海燕读大学时对花卉题材就情有独钟，之后的系列代表作品又显现出她对花卉的解读与重构。最近读了她的油画新作，使人感受到了中国语境下的花境。油画的语言是丰富的，中国画的意境是深厚的，两者融合，语言与意境交织创造出她自己独有的花境风格。

　　将中国画与西画融合不是首创，20世纪初徐悲鸿、林凤眠等艺术家均作此耕耘，呕心沥血，在技法与观念上不断沟通。后人亦前仆后继，始终没有脱离对中西融合的探索。应该说，作为一名中国当代油画家，在中国传统文化背景的浸染下成长，关注中国式的艺术，在传统艺术形式中寻找结合点是符合艺术家成长的必然逻辑的。海燕的可贵之处在于，在近十几年艺术界喧嚣的现实氛围中，在中国绘画表面商业繁荣与内在民族文化困境的背景下，没有追波逐流，没有为迎合西方市场加入玩世现实主义、政治波普等利用中国表象符号嫁接西方艺术语言的形式主义的行列，也没有作表面式肤浅地中西元素对接和套用，而是潜心静气对绘画精神与语言执着探索，重在探索油画的“意境”。这种渐修，是中国文人关照人生与世界的一种方式，所以在海燕的近作中传递出了强烈的中国当代文人绘画气息。在近些年艺术家的探索与实验中，海燕的作品具有一定的代表性。

　　海燕是一位年轻的女艺术家，她以女性特有的视角关注日常生活的琐细，她的作品女性特质极为强烈。勿庸置疑，女性感受的方式不同，她们体验到的社会、政治、生活与男性也是不一样的，更注重经验与感性。对于这一点，海燕所采取的方式是不回避，不掩饰，正视与直观，自自然然。她没有虚张声势地过多关注外界的动荡，现实的冲突，思想的遽变，而是像她自己所说的“比较顺”，“没有太多的苦难”，在绘画题材上，她选择了中国文人素来钟情的“花”，带着现代都市的闲静、家的安居与女性的象征。这份闲静在今天的生活中也极为难得，需要淡泊和退守的心态。所以她近几幅作品如《春桃》等流露出来的淡泊宁静的古意，不是有意为之，而是自然呈现。散淡不是散漫，不是一味地无所控制。海燕的画控制力在加强，这与她生活的变迁，自身女性角色的成熟定位，文化艺术素养的修持有关。在创作中这种控制体现为调和，她将中国民间花卉绘画的范本、程式法则与写生的鲜活、直觉相结合，抽象与具象、写实与写意的交叉运用，油彩粘稠饱满与线性造型灵透的处理，找寻到了准确的创作体验。她的花卉作品在内容上属于静物，在形式上却不属于静物，心说物语，花境传情。多年来，她坚持花卉写生，在写生中运用联想的方式，注意捕捉情绪。静观与遐思是一种生活认知，在这种认知中，海燕把单纯的油画静物写生，把构图、色彩、造型、笔触幻化成了一种情绪的表述，进而生成为画意，生成花境。在这个过程中，她实践了中国绘画借物写心、形诸笔墨的创作原则，作画的意境成为一种内心与外物的沟通，成为“悟”，以花写境，以花写人，以花写心。因而与她早期的作品相比，现在的画更耐看、耐读了。

