The Preface of Crane Painting by Fapeng Zhu The Integration of Traditional Painting and Modern Colors
Remarked by: Dawei Liu-Chairman ofChinese Artists Association
The innovative task upon Chinese flower and bird painting has long been left to artists in the field. Furthermore, the transformation of forms and compositions of this painting variety has been frequently discussed by them. Many artists in the field are diligent in seeking for innovation. Among them, the mid-aged painter Fapeng Zhu has cut a brilliant figure in flower and bird painting in recent years.
Fapeng Zhu was graduated from Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts through formal and strict training. He has high proficiency in creating flower, feather, beast and fish, particularly the red-crowned crane in freehand style. The emphasis of ink and brush in Chinese painting is of far-reaching significance in result of cultural traditions and historical reasons. For Fapeng Zhu, he has attached himself in the art of ink and brush in creating cranes. In his work, the casual pen movement and unrestrained brushing are applied to construct the subject image simply in a few touches, without any overfilling. It mainly uses center peak, long line and curve to get the extreme forms of rising and falling. The contrast and unity of brush vigour and ink have made a expressive painting for itself. There is less but precise brushes for the crane beaks, legs and claws, yet two or three heavy applications in tail parts, rendering the crane forms that are vivid and intelligent. The rare touches gives full expression of the ink, layer, pattern and appeal in the dedicate and pretty picture.
Crane painting has a long history in traditional flower and bird category as one of the most common variety. The famous painting of “Longevity Crane”, “Long Life Crane”, “Heshou”, “Hemingjiutian” and the likes are almost known to all as a familiar old items. Even the composition, color and pattern of varied cranes are sort out into modes by earlier generations. Without being told, it’s extremely hard to set private new style out of the comfort place over the predecessors in such circumstance. However, Fapeng Zhu goes against the influence of dozens of predecessors and establishes his personal characteristics since he has known about traditional paintings and benefited from the unique perception and rich experience in color and composition. Sometimes, he takes very broad and heavy single line to create a distorted crane in one go, then decorates the red-crown with bold brush in the background of proper ink arrangement and well-aligned lines and colors. It describes a flock of distorted crane among the color blocks resembling to trees, bamboo or lotus leaves, producing a rare shocking and exciting experience to the spectator. While sometimes, he uses a row of brushes to present a big picture combining drastic red, black, yellow and green color. The art piece can be considered as a beautiful modern abstract painting at first glance, but you will interpret the scene of crane flock if look into the colorful blocks. He has stepped out a promising and innovative step by breaking through the tradition of the predecessors.