魏鲁宁先生说过，油画就是玩色彩，就是看谁的色彩玩的高档，油画的色彩就像中国画的笔墨，他的这句意象的情趣话，让我想起了塞尚曾说过，“一幅画首先是，也应该是表现颜色。历史呀，心里呀，它们仍会藏在里面，因为画家不是没有头脑的蠢汉。”魏鲁宁先生不一定就读过塞尚的这句话，他的这种认识更多的是从长期的油画训练与创作中总结出来的，但这种认识却正是击中了油画艺术的核心，他正是在这样的认识基础上来进行油画创作的。

　　Mr. Wei Luning had ever said: oil painting is the play of colors, that is, to see who can play the colors best. The oil painting is similar to the Chinese ink painting. What he said is interesting and reminds me of what Cezanne said: a painting, primarily, should be the expression of colors in which history and psychology hide, for painters are not dullards without mind. We can not sure whether Mr. Wei Luning had ever read Cezanne’s words or not, but his recognition hits the point of oil painting art. Such recognition, which he got from his long oil painting training and practice, is the foundation of his oil painting.

　　他在南京师范大学美术系接受过系统而科学的科班美术教育，有着扎实的色彩、造型等方面的基本功训练，这种训练成效从他二十世纪八九十年代的一大批写实油画作品中便能感受到，这个阶段他的油画基本是学院派油画的创作路数。二十世纪八九十年代，他沉迷于对写实功夫的追求，花了大量的时间去写生采风，在整理他这一时期的作品时，我读到的大量的人物、风景、静物的写生作品，无论是造型，还是色彩都表现出对于西方传统古典主义油画的依恋与追求，这些作品给我的印象是造型功夫好，写实能力强，但他的这些画与这一时代的其他油画家的作品放在一起，共性多了些而个性少了些，好则好矣，但不是我所喜欢的。

　　He had accepted a systematic, scientific and professional art education from art department in Nanjing Normal University, which gave him solid basic training in color, modeling and so on. The result of such training can be found in amount of oil paintings he painted during 1980s and 1990s. At this stage, his oil painting was basically in the academic style. He was engrossed in pursuing realistic martial arts, for which he spend a lot of time to sketch. When arranging these paintings, I saw a large number of sketches in portrait, landscape and still life. All of them, no matter the modeling or the colors, were showing the attachment and pursuing of the traditional western classical oil painting. I was impressed by the good shape and vivid sketching of these works. However, these works had no characteristics if put them together with other oil paintings in this period. Though good, they were not what I like.

　　八十年代中期，中国油画界提出“要多样，不要一统”和“追求自我”的艺术要求，虽然在这期间他还在孜孜不倦地追求着写实风格，但这些倡导对其风格追求和审美追求的变化是有巨大影响的。他在经历了八九十年代的写实创作之后，在2000年前后开始形成了自我写意性的油画风格，他的这种风格从大的角度上说，是印象派绘画的继续与探索，对于他自身而言，是对自我风格的一种摸索与思考。

　　In the mid-eighties, Chinese oil painting circle requested the art principles of “self-pursuing and diversity with no similarity”. He was quite influenced by such promotion of transform in stylistic and aesthetic pursuit, although he was still working diligently and tirelessly in realistic style during this time. After experiencing the realistic creation in 1980s and 1990s, the liberal style of his oil painting began to take shape. While from a large extent, this style was the continuing and exploring of impressionism. To himself, it was the grope and thought of his own style.

　　从二十世纪九十年代开始，他开始尝试用油画刀进行创作，画刀从表现能力上说，没有画笔细腻，尤其是对于细部的描写不如画笔，但画刀从意象的表现上更畅达，更概括。在似明非明的表达过程中，更能体现出作者的一种内在的迷蒙而朦胧的意象，而我以为无论是东方还是西方，艺术的最高的境界正是在于这种模糊性与不完整性、不确定性，莫奈的《日出•印象》我感受到的正是这种模糊性与不完整性。而不确定性则是对画家技法与修养的考验，只有具备良好的技法与修养，才能合理处理创作过程中出现的不确定性，这种不确定性的因素能将创作带入深层的思维与思想境界。随着他对画刀熟练程度的增加，他作画开始形成了一套自我的技法模式，而且越来越得心应手，自我风格也逐渐开始形成，其对于绘画的把握也越来越成功，这或许正应了刘勰曾说过的“观千剑而后识器”，对工具的熟悉程度，对于风格的形成是有非常重要的作用的。

　　Since 1990s, he had tried to use palette knife to paint. The palette knife was weaker than paintbrush in expression capacity, especially in detail painting, but stronger in imago conveying. It could reflect the painter’s misty inner imago in a blurred way. In my point of view, despite of east and west, the highest level of art is such fuzziness, imperfection and non-determinacy which are exactly what I felt in Monet’s Impression: Sunrise. However, the non-determinacy is the test of painter’s skill and self-cultivation. Only the one who was well equipped with these two qualities can deal with the non-determinacy in creation reasonably while such non-determinacy can also bring creation into deeper thinking and ideological level. With the arising familiarity of palette knife, he formed his own skill mode of painting and became handier about it. His own style was also taking shape gradually and his command of painting was better and better. All of these are perhaps what Liu Xie said: view a thousand swords and then recognize arms. The familiarity of tools plays an important role in style forming.