　　海燕这些年特别关注中国传统艺术，特别注重对其母体艺术、本原艺术――民间艺术的的理解与思考。我一直认为中国民间文化的特质在于“吉祥”，中国的民间艺术也成为一种追求喜瑞祥和的艺术，它利用象征、寓意、谐音等手法串连出无限的意义，渗透在生活的方方面面，每一个细节，默默地发挥着自己的影响，因而这个民族才历经艰辛依然坚韧不屈，乐观向上。所以每一个民间艺术形象既是具象的，又是抽象的，更是意象的。它超越了个体，也超越了形象与形式本身，传达出浓缩的中国文化语汇，构成典型符号。中国民间艺术的这种特点看来深深地吸引了海燕，从汉画像石、敦煌壁画、瓷器纹样、民间剪纸、刺绣、年画中她多有涉猎。因而她近些年的花卉作品充溢了浓郁的中国式风味，从构图到色彩到造型到传达的意义完全是中国化的，但却运用了西方的媒介。她不是将东西方艺术进行元素上的简单拼接，按她自己的话说，是要“运用新的寓意，来获得当代人对中国传统民间文化的经验方式”，这便成为一种意味，她的探索性也尽在其中。她偏重色彩的感知与色彩的强烈，在创作中国化的艺术形象时如何发挥油彩的饱满、层次、弹性与质感，让二者自然融合，而不矫情造作，是她着意解决的课题。所以她笔下的梅兰竹菊、龟背生花、多子多福、富贵吉祥在传统的神韵中多了几分现代气息。符号性少了，生活性多了，寓意性淡了，审美性强了，这也是现代人对传统文化的选择。

　　海燕的油画花卉作品揉和了中国传统艺术的两种因素――民间艺术与文人艺术，这是艺术家个人成长背景所决定的。这些作品完全摈弃了西式油画的创作法则，完全呈现出中国式的构图、色彩、造型，甚至在材料的运用上进行了类似中国绘画笔法与墨法的探索，注重浓淡干湿表现，逐渐趋于写意，艺术语言走向提炼、概括与单纯。这是艺术家迈向成熟的一个迹象。

　　丙戌年立秋日

　　潘鲁生，中国设计院院长，山东文联主席，山东工艺美术学院院长，教授，博士生导师。

　　以下为英文翻译稿

　　On the Artistic Conception of Flowers

　　Pan Lusheng

　　Originally published in China Culture Daily, on Issue 188 in 2006

　　Even while studying in college, Haiyan already harbored a special affection for flowers. Her subsequent series of representative works also reflected her unique interpretation and reconstruction of flowers. Recently, I had the opportunity to appreciate her new oil paintings which enabled me to sense the artistic conception of flowers within the Chinese atmosphere. The language of oil painting is rich and the artistic conception of Chinese painting is profound. By integrating these two components, she created her unique style of floral expression.

　　The integration of Chinese painting and Western painting itself is not original. Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian and other artists all made attempts in this aspect at the beginning of the 20th Century. They devoted their heart and soul to the integration of the skills and concepts of these two styles. The later generations followed suit and persisted in the experimentations of the fusing of the Chinese and western painting styles. It is safe to say that, as a Chinese modern oil painter that had grown up under the influence of traditional Chinese culture, it is necessary for the artist to keep an eye on Chinese style art and seek a conjunction point of Chinese and western styles in the context of the traditional art form. What is special about Haiyan is that in the hustle and bustle of the artist circle in the past decade, against the backdrop of surface prosperity and inside trap of the national culture, she did not go with the flow. She never became part of the cynical realism, political pop and other behaviors that took advantage of basic surface symbols of Chinese art to transplant western artistic language so as to cater to the Western market. Moreover, she never superficially connected the Chinese and Western elements or just apply one on the other mechanically. Rather, she delved into exploration of the spirit and language of painting, putting special emphasis on exploring the “artistic conception” of paint. This kind of gradual cultivation is the way the Chinese literati deal with life and the world. So in her latest works, Haiyan gives off a strong literary vibe. In the recent years of exploration and experimentation of artists, the work of Haiyan can be seen as representational.

