reporter for the Journal Liu Ping (1962-), PRC diplomat, special representative of the Chinese communist party from 2005

Character biographies:

Chen Kangmu, formerly known as Chen Kangmu, also known as Chen Kangmu, was born in Guanyintang Township, Guang'an County, Sichuan in the early 20th century. He graduated from the University majoring in Chinese and is a senior teacher of secondary school language. Since childhood, he has loved painting, and when he was in elementary school, he studied the "Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual" under the guidance of his art teacher, and then he studied landscape painting techniques under Mr. Deng Feifan, a famous landscape painter, and listened to the teachings of Mr. Huang Chunyao, a famous master of landscape painting in Sichuan. Over the years, the works of contemporary landscape masters such as Wei Zixi, Qian Songyan, Fu Baoshi, Huang Qiuyuan, etc. have been loved and studied extensively and deeply. Deeply mastered the essence of the masters, with skillful techniques to depict and their own life together with the eastern Sichuan landscape, over time, to form their own unique artistic style. He has created thousands of paintings of eastern Sichuan landscapes, and his works have participated in many national, provincial and municipal painting and calligraphy exhibitions and competitions, and have won gold, silver, bronze and excellence awards respectively. Many of his works have been collected by government agencies, cultural and museum organizations and individuals.

Now he is a member of the Provincial Art Association for the Elderly, a member of the Chengdu Art Association, a consultant of the Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Creation Center, a director of the Wu Daozi Art Museum, a painter of the Sichuan Xu Beihong and Zhang Daqian Art Research Institute, and a painter of the Sichuan (Zhang) Caiqin Art Research Institute.

Interest, the teacher of enlightenment

In the starry Chinese calligraphy and painting art world, the masters of calligraphy and painting art embedded in their own lives, their works and artistic value, most of them with the passage of time, and more and more precious, immortal, glittering in future generations. Putting emotions into writing, turning love into magic, is a common characteristic of painters and calligraphers. Calligraphy and painting art was born in Guang'an, grew up in Sichuan East Chen Kangmu, is an important part of his life is difficult to part with, indispensable "flesh and blood". Just went to elementary school, from the teacher training school graduated from the quiet and elegant teacher Jiang Yunding, on the drawing class, he either held a tangerine, a cup, or hold a pot of small flowers, while talking about painting on the blackboard, "he drew to be more beautiful than the real thing, it looks like people in the heart of the beautiful." Then he let everyone according to this to paint, the students' interest was born, especially in an art class, Mr. Jiang brought a pre-painted watercolor painting, hung on the blackboard, the title is actually "Chen Defa's house", that is not exactly the youngest uncle's house? Chen Kangmu is more than familiar with that house. Who would have thought that the youngest uncle's house in Mr. Jiang's pen, but so beautiful and moving, which gave him the first shock in his artistic career. Afterwards, Mr. Jiang took the students to the site for field observation and sketching. This seems to be a very common art class, but deeply moved Chen Kangmu, Mr. Jiang close to life, close to the actual, local materials, lively art teaching methods and modes, in Chen Kangmu's young mind, quietly sowing the seeds of calligraphy and painting art. In Chen Kangmu's mind, his hometown's mountains, water, trees and rocks are so beautiful and charming that they are originally a beautiful picture. He turned his love for his hometown into a strong pursuit of the art of painting. A chance, he borrowed from a classmate named Luo Keshi a thread-bound "Mustard Seed Garden Drawing Book", such as the treasure of his head into the painting, under the guidance of Mr. Jiang, a tree, a stone from the simple into the complexity of the description. Between classes and on weekends, he practiced his brushwork, and the playful nature of children seemed to have nothing to do with him. Living in a thatched cottage in the countryside, he depended on the weak light to trace and draw. Once the father came back from work, see his son is not in the book, is actually drawing this, draw that, suddenly, angry, scolded his son, and even almost hit him. It is difficult for an illiterate father to understand what was going through his son's mind at that time. Chen Kangmu not only did not retreat and give up because of this, on the contrary, his desire and pursuit of the art of painting became even stronger.

