Color “Game”

My friends have asked me to write about my feelings of drawing oil painting. I feel that it is interesting to talk about it. However, for a few days, I still can’t start it. It is simply because I was too excited when I first started to depict oil painting. I really don’t know how to write about it. After thinking about it for a long while, I come up with a more general conclusion which can be described by two words: “very fun”. Instead of saying my painting process is “creative”, I would say it's fun to play. In fact, I play it seriously with joy.

The oil painting pigments of rose red, dark red, medium chrome yellow, earth yellow, emerald-green, ultramarine blue, and titanium white are all extruded on a square wooden board to form a semicircle. After that, how do you change the “objective” pigment on the board into the color with full of emotion on the canvas? Looking at the white canvas that is 2 meters by 1.2 meters, I don’t have any ideological burden, simply because I think it is only a very fun “game” to play from the very beginning. It is very fascinating.

Of course, there are some basic rules for each game. After understanding the basic principles of “everything looks small in the distance and big on the contrary”, “everything looks flat in the distance and spherical on the contrary”, and “image looks weak in the distance and strong on the contrary”, I can pick up the brush and draw whatever I like in a free mode. I have not been trained officially and I am not bound by any official limitation. Holding a brush is like riding a wild horse freely on the grassland. I have enjoyed the imaginary fresh breath of nature...... of course with the strong smell of turpentine oil.

As I keep drawing, I find that the wooden board originally prepared as a palette is only used for the purpose of pigment holder. The real color palette is indeed on the canvas. When multiple colors are mixed on the canvas to create different effects, my mood goes up and down, which is fun. It is literally indescribable and infinitely interesting to have the kind of annoyance when failed to have the desired color tone when repeatedly trying out, the pleasure of being able to get the desired color in anticipation, and the surprise of being able to draw with unexpected result. The level of a painter's skill lies in the ability to control pigment while how much enjoyment in painting depends on the artist’s mentality.

After taking a look at my paintings, my cousin says, “not bad, it seems like we have already seen the shadow of the master”. “The master’s shadow is not here yet, however, I do realize the fun that those masters have during their creation”, I replies.

(27 February, 2011, “Hong Kong Commercial Daily” Siu Fun Kee's column, “Fun Kee's Articles About Art”)