　　他的油画大都画的自由轻松，不像现在有些画家常常显得拘谨吃力，一方面是因为他手中的工具运用熟练，另一方面则是与他的取向有关，他追求一种写意性的整体绘画感觉，而不斤斤计较于局部的构成。他的油画创作更多了些中国油画的意味，逸笔草草，但意象丰厚。写生观的转变是他油画风格形成的重要因素之一，他笔下的风景突破了西方古典风景画的模式，由对景写生转变为景观式的写生，这种变化是受到中国画创作的影响。他不仅是对景写生，而是去感受山水之美，所以他刀下的油画风景并不是某一山某一水的风景，而是他对于自然与风景的一种深刻理解，是一种意象的升华。他花了无数的春夏秋冬，画了无数的山川林木，这些都是他心中的风景，是经历了诗意与人心感受的风景，他给予风景以人文的情怀，所以他笔下的风景总能唤起观众的共鸣，这种创作正是与石涛“搜尽奇峰打草稿”的创作理念是相通一致的。

　　Unlike some painters’ primness and hardness, most of Mr. Wei’s paintings are free and relaxed. It is resulted from two reasons. One is his familiarity of the tool, and the other is that instead of focusing on the construction of partials, he pursues a liberal feeling of the whole painting. His oil paintings contain much Chinese ink paintings’ characteristics which is featured by their simple construction and rich imagination. The transformation of his idea toward sketch, from realistic to liberal, which was influenced by Chinese painting, was one of the most important factors resulting in his oil painting style. His landscape paintings break through the western classical style. He is not only painting the landscape, but also feeling the beauty of it. That is the reason why his landscape oil painting is not a simple copy of particular scenery, but a deep understanding and sublimation of it. He has painted numerous paintings about the four seasons and mountains and forests. All of them are both the sight in his heart and the combination of poetry and perception. He gives the landscape painting humanity and that is the reason why his works could raise the spectators’ sympathy. Such creation is exactly same with Shi Tao’s theory: make draft after seeing all grotesque peaks.

　　在魏鲁宁的艺术创作中，他非常强调色彩的丰富性与画面的整体统一，这与他的老师徐明华先生对他多年的强调是分不开的。他曾经给我讲过一个故事，说是他有一个学生问徐先生，画画的诀窍是什么，徐先生思考良久，回答说，整体。这对于魏鲁宁的艺术创作是起决定性作用的，他多年的创作实践正是在努力追求丰富与整体的一致。所以在创作中，他最大限度地发挥画刀的特性，画刀的最大特点就是概括性强，他可以将几种或许多种色彩在画板上进行搅和，并不是将色彩调匀，而是产生出类似中国写意画的笔墨，在一支笔头中将水墨或色彩蘸好，墨色与色彩在笔中融合变化，一笔落下便能形成令人回味无穷的意象，表达作者的情感，这种技法运用的好坏是评判一位写意画家水平高下的重要因素之一。它要求在色彩运用的过程中，达到最大限度的丰富，包容量要大，但又必须是整体的、统一的。在画刀搅和的过程中，表现出丰富的色彩、整体的画面与深邃的意象，这也是检验一位油画家的综合能力与创作水平的重要标准之一。或许正是基于这种艺术创作观的主导，他的画风景、色彩丰富，整体和谐一统，在类似于中国画式的逸笔草草的物象后，显现的是他对于自然与风景的深刻理解与热爱，体现的是画家的人文关怀，这正是我喜欢他的油画的重要原因所在，艺术必须赋予作者的情性与感觉，而这种感觉与情性是画家所表现的一种意象，这正是魏鲁宁先生长年在不懈追求的，其实这也是符合油画发展历史的。油画从天国的艺术，人间的艺术，到心灵的艺术，都是从表现深化向表现生活过渡，最终向表现心性过渡。中西方艺术何其相似，艺术无所谓中西，就看表现，这是魏鲁宁先生常常和我讲的一句话，所以他表现的是他心性里感情里的一种寄托，也正是这样，他的艺术才让人心动。

　　Mr. Wei Luning stresses on the harmony between the rich colors and the whole painting. Such attitude is closely related to the long-time emphasis from his teacher, Mr. Xu Minghua. He once told me a story about his student and him. The student asked him what the secret of painting was. After a thinking time, he responded that was the whole. This theory plays a decisive role in his painting. He is making efforts on the unity between richness of colors and the whole painting throughout his painting life. In order to realize this, he maximizes the palette knife’s characteristic which is the strong generalizing capacity. By putting three or more colors together but not mixing them, he can create a new color similar to Chinese free sketch and mix the ink and paint well in a paintbrush by dipping both of them. Then he can create a thoughtful imago and expresses feeling at a stroke. This skill, which asks for not only the maximum richness and containment but also the unity and harmony during the applying of colors, is also one of the most important factors to judge a painter’s painting ability. Another criterion to judge a painter’s painting ability and creativity is whether he could show the rich colors, the overall painting and the deep imago in the process of mixing. His paintings, under the leading of this art concept, are rich in colors and sceneries and harmony in a whole. Besides the similarity with Chinese painting’s briefness, his paintings show his understanding and love towards the nature and landscape, reflecting the painter’s humanistic care. These are the reasons why I like his oil paintings. Art should endure the author’s nature and sensation. Such sensation, the imago painters want to show, is what Mr. Wei Luning pursued for years and is in line with the history of oil painting development. Oil painting, the art from heaven to human society and then to heart, is the transition from the inner meaning to life and finally to heart. “Art has no distinction between Chinese and Western. Both of them are similar with each other and only focusing on its manifestation.” This is what Mr. Wei Luning always said to me. That is why he showed his inside feelings in paintings and is also the reason why his works were moved.

　　打动别人，首先要打动自己，正是在这样的理念引导下，他的艺术不断走向深处，不断的创新丰富。

　　Under the idea of “in order to move others, one should make himself moved first”, his art is going deeper and deeper and is continuing to make innovation.