He would actively participate in anything related to painting, and when he met someone who was good at painting, he would come to his door to learn from his teacher, never missing any opportunity to learn. After entering middle school, he was looking forward to having a good art teacher to teach him how to draw. But to his great disappointment, there came an art teacher, or Qi Baishi's disciple, but he did not paint Chinese painting, specializing in teaching patterns or fabric design. Fortunately, there was a library in the middle school at that time, which had a lot of picture books, which became Chen Kangmu's "gluttonous meal". He read, drew, and skipped meals. In high school, he met a classmate named Luo Yunchun, who loved to draw and write, and although he was not in the same class, he became inseparable good friends. Luo students father is an art teacher to leave him many albums, Sunday they look at the albums together or to the Xixi River sketching, Luo students often tell him about the experience of painting children, every painting, Luo students have to give a review, but the good times do not last long, a semester past, Luo students were "adjusted" out of the school. Although the time together is short, but in the heart of Chen Kangmu sense is the most meaningful, rich harvest of a semester.

Study the Essence of Famous Artists personal growthPeople Features

Guang'an in the 1960s was economically and culturally backward, and modern civilization came late, so it was a luxury to buy a book on Chinese painting or a few sheets of rice paper. After joining the educational work, Chen Kangmu's monthly salary was 30 to 40 yuan. After he got married, he had a family and children, and the financial pressure increased day by day. The meager salary to maintain a family life is very difficult. A business trip to Chongqing, he looked around for Xinhua Bookstore, found straight to the art counter, see the money Songyan, Wei Zixi, Guan Shanyue, Fu Baoshi and other famous painters of books, like in the mountains in the dense forests found a rare treasure seems to be, so that he was overjoyed, love. Calculated the need for more than 10 dollars to buy these books, but in addition to the public funds brought on business trips, individuals almost no money. How to do? A trip to Chongqing is not easy, miss this opportunity would be a pity. Bite the bullet and simply take out 10 dollars from the public money to buy these books, back to school, and then think of ways to fill in. When these books of famous painters and artists were Chen Kangmu held in his arms, his eyes could not help but moist, tears came out of their sockets, at this time he thought of his parents at home and his wife and children ......

He finally had a book with his constant companion famous masters, after school or holidays, these books are always away from hand, in a few "never met the teacher" under the guidance, read over and over again, over and over again, copying, figuring out the basic essentials and methods of painting, and gradually have a feeling and harvest. He served as two high school classes of language classes plus class teacher work, the burden would have been very heavy, but he also has to write materials for the district and township government, write slogans, do bulletin boards, but also to go home to help his wife to farm, take care of the children ...... so heavy and super-intensive labor did not let him give up on the pursuit of art. Painting and writing is still Chen Kangmu's daily must. At home and at school, he has four treasures (no rice paper, using white paper or newspaper), and when he has time, he will copy the pen. He wrote, drew, watched and thought with great difficulty, and little by little he realized the true meaning of art and its techniques. This process is too hard! In Chen Kangmu's opinion, it was a kind of extraordinary enjoyment. At a teachers' meeting, he was introduced to Mr. Deng Feifan, a teacher from Huaqiao Town School who specialized in landscape painting. He confided in him his experience and confusion in learning landscape painting. Mr. Deng told him what he knew about the theory and experience, so that Chen Kangmu had a more systematic and preliminary understanding of the theory and techniques of landscape painting. in the early 1990s, Chen Kangmu took the opportunity to attend a seminar on new high school textbooks at the Provincial Academy of Education and found a chance to meet with Mr. Huang Chunyao, who was then a teacher at the school, and he saw for the first time the real paintings, which were so many and so beautiful, and gave him a great shock. Mr. Huang said, "Learning to paint is very hard, without the spirit of hanging your head over a beam and stabbing your thigh, you can't learn well, you have to learn all your life, learn from your teacher, learn from nature. Learning from science ......" Mr. Huang's teachings and demonstrations, such as enlightenment, so that Chen Kangmu has an intuitive feeling of painting, painting landscapes to have a real sense of understanding and enlightenment. This was the second shock in his artistic career.

