我国传统绘画大都用笔、墨绘在纸或绢上，笔与墨是表现手法中的主体，因之评画必然涉及笔墨。逐渐，舍本求末，人们往往孤立地评论笔墨。喧宾夺主，笔墨倒反成了作品优劣的标准。

　　构成画面，其道多矣。点、线、块、画都是造型手段，黑、白、五彩，渲染无穷气氛。为求表达视觉美感及独特情思，作者可用任何手段，不择手段，即择一切手段。

　　笔墨只是奴才，它绝对奴役于作者思想情绪的表达。情思在发展，作为奴才的笔墨的手法永远跟着变换形态，无从考虑将呈现何种体态面貌。也许将被咒骂失去了笔墨，其实失去的只是笔墨的旧时形式，真正该反思的应是作品的整体形态及其内涵是否反映了新的时代风貌。

　　岂止笔墨，各种绘画材料媒体都在演变，但也未必变了就一定新，新就一定好。旧的媒体也往往具备不可替代的优点，如粗陶、宣纸及笔墨仍永葆青春，但其青春只长驻于为之服役的作品的演进中。脱离了具体画面的孤立的笔墨，其价值等于零，正如未塑造形象的泥巴，其价值等于零。

　　我的水墨画大致有三种创作方法，一是用笔墨直接对景写生，二是根据写生的油画移植，三是参照速写素描稿发展。往往，那失败了的油画移植成水墨后，效果反而好多了。但有时候，水墨无能，又需要靠油彩来解决。

　　两家门下轮转来，摸透了双方的家底，发现愈往高处走，东西方艺术的本质愈显得一致，油彩或墨彩工具之异不是区分中西艺术的关键。也因在油画中趋向概括、洗练;也因油画工具先天不足，难于表达各种感受，我同时运用水墨挥写。油彩与墨彩，如剪刀的两面锋刃，愿裁出时代新装。

　　Wu Guanzhong:

　　Brushwork without a context has no value.

　　Traditional Chinese water-and-ink paintings were usually painted with a brush on paper or silk. A brush is the major tool a painter would use to express him/herself. So art critics liked to comment on the brushwork of a particular painting. Gradually, too much focus was put on brushwork, which evolved to be the main criterion to judge the quality of a painting.

　　There are many ways to create a painting: you can use dots, lines and blocks in various colors, including black and white. Also, there are endless possibilities for an artist to demonstrate visual aesthetics and convey his/her emotions.

　　Brushwork is only a servant, absolutely complying with the expression of the author’s ideas and feelings. With ideas and feelings developing, the brushwork, as the servant, always follows the changing forms, not considering what kind of appearances to present. Maybe I would be criticized as not giving enough credit to brushwork. But I believe what’s actually abandoned would be the old form of brushwork. And we need to reflect on the overall effect of an artwork and the following question: is the work in line with the connotation of the contemporary world?

　　Apart from brushwork, materials and tools for painting is also undergoing transformations. But new materials or tools might not necessarily be better and old ones might have qualities that’s irreplaceable. For example, crude pottery, Xuan paper and ink are still cherished materials and they have obtained an eternal life as they are used in paintings by generations after generations of artists. The value of brushwork isolated from specific paintings is zero, just like the value of clay before turned into sculpture.