1946 1, Mao Xiliang was born among ordinary farmers. He likes painting since he was a child. However, due to material constraints, he can only practice painting on the ground with small stones and charcoal sticks. Birds flying in the sky, insects crawling on the ground and fish swimming in the water often paint them vividly in a few strokes. After school, he can finally draw on paper with a pencil, and drawing has become the source of his happiness. After graduating from junior high school, he studied painting and farming with his parents. /kloc-at the age of 0/6, I humbly asked Zhu Feng, an art teacher at Meicun Middle School, and began to learn sketching. His talent, diligence, study and thinking have laid a solid foundation for his painting, and his painting skills are improving day by day. When he 17 years old, he was able to satisfy his hunger by helping the elderly draw rice. /kloc-when he was 0/8 years old, he began to wander the rivers and lakes and make a living everywhere by relying on vivid portrait skills. He used to work in handicraft factories in Suzhou and Wuxi. He painted on eggs, fans and so on, and created many exquisite works of art, which were deeply loved by the people. However, he was criticized in the closed and backward social atmosphere at that time and was called "the tail of capitalism". All his income was confiscated and turned over to the state. Even so, he is still unwilling to put down his brush and actively draw "portraits of chairman" and "portraits of workers, peasants and soldiers" for the collective. Whenever he had the chance, he went deep into factories and troops and created more than 300 portraits for workers, cadres and soldiers.
Mao Xiliang loves art and dabbles in calligraphy, Chinese painting and sketch, especially oil painting. He often scrimps and saves on buying canvases and paints, and draws a quiet corner in his not-so-spacious residence as his studio. When he has leisure time, he daubs and outlines on the canvas. When the first layer of paint dries, he covers and renders another layer ... A series of oil paintings with distinctive themes and vivid images are born under his brush. Later, although the eldest son died of stomach cancer, his enthusiasm for oil painting remained undiminished, and he created a large number of paintings with strong local flavor of Meili, such as "The Long Scroll of the Bodu River" and "Old Street in Spring". His works have been exhibited for many times and have been well received by experts and the masses.
After sixty years, Mao Xiliang took an active part in social welfare activities, and his oil painting creation level has been greatly improved. He has won many awards in national exhibitions, and more than 30 works have been included in the national large-scale painting collection. Among them, the huge oil painting "512 Rescue" was collected by British Treasures Museum, "As long as there is a glimmer of hope" was collected by Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, "Meili Granary" was collected by Bayi Memorial Hall, and "Pig Market on Bodu River" was collected by CCTV. In 2008, his oil painting scroll "Qiu Meng on the Bodu River" was praised as "The Riverside Scene on the Qingming Festival in the South of the Yangtze River" and was compiled into China Painters' Records, China Painters' Grand Ceremony and other documents. In early 2009, he received a letter from Beijing Tsinghua University Painting and Calligraphy Institute, inviting him to participate in the "China-Japan International Painting and Calligraphy Friendly Exchange Exhibition" held in Tokyo, Japan in April. In recent years, Mao Xiliang's works have participated in international friendly calligraphy and painting exchange activities for many times, giving Jiangnan style oil paintings an opportunity to be displayed in international art halls.
When many peers who have left the land and moved into their homes spend their leisure time by meeting old friends and playing mahjong, Mao Xiliang, who is nearly old, still loves his brush. It is his wish and happiness to be able to create passionately and enjoy freehand brushwork in the art world, to paint Jiangnan memories with brushes and to reflect fiery real life with pictures.