25年前，读大学的时候，阿海摹宋人花卉用了快捷方式，先把一张画彻底抹黑，然后再把画洗出来，画面斑驳，意境朦胧，竟很快追上了千年宋画的效果，比当时用传统的一遍遍罩染方法又快又好。我们同班，借鉴了他的方法，一起将这种染法做了推广，作业做得相当漂亮。这种染法影响了不少人，最后竟成了一种当代工笔画的一种方法。至今，很多工笔画家用这一方法作画，发展得相当精美，获得不少成功。我前几天去南艺，看到学弟学妹们仍在使用。

　　后来，阿海好象就去玩了，多年潜伏，这一“技术革命”没几人知道是他的。

　　阿海十分相信他的脑子，手不过是他脑子的奴隶。这基本上对，阿海很聪敏。早年写意作品已很有模样，笔性笔法都不错，对他的一些水墨作品我由衷地喜欢过。但是，理性又不属于他，他的画纯粹是感性的产品。他不用死功，用死功违背他的天性，是啊，阿海如果不喜欢走快捷方式，“技术革命”怎会成功。不过这样说也不太公平，他还是知道好画需要出努力。

　　几年前，从再一次看到他的第一张画开始，我明白，画画这个事一直揣在他心里。他问到我的感觉，首先我认为，不错，但是不够。画画的事，不可能一蹴而就，这是我自己死脑筋的地方，也是我用死脑筋要求别人的地方。我以为，二十岁靠才气是可以画画的，甚至画得很好，但六十岁，一定是靠修养画画，才气撑不了那么长时间。中间该怎么过?答案自然很清楚。

　　近来，阿海作了风格化的探索，试图整理出自己的绘画样式。到底是在传统里吃过饭，画里自然地表现出了各种从传统里来的东西。他没有丢掉对造型的敏感，对一些局部细节处理得很精彩。图式也慢慢显现。不过图式的事是双刃剑，一方面它帮我们从洋洋画海里和别人区分开，另一方面也可能变成画家的一个简单符号。所以，真正的好画是最后必须去除图式，在本质上下功夫。

　　我说阿海生活态度好比脚踩西瓜皮，滑到哪里是哪里，但是，他继续把精力放到画画的事情上，也让我知道，这个西瓜皮还带剎车。

　　25 years ago, as a university student, A Hai created a shortcut to copy flower paintings of the Song-Dynasty. He covered a piece of paper with ink and then washed it. Soon a mottled and implicit design would appeare on that piece of paper, in the true spirit of the Song paintings prevailing thousands of years ago. This method, much more efficient than the traditional way of staining the paper over and over again, was adopted and spread by our whole class, which not only helped us to turn in perfect school assignments, but also influenced so many people that it finally became one of the modern techniques of elaborate-style painting. Nowadays, many elaborate-style painters still use this method, now a rather delicate and successful technique. A few days ago, I visited Nanjing Arts University and saw students there painting in this way.

　　Then, A Hai went on with playing with himself and stayed quiet for years. Few people ever know that this“technological revolution”was started by him.

　　A Hai trusts his brain and believes that hands are but slaves of the brain, which is basically right. A Hai is a very clever man. His early free hand paintings were rather nice with good techniques and conceptions. I truly liked his ink paintings. He is not a man of rationality, however. His are mainly perceptual works. He is never a greasy grind, which is against his nature. If A Hai is not someone always looking for shortcuts, how can the“technological revolution”ever succeed? But emphasizing that seems not too fair. In fact, he also knows that endeavors are indispensable to producing a good painting.

　　Years ago, since the first time for me to see his paintings again, I knew that painting is something that he is forever pondering over. He asked about my impressions on those paintings. I answered that they were not bad, but not good enough. Painting is something beyond improvising, which is my stubborn belief and what I stubbornly ask others to believe in. My opinion is that when you paint in your twenties, you can depend simply on your talents. But when you are in your sixties, what you can depend on should be your accumulations. Talents cannot last that long. What to depend after that is gone? The answer is simple.

　　Recently, A Hai made stylized explorations, trying to analyze his own painting style. As someone started from traditional paintings, his works naturally contain traditional elements. He remains his sensitivity to designs and produced some wonderful details, from which his style slowly shapes up. Style, however, is really a double-edged sword. It discriminates us from other people in the huge sea of painters whild threatens us with the possibility of being labelized. As a result, to be a great painter, you must finally get rid of the bondage of styles and focus on the nature of paintings.

　　I used to joke that A Hai’s life attitude is like sliding on a piece of watermelon peel. Wherever the peel goes, he follows. But the fact that he seriously ponders over painting has made me believe that his piece of watermelon peel is controlled with a brake, too.

作者：靳卫红