The art of calligraphy and painting is closely related to tea culture. Generally, people who engage in calligraphy and painting like to drink tea. Mr. Wu Dongming, a famous painter from Heze, Shandong, also likes to drink tea, but he has a special characteristic in drinking tea. He drinks it with different tastes and has his own opinions. He drank jasmine tea, oolong tea, Dahongpao, Pu'er tea, black tea, green tea...
Taking tea and enlightenment tea with its own fragrance
Wu Dongming drank different teas, because each kind of tea With a unique taste. He emphasized the taste of tea, and after drinking a certain type of tea for a period of time, he would switch to another type. He said: "It's like eating. Meat is delicious. If you eat meat every day, no matter how good the meat is, it will become greasy. If it's too greasy, you'll want something lighter. If it's too light, you'll want oil and water. In order to maintain a balanced diet, people need to adjust it frequently. In terms of taste, you should eat more whole grains in addition to fish and meat, and change the varieties so that the food is more delicious. For porridge alone, you should not just drink rice porridge, but also mix it with mung bean porridge, millet porridge, and stick noodle porridge. The same is true for drinking tea. Each tea has a different flavor, and the aroma is different. Changing tea varieties frequently will make the tea more fragrant. "It is not difficult to see that Mr. Wu Dongming not only drinks tea and drinks the knowledge in tea, but he is also a person who pays attention to diet. Nutritious food for gourmets.
For Wu Dongming, drinking tea is good for health. He feels that eating after drinking tea tastes particularly delicious and gives him an appetite. In addition, drinking tea refreshes his mind and is very helpful for painting. He paints for six or seven hours a day. It was tiring to stand and draw all the time, so drinking tea helped him relieve a lot of fatigue. Drinking tea also helped him lose weight. None of the friends he came into contact with who drank tea all year round were fat. Wu Dongming likes to drink tea with strong flavor such as Dahongpao, cooked Pu'er tea and jasmine tea. However, he usually only drinks strong tea in the morning, light tea in the afternoon and no tea in the evening because he will not be able to sleep if he drinks tea at night. Sleep.
In his hometown in Heze, Wu Dongming had a set of Kung Fu tea sets. Friends in the art world would often go to his house to drink tea and chat about calligraphy and painting. There was always tea at home, and sometimes friends would bring a good cup of tea. Pu'er tea or Dahongpao to share with him. After arriving in Beijing, he also went to teahouses to drink tea with friends from the painting world. In his eyes, making Kung Fu tea is an art. The tea master's posture and techniques are beautiful and pleasing to the eye, and also bring inspiration to his calligraphy and painting creations. There are many varieties of tea, just like the brushes, rice paper, and paints in his hands. They are as diverse as the brushes, rice paper, and paints in his hands. When making tea, the rolling and rising of the tea leaves in the cup is as smart and vibrant as the flowers in his paintings.
Tea moistens paper and ink paintings to bring life to life
During his artistic career, Wu Dongming had close contact with tea several times.
Once, he painted a plum blossom. Usually, a step after painting is to use a sprayer to spray some fine water mist on the painting to make the flowers appear more moist. There was no water this time, so he poured the thick Pu'er tea water in the cup into a watering can and sprayed it. Unexpectedly, the plum blossoms sprayed by Pu'er tea were particularly bright and beautiful, and the petals became watery, fresh and tender. Later, he also tried painting with tea, and he found that the effect was strange, the picture became three-dimensional, and the flowers "lived".
Another thing is that one summer he traveled to Guilin and passed by a large tea garden. The tea garden was backed by green mountains, and there were many ethnic minority tea farmers carrying baskets and picking tea leaves quickly. The dexterous movements and beautiful costumes of the tea farmers sweating in the hot summer above his head moved him deeply. The hardships of the farmers with dark skin and wrinkled faces reminded him of his hometown and childhood, and also made him lament the tea he drank. Hard-won. The sight of real life and the vast tea gardens with blue sky and green mountains where man and nature merged inspired his desire to create. He couldn't walk anymore, so he immediately took out his pen and paper, sat on the ground, and sketched more than 20 pieces in one breath. The rough hands of the old peasant woman, the beautiful headdress of the girl, the nimble skills of the young man, and the scenes of terraced tea gardens extending to Daqingshan Mountain in the distance are all vivid in his writing, with far-reaching artistic conception, and the harmonious scene between man and nature is vividly displayed on the page.
Be willing to tolerate loneliness and not follow the trend
Wu Dongming is a very diligent painter, but a successful painting requires profound skills and qualifications. In the painting world, many painters in their 50s who have been painting for 30 to 40 years have not yet become famous. Even if their works win awards, they are only regarded as potential painters, and it is even harder to say anything about economic benefits.
Today, with the rapid development of modern science and technology, people's material life is extremely rich, and the market economy is prosperous, why are these painters not tempted by it and endure the loneliness, working hard on the painting paper day after day, year after year? What are they planning?
Wu Dongming said that China is a country with ancient civilization, and China’s traditional culture needs to be inherited and carried forward. The art of calligraphy and painting expresses a kind of traditional Chinese culture, and its development needs everyone to promote it. The use of paper, pens, ink, and water when painting is very particular and requires careful study. Whether it is alive with water, whether the emotions of the characters are expressed, whether the concept is novel, are all factors that determine the success of the painting. A good painting is a painting that people can never tire of, and these are not achieved overnight and require long-term tempering. "What to do, what to say, the world is complicated, you can't revolve around others or follow the trend. The path of life must be directional. Since you love the art of calligraphy and painting, you must be willing to dedicate to it and explore unremittingly. I am painting I am very content in my field. Although the process of painting is boring and hard, every new painting brings me joy. Looking at the world, in fact, it is very lonely to insist on doing anything. It seems like a singer performing on the stage. It's very beautiful and happy, but practicing off the stage is very hard. Behind the Olympic gold medal lies countless hardships. Only by enduring loneliness can you succeed."
In this regard, the word "tea" itself. Also a good explanation. When a person is between the grass character head and the wood character, there is pressure from above and support from below. It shows that people must be patient and endure loneliness. This tolerance is a kind of tenacity, a kind of responsibility, and a kind of faith. This pressure and strength are the nature of heaven and earth. The vegetation of nature nourishes cattle, sheep, living things, and human beings, and gives people the mission of responsibility. Human beings have the responsibility to maintain the harmony between man and nature, protect nature, repay nature, and promote world civilization despite hardships and obstacles. The progress of society depends on the strength of people, and people must integrate into society to make a difference. In a person's life, the good time is very short, and there is not much that an individual can enjoy. Therefore, it is a good choice to focus on doing what you can for the development of society. From ancient times to the present, there are not many extraordinary and great people who have brought about earth-shaking changes in society. Social progress depends on the efforts of the public, and it is enough for everyone to push a little bit. This is reflected in the path of art, which means enduring loneliness and striving to innovate in constant exploration.
“In the field of painting, the progress of calligraphy and painting art is driven by everyone: Fan Zeng’s figure paintings have clear lines, which pushed the lines a little bit; Qi Baishi’s shrimp paintings are vivid and vivid with just a few strokes, pushing the simple drawings a little further. A little bit; Zheng Banqiao's characters are in the style of stone paving, which pushes the innovation of calligraphy a little; while Wu Dongkui's bamboo has different visual effects in the distance, depicting the movement of bamboo leaves blown by the wind, pushing the composition technique a little further. It is through everyone's breakthroughs and joint efforts that Chinese painting has developed to this day, including scientists, athletes, and ordinary people. If everyone pushes a little, society will take a big step forward. The speed of world civilization development is very fast,” Wu Dongming said.