, and mountain-like boke hands...... Horses are galloping, cattle and sheep are enjoying themselves, herdsmen are singing, and colorful flowers are smiling...... Everything is warm and beautiful, and it comes together into a cheerful grassland fantasy song. It was on such a summer day that Mr. Yifeng, Xiao Sa and I came to the grassland of Xilin Gol League.
One of Chen Yifeng's "Boke".
Size: 20cmx15cm
Different from ordinary backpacking tourists, our trip pays more attention to humanity in addition to the grassland scenery, especially Mr. Yifeng said that he wants to find a symbol on the grassland that can express the power of the freehand characters, which I am particularly looking forward to.
Chen Yifeng "The Edge of Heaven"
Size: 20cmx15cm
We've had a lot of toss along the way. Because it was a temporary intention, we went to the most lively Naadam conference in Inner Mongolia, and encountered the peak tourist season in China, and it was difficult to find a ticket, so we had to fly to Xiamen at Zhuhai Jinwan Airport and then transfer to Beijing and then change to a car to reach Xilin Gol League Zhenglan Banner. After 30 hours, as a relatively young person, we all felt a little unbearable, but Mr. Yifeng, who was over the age of six, said happily: "It's okay, life needs to be experienced, and it's good to toss it again while you can still toss it." After that, he also recalled with great interest the experience of riding a bicycle around the country for two and a half years, as well as the beginning and end of the green train from Guangxi all the way to Beijing during his studies. Talking and laughing, my admiration for the teacher added a little more. Sure enough, a person who can endure hardships is optimistic in his life.
Chen Yifeng "Clouds in the Sky"
Size: 15cmx20cm
The sky is like a dome, the sky is vast, and the wind blows the grass and sees the cattle and sheep. This is the prairie at its truest form. The deeper you go into the grassland, the more beautiful the scenery is, in addition to the endless grassland, dotted cattle and sheep, as well as the vast desert and the string of camel bells, but the only regret is that there are really too few herdsmen on the grassland! Before we set off, we already had psychological expectations, but when we really came, we found that the herdsmen were much less than I imagined, if the standard cattle and sheep were called "pitiful", there were only a few of them galloping for one or two hundred miles, but this also proves that the motherland is vast and rich, and the herdsmen's life is rich?! There are people in the depths of the grassland, and under the guidance of the local guide, we repeatedly turned left and right and finally came to a herdsman's house, which is a family of five, old Ovo (grandfather), Yiji (grandmother), Abu (father), Eji (mother) are all at home, and a young man is at university in Beijing. In the embrace of the prairie, they live a simple and quiet life, with the sky as the quilt, the earth as the seat, and the cattle and sheep as the companions, in my opinion, this is the poetry and the distant life. Teacher Yifeng also seemed to be moved by such a beauty, painted against the scorching sun, only to see that he was calm and relaxed, and the pen was attentive, and after a while, the blue sky and green grass, the herdsmen, cattle and sheep were all presented in the square inch with an ink-drenched attitude. Teacher Yifeng painted one after another, he forgot to be in the world, in his own painting world to express his chest, I also followed the side of the painting, I chose to express my subjective feelings in the way of color, compared to the atmosphere painted by Mr. Yifeng, my paintings will be slightly immature, but he encouraged me to say that the important thing is to draw their current feelings, find the artistic symbols they want to express, and do not blindly pursue perfection.
Chen Yifeng "Impression of Inner Mongolia Xilin Gol"
Size: 20cmx15cm
Chen Yifeng "Deep in the Desert"
Size: 20cmx15cm
Chen Yifeng "Writing Yang Man in Xilin Gol Grassland"
Size: 20cmx15cm
One of Zhiyu's sketches of "Prairie".
