Author/Sharla Cheung
Peony is beautiful and dignified, and the country is very beautiful. In the traditional culture of China, peony's elegant and rich temperament symbolizes prosperity and is deeply loved by the public. The expression forms of Chinese painting peony are very rich, which is one of the reasons why modern painters are keen to chase it.
? Cao, a member of Anhui Artists Association and Bengbu Oil Painting Society, has been insisting on the exploration and creation of peony paintings for twenty years. His freehand brushwork or realistic peony paintings are unique, bold and unrestrained, gorgeous and good, showing the noble and elegant temperament of peony. In the local art world, he is affectionately known as "Cao Peony"
Cao was born in 1957. In the first grade of junior high school, I studied painting with the oil painter and art educator Su Jialu until I graduated from high school. Five years of systematic study laid a solid foundation for painting. 1986 the workers' painting and calligraphy creation group of the heavy industry bureau was seconded from the grass-roots unit to 10 to engage in professional creation.
From 65438 to 0996, Cao began his career as a professional painter in Dafen Village. Dafen Village, also known as Painter Village, is a village under the jurisdiction of Buji Street, Longgang District, Shenzhen. After Cao entered the painter village, he mainly created abstract oil paintings. With solid basic skills and unique creativity, his oil paintings are deeply loved by users. His fame in the painter's village is growing. In Dafen Oil Painting Village, Cao's oil paintings are mainly sold to Europe, America, Africa and other parts of the world.
Cao is a dutiful son. In order to take care of his old mother, 1999, he declined the repeated detention of the painter village manager in Dafen village and resolutely returned to his hometown. While taking care of his old mother, he set up his own studio and turned from oil painting to exploration and creation of Chinese painting.
Cao has a soft spot for peony, and he chose to take Chinese painting peony as the main direction. Peony is a unique woody precious flower in China. It is colorful, elegant, rich and dignified, and full of fragrance. Known as "national beauty and fragrance". Since ancient times, there are many famous peonies in Chinese paintings. He earnestly studied the techniques of peony painting masters of past dynasties, learned from the strengths of hundreds of schools, and showed his own characteristics in his creative practice. He applied the color characteristics of oil paintings to the creation of peony paintings. Peony paintings are colorful, noble and elegant in spirit, and have the interest of penetrating Ming Che, incisively and vividly, gorgeous and free and easy. There are many kinds of peonies, and his peony freehand brushwork always shows the peony spirit. His works not only have traditional brushwork, but also meet the aesthetic requirements of modern people. The elegant and popular peony with distinct layers is in full bloom or in bud, showing the meaning of agility, fragrance and vitality.
Cao's enthusiasm for freehand brushwork peony has reached the level of obsession: every year during the Peony Fair in Luoyang, Henan Province, he personally goes to Luoyang to observe, do a lot of sketches, forget to eat and sleep, draw a lot of sketches, and learn from others, constantly trying to figure out the brushwork of famous artists, and he has explored his own unique painting method, that is, painting branches and leaves with ink to set off the red flower heads, highlighting the gentle and charming, rich and elegant atmosphere. Play pen and ink effect on branches and leaves. Spread the pen out with a pure wool pen. Lay the foundation with a light color, and the light color adds a strong color. Light color should not have too much moisture. Try not to let strong colors spread behind you. When laying light color, try to be casual, gently sweep it out with the side, don't worry too much about the shape of the petals, and spread out the general shape of the flowers. When applying heavy colors, we should pay attention to the position of the center of the flower, leave room for light colors in the center of the flower, and use heavy colors or sweeps or hooks on the surrounding light colors, which vary greatly. The light color under the thick color room lining, try to break it up, put some thick ink on the light ink, and match it with Garcinia bud. Or paint some thick ink on the stone green to match the gamboge buds. After painting the flower heart, the three-dimensional sense of the whole flower is completely set off. Sweep out the petals in front of the side, take the flower center as the center, and leave room for the flower center. Light colors and strong colors can be stacked at will, without paying too much attention to the basic shape of the petals. This is the essence of his years of freehand peony painting.
Hard work pays off. In recent years, his freehand peony works have often participated in provincial and municipal art exhibitions and won many awards, and have been published in provincial and municipal newspapers. In recent three years, he has held solo exhibitions in Yancheng, Jiangsu, Hai 'an, Zhejiang and Linyi, Shandong. His works are very popular in all three markets and are collected by local entrepreneurs and Chinese painting lovers.
Appreciation of Cao Mudan's Painting