I admire two kinds of landscape in nature----the sea and the peak.

　　The sea: 1. From the perspective of “water“ and “every“ : “every“ means “materials that grow and extend itself“, “water“ means water vapor. “every“ and “water“ together means “to transpirate body of water covered with water vapor“. 2. Sea---the convergence of the rivers. Sea also calls water of the heaven which covers hundreds of streams (excerpt from Baidu Encyclopedia). The peak: 1. From the perspective of mountain, the original meaning: the top of the mountain. High mountains between rivers….standing high, thousands of mountains forming a peak----from “Reading Books with Zhuyuan“ by Wu Jun”. 2. Very high moutains like Mount Everest. 3. The highest point: vertext, like the pinnacle (excerpt from Baidu Encyclopedia).

　　Those who have seen the sea know well the vastness of the sea; those who have watched a peak know the steepness of the peak. I am lucky that I have seen the sea and watched over the peak. And I have a schoolmate called “Hai Feng“. Hai Feng is my senior schoolmate, one year older than me. I can not even remember the exact time when we got to know each other, because I did not put him into my heart at that time. His feagure in my memory is that he is not very tall but strong. I remember that in the year of his graduation he finished a painting with the theme of Tibet. The painting was so large that the back wall of exhibition hall was covered by the whole work, which shocked all. Then I heard that he was invited to stay and teach in our school, I was jealous to death and remembered him.

　　During the last two years I start getting to know Hai Feng sincerely. Hai Feng was born in a poor family and grew in the moutainous aera. Now he is more than 30 years old and has been teaching in the university for 10 years. After reading his resume, many may can’t help envying him, he has participated in the national art exihibition for dozens of times. Despite of enviness, after knowing his upbringing experience, I can see the back story of a hero fighting hard all the way over.

　　Appreciating his recent work, “Fenglingdu Ferry“, “Whose Red Boat“, “Where the Dust“, “When the Flowers are blooming“ and so on, themes of the works starting from folk customs of west Henan, focused on wedding, express the painter’s mind and feeling. In these paintings, he arranges all figures in the lower part of the paintings and uses dark background colors, most of the figures stand tiltly and there is always one in the crowd standing at attention. He also uses strong color constract. Aftering seening these paintings, I lost into meditation. Why the figures are in the lower part? Why most of figures stand tiltly except one? Why he uses so strong color constract? Perhaps the real meaning lies in the painter’s inner heart. He does not like to reveal himself by his character, therefore, I tried to understand the paintings in my own way. He uses strong color constract possibly because the painter wants to seek light and hope from darkness. Since he is devoted himself to painting, marriage remains by far a beautiful ideal that he is yeaning for. More half of the figures in the paintings carry a baby, which reflects his longing for love. Outside the crowd there is always a single figure with a domestic dog, which maybe the painter’s own portrayal. In the material world today, interests erode the hearts of the people, maybe one day you and me may forget even hurt each other because of interests, therefore, the painter chooses to stay away from things around. Happiness belongs to others, so does instability, he is a spectator, a loner overriding the public.

Wang Lei

September 2011 in Luoyang

作者：王雷