　　Haiyan is a young female artist who looks at the trivialities of daily life from the special perspective of a woman. Her works are embedded with a strong female temperament. There is no doubt that the perspective of women is unique. The society, politics and life they experience is different from those of men. Women pay more attention to experience and sensibility. Haiyan never tries to avoid and disguise these traits but faces them naturally. She never puts on a show of excessive concern towards the chaos of the outside world, conflict of reality and abrupt change of thoughts. In her words, her life has been “relatively smooth” with “not much hardship”. As for the subject of painting, she chose something long favored by the Chinese literati, “flowers”, which embody the tranquility of the modern metropolis, serenity of home and symbol of femininity. This tranquility is very rare in modern day life, and requires a placid heart free from worldly desires. As a result, her latest works such as Spring Peach Flowers reveals the ancient temperament of indifference to worldly gains and a certain peacefulness. This is not a deliberate presentation but natural expression. To be free and unfettered does not imply being undisciplined and uncontrolled. Haiyan’s control of her painting is increasing, which is related to the changes in her life, the maturing of her feminine role, as well as her cultural and artistic accomplishments. In creation, this control is reflected as mediation. She combines the model and disciplines of Chinese folk flower painting with the vitality and intuition of sketch, and the cross application of abstract and representation, realist and spontaneous expression, the richness and abundance of oil paint and the flexible disposal of linear models, which enabled her to find the correct way to express her feelings through creation. Her flower works are static in contents while in the form, they are not. They express the feelings of the painter. For many years, she kept to sketching flowers and utilized the association method to capture her emotions. Contemplation and rumination is the cognition in which Haiyan turns pure static oil painting sketch, drawing, color, shape and brushwork into an expression of emotion, and therefore becoming painting elements and an artistic conception of flowers. In this process, she implements the Chinese creation principle of utilizing objects to express feelings and reflecting emotions in painting. The artistic conception of painting becomes the mode of communication between the inner self and the outside world, for a type of “enlightenment”. It uses flowers to express the artistic conception, the painter and emotion. As a result, compared with her earlier works, her present paintings are much more captivating for a longer period of time.

　　Haiyan has taken special interest to the traditional Chinese art these years. She especially focuses on understanding and reflection on the parent art and origin, that is, Chinese folk art. I have long deemed the characteristics of the folk culture of China to be “propitiousness” and thought that Chinese folk art is an art seeking propitiousness and peace. With symbolization, implied meaning, harmony and so on, it creates infinite connotation in all aspects of life. Each detail plays its own role, through which a race is portrayed as tough, unbending and optimistic even after hardships, and therefore, each folk art image is representational, and at the same time abstract and full of imagery. It surpasses the individual as well as the image and form to communicate a concentrated Chinese cultural language and typical symbols. It seems that the characteristics of Chinese folk art fascinated Haiyan greatly. From portrait stone of the Han Dynasty, Dunhuang frescoes, porcelain patterns, folk paper-cutouts, and embroidery to New Year paintings, were all things she dabbled in somewhat. This is why her recent years’ of flower works are brimming with a distinct Chinese flavor. From the composition to color, shape, pattern and the connotation transferred, the paintings are completely Chinese, yet, she uses western media as a medium. She does not merely splice the oriental and western art elements. In her words, she wants to “make use of new connotations to enable contemporary people to experience traditional Chinese folk culture”. This has become meaningful endeavor and her exploration is completely embedded in it. She puts particular emphasis on perceiving color and the intensity of colors. While creating the Chinese art image, she strives to give prominence to the fullness, layer, flexibility and quality of oil paint and integrate the two naturally without artificial trace. Consequently, the plum flower, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, Flowers on a Tortoise back, Many Children Bring Much Happiness and Richness and Propitiousness under her brush conveys a modern charm amidst the traditional atmosphere it creates. There is less symbolism, and more livelihood, less moral messages, and more aesthetic appeal. This is the choice of a modern person when faced with traditional culture.

　　The oil painting of flowers of Haiyan embraces two elements of traditional Chinese art, i.e., folk art and the art of the literati. This is determined by the background of artists. The works completely discard the creation disciplines of western oil painting and fully reflect Chinese style composition, color and pattern, or even, in the application of materials, the exploration of paint and ink techniques similar to that of Chinese paintings. She focuses on the dark and light, dry and wet expression and gradually tends toward spontaneous expression. So, her language of art is heading towards refininement, generalization and pureness. This is an indicator of an artist’s journey to maturity.

　　August 7, 2006 The Beginning of Autumn

　　Pan Lusheng, President of Shandong University of Art & Design, Professor, PhD. Supervisor.

作者：潘鲁生