Size: 15cmx20cm
Zhiyu's "Prairie" sketch II
Size: 15cmx20cm
Zhiyu "There Are Homes in the Depths of the Prairie"
Size: 20cmx15cm
Later, we stumbled into the home of another pair of steppe sisters, who looked like standard steppe iron girls, tall and strong, heroic, wearing a Mongolia robe, colorful like grassland flowers. Seeing this, Mr. Yifeng's eyes lit up, and he unconsciously shook his long flowing hair, and instantly he was inspired, and he kept muttering in his mouth, the artist is "lustful", so beautiful. With his hands in his heart, he sketched up again. While painting, I hummed a small tune happily and reveled in it. Yes, painting does require a primitive impulse to release the truest thing in one's heart into the painting, which is really beautiful and true!
Chen Yifeng "Far Away"
Size: 20cmx15cm
Zhiyu "Prairie Iron Girl"
Size: 20cmx15cm
The sister's house came out, the sky has been full of red clouds, the grassland shows another kind of beauty, the whole grassland seems to be bathed in golden brilliance under the light and shadow, a big tree in the sky is quietly waiting for the afterglow of the sun to dissipate, returning to tranquility seems to be what it wants more, this is also the life that we yearn for in the city for a long time to make the sunrise and sunset. Mr. Yifeng's "Prairie Dusk" reflects our longing for this simple life. Really good work is one that resonates with the viewer. The charm of freehand painting also lies in the fact that it allows people to have unlimited imagination.
Chen Yifeng "Prairie Dusk"
Size: 20cmx15cm
The sky is strong, and the sky is proud. When I came to Xilin Gol League in midsummer, of course, I wanted to go to the pasture on the horizon to watch a real contest between the grassland men, which was also what Mr. Yifeng had been thinking about. Wrestling is the nature of men, Mongolian wrestling is very characteristic, not only the movement is large, the amplitude is wide, and the posture is also very beautiful, Mongolian men can always show amazing strength and courage when wrestling. These are all highly consistent with the vigorous, rough, powerful and a little wild that Mr. Yifeng's freehand characters want to express. He often said that he had a hero living in his heart. What he wanted to see most when he came to the prairie this time was this wrestling, and he wanted to find some artistic language and artistic symbols he wanted from it. I was amazed at his courage and determination. It stands to reason that he is already a well-known freehand figure painter in the country, and his Tibetan character themes, northern Shaanxi character themes, and ancient people series themes have long been famous in the country, which is enough for him to be brilliant for a lifetime, but he is still tireless on the road of freehand and has more of his pursuits, just like this time he came to Inner Mongolia to collect wind He wanted to paint wrestling themes. The straight and powerful lines, not verbose, with a little clumsiness, a few strokes of Bock hands are tiger-backed, honest and strong, and mountain-like images are about to come out. In the pen of Mr. Yifeng, they either hugged their legs and waists to follow their old skills, or spun their backs to cross the enemy, or held a stalemate, no one could help anyone, or they looked up to the sky and fell to the ground and were not convinced, and every image was lifelike under the ink.
Chen Yifeng's "Boke" II
Size: 20cmx15cm
Chen Yifeng's "Boke" No. 3
Size: 20cmx15cm
I think that a true artist's dedication to art is nothing more than how famous he is on the road of art, or dare to constantly break through himself, to explore and reconstruct, this road may go through many twists and turns, and even fail, but his heart must be happy and abundant.
Zhiyu "Bock Hand"
Size: 20cmx15cm
One of Zhiyu's "Contest on the Prairie".
Size: 20cmx15cm
Zhiyu "Contest on the Prairie" II
Size: 20cmx15cm
Translated into Chinese, Naadam means "play", and horse racing is naturally the main event, with thousands of horses galloping and dusty. Spectacular. The riders galloped on their horses in national costumes, light as dragonflies and swift as the wind and clouds, and we were dizzying. And Mr. Yifeng's shot was not slow at all, I saw that he seized the moment and felt that the wind-like horse runner was vividly expressed with pen and ink. He paints obsessively, paints happily, does not forget to have a few sips while painting, there is no restraint between the drunk, the painting is more comfortable and unrestrained, in his own world at the gallop of brush and ink, the essence of the freehand between the seemingly and the dissimilar. This is probably the kind of painting we've always wanted to get into. People with a capital letter, a picture with a capital letter! In the vast prairie, I have a deeper understanding of "people are like their paintings, and paintings are like their people".
