I “Act Wildly” on the Canvas

It is more fun to do oil painting compared to Chinese painting. For Chinese painting, you cannot make too many modifications once you have the stroke. However, there is always more room for changes in oil painting. Although this cannot be considered as certain kind of advantage, it is a great convenience for me as the beginner of oil painting. When the paint is not yet dried out at the beginning of the process, the oil painter can always mix up the fresh new color with the old color to make any changes at will. There is no ideological pressure to worry about painting with wrong stroke. When the surface starts to dry out a little bit, the painter can use the pen to dig, poke, and wipe to generate different effects.

It is interesting to use painting knife as the tool even though I was not very accustomed to it at my first time. It is fun to keep pressing and scraping. When I draw a lotus with a painting knife, I really have a feeling like making a cake. Since my skin is sensitive to pigment, I have to put on gloves. I also have to put on my apron to avoid staining my clothes. With both gloves and apron in place, I really feel like becoming a chef. Without any doubt, my painting skills and cooking skills are not at the same level. I have loved eating and cooking since my childhood and I have got the good skills due to lot of practice. The oil painting is just the beginning of the game but the kind of exploration is still quite interesting. The whole process is from “having to look like” to “breakthrough”, and then requesting “not to look like”. At the end, some important strokes must be added to clean up and emphasize in between “looking like and not looking like”. At this moment, with the rush and confusion, I even think of the theory of Qi Baishi's freehand ink painting. Wonderful!

When drawing to the fifth day, the surface of the paint starts to appear at the state of being stalemated. The way to depict cannot be elegant anymore and the progress has been tied up. At this time, I can only indulge myself and intentionally let myself arbitrarily to “act wildly” on the canvas.  The wilder would be the better. It is indeed a wonderful experience for me because I never act that wild in the real life. It seems to me that I can feel the power released completely by the lotus after it fights off from the sludge. I feel like I can see the flowers dancing in the strong wind. I can vaguely smell a faint fresh fragrance which covers the pungent smell of turpentine taste.

Of course, I am not planning to compare with any painters because I don’t consider myself as a painter. I am only the one who likes to play with color, likes to manipulate the color as well as falls in love with a place where I can “act wildly” at will.  

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