Gengqi's life

Geng Qi: Painting should be integrated with nature.

A bag of sweet potatoes and a chicken learn painting from the old gentleman.

Geng Qi has been attached to Chinese painting since childhood. In the 1980s, an old gentleman opened a studio in Gengqi Village. Gengqi's father is a carpenter in the village. In the fifth grade, my father was carrying a bag of sweet potatoes and holding a chicken, and asked him to learn painting with the old gentleman. "I want to learn to draw cocks, hens and lotus flowers from the old man. Later, I learned that this gentleman had studied under the great disciple of Qi Baishi. "

When I was admitted to Hebei Normal University, more than 6,000 candidates from all over Hebei took part in Geng Qi's color test and won the third place. His exam drawings were also printed as templates for later candidates.

Together with Geng Qi, I was admitted to more than a dozen students in the Department of Traditional Chinese Painting, but few of them can persist until now. Because no one believed that Chinese painting would have such a great development in the future. Qi Qi said, "Everyone doesn't know whether we can support ourselves and our families. In universities, many students are engaged in design and counseling. Because the Chinese painting market had not yet arisen. Everyone feels that the future is bleak. Even my tutor's paintings sell well. "

I was able to calm down because Gengqi listened to the teacher's instruction. "The quality of a work is judged by people, not by hype."

During college, Geng Qi, like many students in the Academy of Fine Arts, lived in a 9-square-meter house that rented 70 yuan a month, with a bed and a drawing plan. In winter, the teacher Bai Yunxiang let him live in his studio. The studio has heating, or you can use the wall painted by the teacher. Geng Yan said, "The teacher taught me the source of the usage of pen and ink. I followed my teacher steadily for three years, when he spent more time with me than Jenny. He regards me as his own child. Now as long as I go back to Hebei, I will go to see the teacher. "

Looking back now, Geng Qi has more insights. "The process from sketching to creation taught by the teacher has made me less research and exploration. Ancient masters have a deep relationship with their apprentices, and large classes can't teach anything. Now there are forty or fifty students in a class. How should we teach them? Just like how to use a pen, you can't learn it in class Painting must be technical in order to be passed down artistically. "

Nowadays, many young painters have come up with their own styles, but because there is no foundation, the painting style will swing like duckweed. For the "four unlike images" painted by many people, Geng Qi thinks that we should attach importance to traditional values. "Any painting is a link in the history of painting, and everyone is a member of it. If it deviates from the main line, it will not be accepted by tradition. The attitude and cultivation of the ancients towards nature can not be learned by copying one or two paintings of Huang, but the relationship between nature and me, the combination of mind and nature. " His understanding of tradition is very broad. Not only in the field of painting, but also in calligraphy and humanistic knowledge. When I was a child, Geng Qi was always criticized by the teacher. Therefore, the composition often gets the lowest score. Since college, he began to attack calligraphy, because the teacher told him that painting can reach the limit of calligraphy. "Posted for a period of time, then use a pen is different. There are more words to practice, and the paintings are more quality and more standardized. " In July 2004, Geng Qi's calligraphy works were selected into the first China Calligraphy Exhibition sponsored by China Calligraphy Association.

Regarding the style of painting, Geng Qi said that he would follow his own mind. "Painting Chinese painting to know yourself. Tradition and nature should be unified, relying on natural landscapes to speak, while Chinese painting should convey tradition and naturally be unified in its own language. Don't draw pictures that have nothing to do with nature, yourself or tradition. "

Geng Qi said, "Teachers are crutches. If he can't leave, the teacher will catch him. Keep what the teacher taught in mind, but go your own way. Repetition is the most taboo thing for painters. No personality, no self. "

Shaanxi has a unique cultural aesthetic in China.

In 2005, Geng Qi came to Xi 'an to look for a job after seeing the recruitment notice of Shaanxi Traditional Chinese Painting Academy. When he told his family and teachers that he wanted to go to Shaanxi, they didn't believe him. "Because I have never left Hebei since I was a child." Geng Qi said that as a foreigner, he still felt a little guilty when he came, because "I feel that there are talents with deep cultural accumulation here".

Although there are no relatives in Xi 'an, after Gengqi came, "I have a natural affinity for a landscape and want to be a Chang 'an person. "The Loess Plateau in Shaanxi strongly shocked him, and he had a strong creative desire for this landscape.

Being an outsider also allows Geng Qi to think outside the box. He believes that Shaanxi has a unique cultural aesthetic in the country, and other provinces do not have such resources.

Before coming to Shaanxi, Geng Qi was very worried about whether he would be accepted by Shaanxi painters, whether he would accept painting methods and whether he would be suppressed. But when he came, he found that his worry was completely unnecessary. "This may be influenced by the legacy of the Tang Dynasty. Shaanxi is very absorptive and inclusive. This side of the soil and water has a painting atmosphere. "

After coming to Xi, he lived in the studio and went to the antique market when he had nothing to do. Recently, he bought an ancient tripod, and his friend reminded him not to play with things. In this regard, he said, "I am not a collection value, but a culture. If I say value, I might as well earn more by selling paintings. Things in the world can never be collected, but collection can enhance my aesthetic ability. "

People who settle down to create and buy paintings can't find the door.

Geng Qi said: "Encouragement is so important in my growth that I think I can write things down. When I am at a low point, I will think of these encouragements. "

The "First National Art Exhibition of Nine Provinces and Cities" was jointly sponsored by eight mainstream media, including Huashang Daily, with special support from Xi 'an Wanke Enterprise Co., Ltd. and co-organized by Xi 'an Art Museum. Geng Qi, born in 1978, is a very young painter in this exhibition. Regarding the fame of teenagers, he said that he was embarrassed. "It's not necessarily a good thing to paint Chinese paintings young and famous. I have a deep understanding. When others think that I have made a difference, I must be aware of my limitations. " Now all kinds of people come to him. "There are more people coming, which will inevitably affect the creation."

Shaanxi Painting Academy gave Geng Qi a relaxed environment. Geng Qi said that it is impossible to create by spirit, and all good paintings are made by grinding. "People nowadays rarely calm down, but impetuousness will be conveyed in the painting. The difference between hasty writing and meticulous painting is clear at a glance. Now painting is as efficient as industrial products. I won't do that process. I turned off my cell phone and calmed down. Many people who buy paintings and publish albums come to me, and I don't open the door. " Geng Qi said that he misses graduate students very much. "In a space of 9 square meters, you can concentrate very much."

After coming to Shaanxi for many years, Geng Qi made many friends, including Jia Pingwa who forgot to make friends, and went to Dingxi together. Geng Qi said that the romanticism of artistic thinking is all connected, and he set the tone for the characteristics of his painting. "My painting should be visually pleasing. Through painting, I can see my aesthetic difference from others and feel the relationship between man and nature. Painting should rise to the harmony between man and nature, and express my feelings through nature. This is what I want to express. "