On the road of calligraphy and painting art, he does not need to raise the whip to stimulate his own hooves, more and more diligent and hardworking! After his retirement in 2003, he settled in Chengdu under the arrangement of his son. Staying in this modern metropolis with a strong literary and artistic atmosphere, the rich and colorful world of calligraphy and painting art with a variety of genres opened his eyes. He was like a seedling in a long drought, encountering a rare sweet rain, and sucking desperately in this rain and moisture. Almost every day, he went to see paintings at the Send Immortal Bridge or at exhibitions, and carefully studied all kinds of painting techniques, from ink and brushwork to colors, not missing a single detail. As the days and months passed, his painting skills improved. It was then that he first used rice paper for painting. The difficult years sharpened his perseverance and the character of the world, but also sharpened a mature and distinctive personality of the painter. Whenever Chen Kangmu stood in front of the rice paper with a brush, his robust physique and heroic stance of spreading out across the world made people respect him. "The book, the heart of the painting", "painting, also the heart of the painting," he is the heart of the painting ah, the pen is his heart and soul. He puts the essence of calligraphy and painting of famous masters into his brush, and in one stroke, he realizes that "all the work done in painting is the law everywhere, long time will be familiar with it, familiar with it will be refined, refined with it will be changed, and changed with it will be a piece of machine."

Stay calm. Being the public's favorite artist

Painting to a certain extent, there is a problem of facing the masses, facing the market, once the artwork is born, it is given a social value. Chen Kangmu said: "I am in favor of the viewpoint that art serves the public, and if any artwork only becomes a treasure to be appreciated by individuals or a few people, its value will be very limited. At present, there is a very popular culture in the art world, heavy on the works of writing is called art, where heavy on the works of realism, by some people as 'commodity paintings', as if there is no value to speak of, in fact, regardless of foreign countries or China's past, is never realistic and realistic co-exist." As far as the current calligraphy and painting art market is concerned, no matter whether it is realistic or pictorial works, as long as it is oriented to the masses and enters the market, it will produce value and become a commodity. Undoubtedly the more for the people's favorite works of art the more market competitiveness. Chen Kangmu is very calm in the face of those artists who are very impatient in the pursuit of economic benefits. He is not keen to participate in what will be, what yard, but also regardless of whether his paintings can be sold, or how much money can be sold, he only a mind of day and night, endless diligence and seriousness of painting, painting, flavorful every day. He said, "I haven't thought of making a big fortune through painting. What I think about every day is how to paint well and live up to my journey on the art road." He was born, grew up and worked in eastern Sichuan, and he knows it too well. Although he has been to many famous mountains and rivers in foreign countries for sketching, he is fond of Chuan Dong. He said: "I think the beauty of the mountains and water in the east of Sichuan has its own characteristics and is unique. It is the beautiful landscapes of Chuan Dong that brought me into the art, and I would like to spend my life trying to paint Chuan Dong, publicize Chuan Dong, and let people understand Chuan Dong. To say which family which school, I am Chuan Dong painting school, Chuan Dong painter."

Over the years, Mr. Chen Kangmu has been devoted to the art of calligraphy and painting, calm and relaxed, unchanging in his obsession. His aim is: "To be down-to-earth, to be a faithful singer loved by the people, and never to be an "artist" who makes pretense, who appreciates himself, or who is labeled by a few people for their tastes. It is my greatest satisfaction to have my labor recognized by the majority of the people. Therefore, in my creative practice, I am firstly loyal to nature, painting the mountains and landscapes and customs that I am familiar with; and secondly, I am loyal to the masses, painting paintings that are loved by the public."

Painting starts from copying, but in the end, you have to paint your own characteristics, your own painting. Chen Kangmu's success lies in the fact that he has inherited the essence of the famous artists, but can come out from them and take his own way. In recent years, an excellent painting that expresses the beautiful mountains and rivers in the east of Sichuan Province has been born out of Chen Kangmu's brush. It is understood that at present, Mr. Chen Kangmu's landscape paintings have become the treasures collected by many interested people, and the prospect is promising.