One of Chen Yifeng's "Eagles of the Prairie".
Size: 20cmx15cm
Chen Yifeng's "Eagle of the Prairie" II
Size: 20cmx15cm
Chen Yifeng's "Eagle of the Prairie" No. 3
Size: 20cmx15cm
Chen Yifeng's "Eagle of the Prairie" No. 4
Size: 20cmx15cm
Zhiyu "On the Hippodrome"
Size: 20cmx15cm
Zhiyu "Horse Runner"
Size: 20cmx15cm
A history of the Yuan Dynasty in half of the Yuan Dynasty, the ruins of the Yuan Shangdu are the only world cultural heritage sites in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region so far. In addition to the ancient songs in the ruins of Yuanshangdu, God also seems to have accidentally knocked over the palette, and all kinds of colorful flowers are scattered on the green grassland under the shroud of morning and dusk, romantic and beautiful. I wonder if Mr. Ichimine, who is usually unkempt and grinning, would like such a scenery? Just as I was thinking about it, he was already enjoying the flowers with great interest, and he was also enthusiastically photographing his favorite flowers, and his eyes were full of tenderness and doting. It turns out that people with a capital letter also have such a delicate side. So what is the grassland flower sea written by Mr. Yifeng? As early as 1982, when he was in the second year of college, his oil painting "Happy Encounter" was collected by the National Art Museum of China, and now it appears as a model in the latest edition of art textbooks. He told me that colors can sometimes be subjective, but the combination must be harmonious, comfortable, and advanced; Of course, the color of Chinese painting should be more particular, and it is necessary to see the brush and ink. He said that it was like a painting, dripping with ink and vivid, or outlining or dyeing or rubbing, and I seemed to smell the fragrance of flowers through the paper. It turns out that in addition to the heroic side, Mr. Yifeng also has a romantic side, and at this time, the two paintings of Mr. Yifeng's "The Heroic Wind of the Great Han" and "Idle Days" immediately jumped into his mind. I can't help but sigh that a great artist should be able to paint anything, which is the accumulation of decades of hard work.
Chen Yifeng "The Golden Lotus Blossoms of the Yuan Shangdu"
Size: 20cmx15cm
Zhiyu "Yuan Shangdu Golden Lotus Blossom"
Size: 20cmx15cm
When the white horse passed through the gap and bid farewell to the prairie of the Xilin Gol League, Mr. Yifeng agreed with himself sonorously and forcefully that after returning to the ear, he must create a group of powerful and masculine "wrestling", let us look forward to it together. But I know that this is just a step on the road for Mr. Yifeng to practice "always freehand". The road is long, and I will follow Mr. Yifeng firmly on the avenue and do my part for the revival of the freehand, I think this is the most important meaning of this original upward journey.
(Text/Zhiyu, 2024.7.29)
(Source: Da Rong Tang)
Artist Profile
Chen Yifeng, born in 1960, is a native of Yulin, Guangxi, and is a native of Darongshan. He graduated from Guangxi Academy of Arts in 1982 and graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1997. Many papers and works have been published in national professional core publications, such as the oil painting "Happy Encounter" collected by the National Art Museum of China, and the Chinese painting "My Old and My Young" collected by the Guangdong Museum of Art.
Chen Yifeng is particularly fond of the ancient and simple customs of the snowy plateau, and with the unique vision of an artist, he presents the pious and vicissitudes of the Tibetan people's eyes and slightly slow and reserved posture to the bottom of the brush, and excavates a pure and transcendent spiritual beauty. Through his depictions of Tibetans on the plateau, Chen Yifeng realized his initial exploration of freehand figure painting.